DIET DOCTOR

Q: Your wife, Kim, was the most dominant Ms. Olympia champion of her era. She then switched to figure. How did her diet and training change to reshape her physique to make the switch?

A: Kim’s decision to compete in figure was more of a master plan to trim down and lose her bodybuilding muscle rather than for the sole purpose of competing. Actually she began trimming down immediately following the 1999 Ms. Olympia, and it worked in several stages: fitness, then figure after having our first son, Dominic. To say her training and diet were a complete 180 from what she had been used to would be an understatement.

With regard to diet, the main changes were in protein amounts: She went from eating protein at six meals a day to only one protein meal a day, and the amounts decreased from 8 to 10 ounces of protein per meal to no more than 30 to 40 grams of protein per day. The intent here was to burn up muscle in order to lose size. As her body continued to lose weight and muscle size, her appetite decreased and assimilated to the lesser amounts of protein. She also decreased from six meals a day to three meals and a snack daily.

Training was actually a complete reverse. We wanted to put her into a complete aerobic state to burn muscle. She would perform two to three hours of cardio daily and no weight training. With athletes such as Kim who carried such a tremendous amount of mature muscle, any type of muscle stimulation—even 5- or 10-pound dumbbells—would only maintain the muscle. In addition to her cardio, she went to gymnastics five times a week. As she continued to trim down from bodybuilding to a fitness physique and finally a figure physique, she dropped the gymnastics, continued with cardio (about 1.5 hours daily once she reached her goal weight), and then added in push-ups, abdominal work, and walking lunges, but she still doesn’t train with weights.

PHOTO CREDIT: GARRY BARTLETT