From Junior To Pro Bodybuilder | Donte Edwards Ep.20

Jacob - Temu BK: All right, people. We have finally returned with a bang. We have Mr. Dante here with us today. It has been a little bit of hiatus with the podcasts given I was away for a month, but now we're back into it. Man, how you doing this morning?
Donte: Yeah, I'm good. How are you?
Jacob - Temu BK: I'm good. It's not quite morning here, but it has been a nice day nonetheless.
Donte: Wherever you are situated, are you in Australia?
Jacob - Temu BK: I'm in Sydney, Australia.
Donte: sure it's pretty pretty warm this time of year over there or is it the opposite?
Jacob - Temu BK: Well, we've actually we actually have opposite seasons.
Donte: wow. yeah. You guys have like Christmas in the song.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Yeah. Summer Christmas, you guys have white Christmas.
Donte: Wow, our Christmas is more rain than it is snow.
Jacob - Temu BK: I guess it y I guess it depends where you are in the UK.
Donte: I'm up north so we get a bit worse weather than London
Jacob - Temu BK: Okay.
Donte: and stuff.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah. Up north, what city?
Donte: Manchester.
Jacob - Temu BK: okay. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Yeah. No, it's it's probably as cold as as it will get here and it might be maybe ten degrees in the morning and get up to Yeah, yeah.
Donte: That's a blessing. We get like minus six.
Jacob - Temu BK: and that that's as bad as it will get really. but then when the sun gets out, it's really it's a different Different kettle of fish because once you're in the sun, jumper comes off. If you go for a little bit of
Donte: Yeah
Jacob - Temu BK: walk, jumper comes off. And as long as you're in the sun, it's okay. but then yeah, back end of the day it starts to get a little bit yeah, a little bit chilly. But it's all not I mean, people whinge about it. I'm like, guys, it's it's not that bad. It's nice to have a little bit of a cool breeze before we go back into the the heat of the summer.
Donte: Yeah, I think anyone who thinks it's pretty bad, should do half a year in Manchester. Or even Scotland, Scotland's even worse.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. It'd be rainier, hey, in Scotland.
Donte: Yeah, a lot,
Jacob - Temu BK: It it's funny because we actually get more rainfall across a entire calendar year, but it's more
Donte: How was that?
Jacob - Temu BK: interspersed across a month or or, you know, year. So we might have no rain for ages and then just get absolutely bucketed down with yeah, yeah, torrential.
Donte: Torrential down part. Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: And it probably picks up for X amount of months at it, you know, maybe didn't rain.
Donte: That's probably why your guys' wild laugh is so crazy.
Jacob - Temu BK: We have well, we have places where it can snow and then we have, you know, a rainforest, Dane the Dane Tree rainforest, which is, you know, spectacular and you know, just just pure rainforest, as if you were, you know, on the equator type of thing. So it it's really you get y if depending on where you are and depending on where you travel, you can get one end of the spectrum and go all the way up to the other, pretty much. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm guessing you haven't been before.
Donte: Nah, it's a bit far out for me.
Jacob - Temu BK: Mate, everything's far here. You get here and you you you gotta go far to go anywhere.
Donte: How far is it from like Asia? Is it like eight, nine hours?
Jacob - Temu BK: if you're travelling from Singapore it's about eight and a half to Sydney. P
Donte: Yeah, so even nuts.
Jacob - Temu BK: Perth's a bit closer. Northern Territory's a bit closer, but I would say hey, you probably would want to go to Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast or Sydney. They're probably I wouldn't necessarily recommend going to Darwin for your first exposure to Australia.
Donte: Ha
Jacob - Temu BK: Not that I've been, so, you know, maybe you just gotta get out of there.
Donte: Why's that?
Jacob - Temu BK: it's a little bit rough. They've had a few instances of late that I'm not sure exactly what what's happened, but there's been some sort of riots with police and bit of local uproar. I believe it's in Darwin. I could be completely wrong here, but in the Northern Territory. yeah, it's a little bit nicer down along the east coast and even on the west coast in in Perth. Yeah, you could. The flats the flats
Donte: Justify, justify Darwin.
Jacob - Temu BK: are honestly probably more expensive as well. Just because not as many people go there.
Donte: It's because no one wants to go that, that's why.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah. No one's leaving because they can't and no one's coming in because they don't want to.
Donte: You
Jacob - Temu BK: All right, let's get
Donte: you
Jacob - Temu BK: into the bread and butter man. So who is Dante? How long you've been training? And then run us through your first season
Donte: So...
Jacob - Temu BK: because you did quite a few shows and I'd love to hear about your experiences within the different federations over there because I'm not familiar with D FAC in the UK and how they run their stuff as well.
Donte: Yeah, yeah, so obviously I'm Dante, I'm a WMBF pro. I won my professional status in 2024 in the UAE at WMBF in Dubai. And yeah, so 2024 was my first year competing within that year. I was a junior and funnily enough, I only did one contest as a junior. I did more shows as an open man bodybuilder and I did more pro shows than did as a junior that year. Funny how that worked out. But needless to say, so yeah, I did. I four federations. So my first show was with the BMBF at the BMBF Northern, which is obviously the UK's affiliate with the DFAC. I then did the UK FBA after that, WMBF in the UAE. And then I did the DFAC Grand Prix, which is basically the Pro Show tagged on at the BMBF British finals. So yeah, I'm not sure, like you said, how familiar you are obviously with those shows. all the shows run a little bit differently so the bnbf over here in the uk runs quite typically like how like the ifbb run as in they will do a pre-judging and then an actual sort of finals the
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: uk fba they just run straight through so you do comparisons into your routine into awards and then overalls at the end of the day and the wnbf is obviously very similar in that aspect as well So yeah, so like things started off with obviously the BNBF Northern, I competed there as a junior, I won my class there and I didn't win the overall there, I lost the overall to Ethan Kavanagh, who I'm sure some of you guys may know. And then shortly after that, I did the UK and FBA Heart of England, which was a show that was like completely not planned. The only reason why I did that show was because I knew. Ethan was doing it and I wanted to beat Ethan. So I literally entered that show because I just wanted to beat him because I knew I could beat him. And then we ended up actually not doing the same class. So I entered obviously as a men's open there because I wanted to compete against him again. We ended up in two different classes. So he ended up in bodybuilding short. I ended up in bodybuilding tall, even though we're the same height. funny how that worked out as well. And then, yeah, I ended up winning the overall at that show. And then
Jacob - Temu BK: Did you guys meet at the
Donte: after...
Jacob - Temu BK: overall?
Donte: No, so he placed, I think third, third or fourth
Jacob - Temu BK: Okay.
Donte: in this category. I'm not sure if you know who Dan Sutcliffe is. Dan Sutcliffe. He won the category for that. He actually went on to win another world title, so his second amateur world title within the DFAT Worlds later on that year.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah.
Donte: He's actually competing again this year, funnily enough.
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: Should look him up, he's obviously a really good competitor. So yeah, it was actually him who won the class there and then I took obviously the overall. That was a very long day. I think the overall went on at like half 11 at night from
Jacob - Temu BK: And that was at B MBF?
Donte: no, UK and FBA. But since then they've had like,
Jacob - Temu BK: Okay, you go TA. That's a long show, man.
Donte: yeah. from there from 10 a.m. till half 11 at night. Yeah. Yeah. But since
Jacob - Temu BK: Half eleven, come on guys.
Donte: then they have like changed things around. have like,
Jacob - Temu BK: Good, yeah.
Donte: they've got a new president who's like in charge stuff and the shows are running a lot quicker now than what they was. So, know, credit to them for that. And then, yeah, so after winning the overall there. My coach, obviously AJ Morris, we had a conversation and that's where the idea of WMBF UAE came about because initially I did plan to do WMBF UK show. But I have like family who live in Dubai, so my brother with his wife and kids live in Dubai. So it kind of made sense to like go over there and compete in front of them and stuff. And obviously that's what we did, had a great time there. Again, I won the overall there and earned professional status there. And I didn't actually realize how like significant that WMBF UAE show is because I actually received quite a lot of criticism for actually doing that show. And some people, they don't know that I know this, but some people have like said some hateful things about me for winning that show apparently.
Jacob - Temu BK: For what absolute reason would there be?
Donte: Did you? It's weird so... In my opinion, I think 2024 was like the start of WMBF being a little bit more like rewarding with handing out them out of pro cards they do. That was kind of like the first year it started. So I believe before me, the last person from the UK to turn pro was Keefi as a junior. So I think people kind of like expected me to do WMBF UK. And obviously I think they kind of seen it as a case of like, I went for like an easy pro card, even though two weeks, two weeks before that I, I won the Heart of England show, which had pretty much everyone who was doing the WMBF UK show was there. I already beat them.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. And to be honest, that UAE show is a big show. Like it picks up a lot of a lot of Asia a lot of Asia and it's qu
Donte: That's what I'm getting onto now, yeah, 100%.
Jacob - Temu BK: quite central even for parts of Europe to come over.
Donte: 100%. And that's what I didn't realize until once I actually went over to do it, it opened my eyes of like how actually significant that show is in terms of the calendar year, because a lot of people, unfortunately, because of Worlds is usually in the USA, you can't get visas to compete there. So because of the prize money that they obviously offer, I think it's like 10,000 pound if you win. that pound,
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: US dollars, if you win the pro overall, for a lot of people, that is their version of worlds. So I think when I competed there, there was like 250 competitors over
Jacob - Temu BK: It's a big show.
Donte: loads and loads of different nations from, you know, Africa, loads of Asia. This was obviously before WNBF India was even a thing. And we obviously, everyone knows how big bodybuilding is through like the ICN and stuff in India. So you have a lot of like. And naturally in the bad is a big Indian contingency anyway. Yeah, it was, it was a very, very competitive show. And even the pro lineup there, like I went and did the pro show after I got absolutely destroyed in the lineup. But
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: like even there, like we had Samuel Hartman, I think he came third in heavyweights there. Dirk Emmerich obviously won the pro overall there. And I believe he's doing that show again this year.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, he is.
Donte: We had, I forgot his name, but there was a Spanish guy who previously won that show. He came back. I think he's a pro world champion as well. I forgot his name. So there was quite a few like big name competitors and the actual like pro lineups, there were 12 to 15 people in, you know, between lightweights and heavyweights. So it was a really, really big show and yeah, received some flack for that. And then after that I did... the BNBF Grand Prix, was obviously with the DFAC the following week. that was probably the hardest week of prep, having to travel from Dubai to south of England to do that show. Obviously, naturally, we held like a little bit of water and fluid and stuff from, yeah. This is the show you can see the line up there.
Jacob - Temu BK: How long did you have between shows, Dante?
Donte: So from the first show till the second show was two weeks, I believe. And
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm-hmm.
Donte: then between the second show till the third show, the WMBF show, that was another two weeks. And then it was back to back shows. So it was the WMBF show into this show. And yeah, you can
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm, mm.
Donte: see the lineup here with obviously we've got Keefe, Robert, who's obviously a defact world champion, I believe. I think he placed top three at Pro Worlds WMBF as well. Then we've got Theo Gulab, who is like a veteran in natural UK bodybuilding. He's got like more overalls than people have got shows.
Jacob - Temu BK: He just he's he's
Donte: Honestly.
Jacob - Temu BK: a big guy. Like I I know he didn't necessarily
Donte: He's 200 pounds on stage.
Jacob - Temu BK: I know I know he didn't win, but he I can just see he's a big guy. Like he's very thick front
Donte: yeah
Jacob - Temu BK: to back.
Donte: yeah very thick i'm not sure if i posted the comparisons from the wmbf uae but i think
Jacob - Temu BK: For the pro show.
Donte: yeah i don't think i posted it that was that was the class
Jacob - Temu BK: If you got them, that's the amateur. Yeah.
Donte: yeah i think i did post the heart of england if you scroll a little bit further down
Jacob - Temu BK: Being the UK F FDA.
Donte: Yeah, so it'll be, yeah. So that was the overall, so the guy in the
Jacob - Temu BK: Uh-huh.
Donte: center is Dan Sutcliffe.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: That was probably my most competitive look of that year. It was certainly AJ's favourite look. That was the death protocol. Honestly, I
Jacob - Temu BK: The death protocol.
Donte: had like trace carbs for that day. was literally like all my meals were just pro fat with like peak max coming out my ears. Had a headache, like had a migraine throughout the entirety of the show day and...
Jacob - Temu BK: Is is that because you were still
Donte: Thankfully I ended up winning.
Jacob - Temu BK: still chasing conditioning?
Donte: So what we found was from the first peak that we did, as the day kind of progresses, the look gets more watery through like my glutes and my hamstrings. So it was kind of a combination of the two. So we obviously got into better condition within that like week. I think we dropped two and a half pounds between the first two shows. But the big difference throughout the peak in the process was we kind of front loaded our calves. So we did obviously the majority of the loading at the front end of the week. And then we tapered off quite a bit throughout the back end of the week. We pushed our recess more than we did the previous week. And then on show day, we just didn't do pretty much any calves. Our calves was pretty much trace calves because I hold fullness quite well. and a lot of fullness for myself actually comes through actually having fluid in obviously as long as I'm, I have had some carbs in relatively close proximity to the show. so yeah, it was literally like, I think I had six or seven liters of water throughout that day. six to seven grams of pink salt with some low salt. So obviously potassium and sodium going in and then like the majority of the calories came in free fats.
Jacob - Temu BK: Hm. Interesting.
Donte: And yeah, that's what the look was a very, very unconventional peak. I've personally never peaked anyone like that. And I think I was the first person AJ peaked like that. And it worked, which kind of goes to show with bodybuilding, there's a million ways to get the job done.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, you've got to look at the person in front of you, hey. Gotta assess what's going on in real time and yeah, adjust the protocol accordingly. And if you were to say we can maybe say your favourite federation that you competed with or and or the favourite show experience within that season.
Donte: So I think my... It's weird, so I do like all the federations, but obviously I've got a bit more of a bias towards the WMBF because that's who I hold my pro card with, but I will say I know the WMBF and the DFAC kind of split opinions quite a lot with how the show runs, having a prejudging and a finals, but I personally really enjoy that and something with the defact and the bnbf is especially in the uk the lighting is always fantastic they like they've the lighting is always really good and really consistent on a show-to-show basis which i know like the wmbf has had a little bit of like flat four with the lighting can be a little bit inconsistent especially in like north america so i'd probably say competing as an amateur, I would recommend the the bnbf but however the WNBF UK show as well the lighting is really really good there as well and that is a pretty good experience in my opinion as well. I can't comment on the UK FBA because since I competed there's obviously been like
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: a change in how the federations ran and I obviously haven't competed. with like the new like ruling there so I can't really comment on that.
Jacob - Temu BK: And what led you to pulling the trigger to get into a contest prep? And maybe how long was the lead up to that point in time?
Donte: So for me, was really, it was a natural process. So I first started training in just like a normal commercial gym. So over here we've got like pure gym and the gym group. I started off in the gym group, which is just like your typical like budget friendly gym dumbbells go up to like 40 kilo, whatever. So I spent my first year. of training there, then I moved to the gym that I'm currently at now, which is obviously EP Jungle, which has recently become very famous because One Punch Nice trains there now. And since I started training there, my physique obviously like progressed a good bit just from naturally being in an environment that is more conducive towards like competitive bodybuilding. At this time, when I first moved to this gym, I didn't really know what bodybuilding was. And yeah, I was just training there. I met some, some people that obviously as you do, and one of my, my really good friends who I actually coached last year in Darryl Vernon, who that was when I joined, he was going through his first competition prep and I kind of seen like how his prep went along. That was kind of actually like my first hand exposure to bodybuilding was seeing his prep and seeing the shows that he did. And then like as the years kind of went on and progressed, people naturally in the gym would say, you know, I think you should try bodybuilding. You've got good potential. You've got good shape. You've got good structure. And obviously I was like, 20 year old, 19 year old kid, it just kind of like goes over your head, like you don't have a clue what they're talking about. And so like from there, people kept saying, you know, I should do that. I compete. should, you know, whatever. I looked into it a little bit more. That's where I started like, delving a bit more into like the education side of things, learning a bit more about bodybuilding and From there, that's where I stumbled across AJ Morris. And I remember the first post that I seen actually from him was when he won the, I think it was the heart of England, I believe. I think it might've even been the UKFB British where he won his British title there. And that was, I want to say 2022, I think. so I started following him from there, obviously engaging and watching like his content and stuff. then in 2023, that's where I first actually know back end of 2022, I first inquired for coaching, found out a little bit about coaching, but I was actually nursing, a knee injury at the time. So I didn't actually pull the trigger on coaching. So then once my, my knee got pretty much fully recovered, I then popped on board with him in 2023 and then, yeah, since then the rest is history.
Jacob - Temu BK: Awesome man. Before we continue, I'm just gonna have to put these on, make a bit of a scene about
Donte: Yeah, you're frozen.
Jacob - Temu BK: it. Because these very bright lights are just gonna absolutely cook me.
Donte: You're frozen on my screen,
Jacob - Temu BK: come on man. I'll pause there. Still frozen?
Donte: Yeah. You've kind of got like one
Jacob - Temu BK: Have too, haven't I?
Donte: eye open and one eye closed.
Jacob - Temu BK: Well look, if the you can hear me though, okay, right? Okay. Yeah, that that's fine. It
Donte: Yeah, yeah, as long as it's frozen on your side.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, no it is. It it records independently on each person's computer, so it's it's all good. But what I was gonna say is I've got my red light glasses on because I have these two bright lights either side of me. Yeah, I don't know. I think they're a little bit wanky, but anyway, they make me feel a little bit more comfortable with the lights on. okay, cool. So what what would you say was the personality trait that drove you to be competitive and to want to graft away every session in the gym? Like did you play a previous sport or is there something within your upbringing that really instilled that mentality in you?
Donte: Yeah, so as when I was younger, I played like football and stuff over here. And like, I've always been really competitive, like I would describe myself as I'm highly competitive. Like I don't lose well. Granted, bodybuilding has taught me a lot from like a personal level, like that there's genuinely like levels to bodybuilding. So you really have to like come to terms with the fact of like that there is literally just people out there who are better than you at bodybuilding because one they've either got higher genetic capabilities than you or they've just been training for a significantly long period of time and doing my my last show the the defact prix that was like very evident where i placed fourth you know and third was Theo Hughes like feels almost old enough to be my dad, you know, he's been training for 20 years. He's 200 pounds in stage condition and shape, like in shape, which is rare within itself.
Jacob - Temu BK: And everyone, you know, just has a level of muscularity that,
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: you know, is just gonna take your time to achieve.
Donte: Yeah. And then like in second place was Keefe. Everybody knows who Keefe is. Like Keefe's been, I think he's coming up to like 12 years training or something like that. So that's double the amount of time I've been training. And then Robert again is someone who's entering into like what would be his like competitive prime years of competing in natural bodybuilding. And like I'm 24 years old, so you have to have that perspective of like, the people at the top of natural bodybuilding are people who are entering into that early 30s. I've got probably eight years before I enter into what would be perceived as my prime. So you kind of obviously have to have a little bit of perspective there, but I would say my... biggest trait which allows me to be the most competitive when I competed was I'm very like AJ describes as horizontal. Like I'm just very one leveled. Like I'm never like too high or too low. I'm just kind of like always in the middle. And obviously with naturally what comes with prep of a roller coaster of emotions, I think just being able to be very, just like go with the flow is probably the best characteristic that I've got. And like a lot of people say, know, bodybuilding's hard work and the training, the dieting, whatever, but it's not that hard. And it might sound a bit like blasé to say,
Jacob - Temu BK: You know rustle a feathers here, Dante?
Donte: but it's It's just training. It's not that deep, you know, at the end of the day, it is just training. And I think the people who make it this life or death sort of experience are the people who fizzle out because like I said, they get too high and they get too low. They have one bad set and it ruins the whole session. Or they have one more difficult week of dieting and prep and all of a sudden the wheels fall off. And when you actually like strip bodybuilding down to its bare bones, it is just going in on a given day under given circumstances and training as hard as you physically can on that given day. And ultimately, like, as you obviously know, your body doesn't know what numbers you've done the previous week. It only knows the stimulus that you're placing upon it. And if you're training, you know, in the fashion where like, I'm not sure what your approach to training is, but I'm sure it's quite similar to mine. with your work in such a driving to obviously a close proximity to failure. That's the only thing that matters. If you've lost a rep this week compared to last week, the chances are the stimulus is pretty similar. And I don't know, I think personally it's like, it's just not that difficult. You you get to eat five meals a day, you get to train for two, two and a half hours a day, like. Yeah, it's not that hard in retrospect
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm-hmm.
Donte: to some of the struggles some other people go through on a day-to-day basis, you know?
Jacob - Temu BK: Absolutely. I think as you mature, as you progress from an amateur to, you know, a pro worthy to an elite towards that mastery end of the spectrum. I mean for me, I get into the gym into the gym and I'm excited beyond belief. Like it it's not hard for me to train two zero to one reps in reserve. Like it's not hard. it's not hard for me to diet, but at the beginning of bodybuilding, it it you know, it could be perceived that way for sure. And yeah, like you said, it's a skill.
Donte: Yeah, it's a skill. It's 100 % a skill.
Jacob - Temu BK: and as you sort of start to look into guys like Eric Helms or you look up to guys that are at that position in their career where it's so ingrained that it it's not hard. There there's n there's
Donte: That's also not for me.
Jacob - Temu BK: n yeah, Alberto's a great example I love watching his full day of eating. It it's sort of r did you watch it? But it was like to start off with a bowl
Donte: Yeah, he's like two slices of pizza at the end of the day. And he's like shredded out of his mind.
Jacob - Temu BK: a bowl of spinach, because he hates his greens, so he gets it over and done with at the start of the day. I was like, this is this is perfect because i for me, if I think a little bit too much about food, it becomes a little bit more challenging to, you know, stay within my constraints. But if I just simplify things and just
Donte: Are you a big eater?
Jacob - Temu BK: I can eat a lot. But I've it got to a place now. I've
Donte: Yeah, I'm, I'm, yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: got to a place now after being exposed to certain individuals where it's like, I'm just gonna have sweet potato and chicken. Like
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: not not go too deep into making, you know, the sweet potatoes spiced and seasoned and going too far into putting lots of effort into the chicken because it just creates extra thought process for me. And once I l reach a limit of thought pro of a level of thought process, I then tip over into thinking too much about food and then it potentially becomes harder to stick
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: within my constraints. So I think I can thank Brandon a little bit for that. Like it would just be, I need to hit my veggie veggie target for today. So I'm just gonna have five hundred grams of carrot or just something just stupidly simple. Like why overcomplicate it? Like of course there's some micronutrient considerations with just eating carrot for vegetables, but you don't do that every day.
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: but yeah, just the flexibility in which I've seen others operate. It just like okay, this is this is easy. We can we can make this work.
Donte: Do you think with obviously like Alberto being an example, Eric Helms, like these are obviously people with like families and stuff. And before when I spoke about like the bare bones of bodybuilding isn't that hard, like these guys are prime examples. Like these people are raised in families and are able to intuitively eat and still move towards their goal because there's a thousand ways to skin a cat and like. I'm sure those guys have probably faced more challenges with raising, you know, little children than they have in a contest prep. Like ultimately there's different pressures in life and with bodybuilding we're very fortunate in the fact of we get to pick what your pressure is. And a lot of the time, a lot of pressure that you place on yourself is self-inflicted. And it often stems from the mind, you know? and how you obviously handle and react to different emotions when you're hungry.
Jacob - Temu BK: Absolutely. yeah. Don't really disagree with anything you just said there, man. I think, you know, that some people with training, yeah,
Donte: It gets better with time as well.
Jacob - Temu BK: it does. And I think I mean for me Like nutritionally was probably the hardest thing to struggle with, but it was more I actually was reflecting upon standards that weren't reflective of what I was doing before. And so I was expecting myself to be at a certain level. But it's like, hey, you're already at a level far and above beyond where you were last off season. like it's be a little bit easier on yourself here, but now I've sort of come to the other side after having that sort of post prep. reacclamation of
Donte: How do I go face?
Jacob - Temu BK: it was it was okay until I went to Thailand. so I did about the sort of I got about twelve percent up after eight to ten weeks. Which for me was like still pretty lean. But I started to I would say encroach on that lower body fat set point. If we're talking about that type of theory. And then I just didn't have a good food environment while I was away. Food availability for what we paid for was a lot of Chinese. And that that is not conducive, especially being in another country. but I did pretty well. I was pretty hard on myself though. I don't know, how are you? I've seen other guys just robot their way through and I'm very impressed. But at the same time I'm also interested to having a conversation with them about how it was for them.
Donte: I wouldn't describe myself as a robot with food. Like me personally in the off season, if I fancy to eat something, I will just eat it. But I think because I don't have that kind of like rigid mindset towards like my meal plan, I'm quite flexible in my meals. Like I have my given meal plan. But if like I've run out of rice for today and the shop closed, I'll just swap the cab sauce with something else. Whereas I've even coached people where they've had it, where they've run out of cream of rice and like the whole world's ending the like messaging me, I've got no cream of rice. What do I do? I'm like, me, I've been coaching you
Jacob - Temu BK: Doing circles on the spot, like where do I go?
Donte: for the last 40 weeks. If you can't like macro replace you on your meal plan, like what have I been doing for the last 40 weeks? But yeah. whole show for me was I gained 10 pounds relatively quickly. like the first two weeks, 10 pounds went on. And then after that, it was
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Yeah.
Donte: very slow out of the gates. After that, it was like two pounds for a week for like the next four to five weeks. And after that, it kind of just like slowly tapered off to one pound, three quarters of a pound. then that's where it stayed for the know the remainder of that pole show recovery sort of phase. And I found that with pole show I had the actual pole show periods were actually after the show I had... What did I have? I think I went... It was funny actually, it's a funny story. So I finished my pole show down south and where we were staying, we stayed in London. So we had, what did I have? I had like some shit takeaway. Like we Googled some
Jacob - Temu BK: Ha ha.
Donte: takeaway that was like a smash beef, like party takeaway. And we had that and it was just like so mediocre. And this is like when Grellin's through the roof because I've just done like a 33 week.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. And it still tastes poor. Wow.
Donte: breath and like even then it was still like mediocre. And then I think on the way home I had like a bag of sweets and then I just went back. And then the day after we
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm, mm.
Donte: actually went out and went to like a restaurant and I went to a place over here called Hickory Smokehouse which is like American style. It's like it's very like meat intensive so it's like brisket. ribs all that
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, Texas barbecue type thing.
Donte: yeah so i had like a single platter of that so it was just like there must have been like three to four hundred grams of protein on this plate and probably like 200 grams of fat and then i like ate that and i just felt full for like three days and it was just like i don't even want to eat so i think because i did that yeah
Jacob - Temu BK: You could still taste the salt as well, probably from all the the smoking in the mouth the next day.
Donte: Yeah, so I think because of that I was just like, yeah, I'm good on food now. It's out on the system.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: Like, I'll go back in prep right now, like, if it just makes me stop feeling like as full as I am now.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. And what about physiologically and psychologically? How were you feeling about food, food focus? we could even touch on just energy levels, libido, that type of stuff. Like when did that when would you say that came back for you? Because for me I probably got to a ninety five, ninety seven percent and there was just that last couple of percent that took a little bit longer and it was harder to to quantify as well, of course, but
Donte: So For me, the thing that took the longest to kind of come back was like my metabolism. So like metabolically, I was pretty short for, I would say the 40 or so weeks I had pulled shut up, a long majority, like the large majority of that was probably in a metabolically compromised position. And I did find that like, After my diet towards the last year, like the end of last year, that was where I actually like came back sort of metabolically, which is why like this last like off season has been like significantly more productive because of like my ability to just like assimilate food and nutrients was just far superior. But from an energy standpoint, was actually really weird because I spent so long in this fatigued state, it just felt really normal. And it wasn't until that first week poll show where I actually started eating more, where I was like, what the hell? feel twice the human I was before. Yeah. crazy from like a hormonal perspective. I'm not actually sure because my libido did drop like towards the latter stages of prep, but it didn't like completely disappear, which I know some people like it does and it takes, you know, six to eight months for it to come back. But for myself, I didn't have that. I did have like a lot of libido, but it wasn't just completely gone. And I think I would attribute most of that like loss of it. just down to the fact of just being tired from
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: being low body fat. It's just like the thoughts, I like, I've not even got the energy to entertain those thoughts at the minute. Hormonally, like actually like physiologically, I'm not a hundred percent sure. There was kind of like a stage around like 12 to 14 weeks, whole show where the look got better. And that obviously can be kind of attributed to the fact of hormonally, you're probably recovering now like your testosterone and stuff. But I didn't actually pull my blood work then because, you know, there's no point in getting your bloods done really post-show because I can tell you what it's going to look like. It's just going to be red, red, red, amber, amber, amber, red, red, red. Cortisol is probably going to tell you you're going to die soon or have cardiac arrest. But I actually then did actually pull my bloods. i think six weeks in that diet so this would be around like 46 47 weeks postural and like everything was like in the green apart from like creatinine and cortisol which is always just going to be out of whack from training and like having a high protein diet So yeah, would actually say like, thankfully, hormonally, I did recover pretty quick compared to most people. I do know some people personally who it takes eight, nine months for them to even get like the energy back, like that final few percent, like you said, to even get the libido back and sex drive. And
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: obviously what comes along with, you know, having a healthy sex drive is you've actually got that drive inside of the gym. because the two things do coincide with obviously testosterone and your day to day life.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, love that. I I I got to a point where I just started notice my eyes just started to track off a little bit more from like my focal point in front of me. It's like okay, maybe we're we're back to where looking
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: at a few different objects in the gym. Yeah, gym attachments
Donte: You
Jacob - Temu BK: of course, but if you did you have any you you said between the UAE show and going back to British Finals No, Brit not British finals, but BNBF. That was the hardest point in prep because
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: of the travel? Or was there like another moment where you were just fatigued beyond belief? Maybe life was catching up to you and you were just like
Donte: That week was the most difficult because throughout that week I think I had like so bear in mind this is peak week so the week prior to that we obviously had to travel so six and a half hours from Manchester to Dubai. The approach obviously there was very similar to the approach for the UKFB out of England where we front loaded at the week and then the back end of the week was very low carb, pretty much low days, with pushing obviously diuresis because we did actually load relatively assertively at the front end of the week. So we actually was able to obviously taper it down towards back end of the week. So that week within itself was challenging. So this is the peak week for the UAE with obviously the travel and stuff, but you kind of ride that high of like one I've just come off the back of winning my first overall to I'm on the way to the bar to compete. So you kind of running that high and how you feel don't really matter because you are just like high on life at the minute. But then it was kind of like. the week after it's a bit of like a reality check of like a bump in emotion. So it's like you've turned pro, you've done the pro show as well. You've been absolutely slotted in the pro show. I think it came like seventh or something in the heavyweights in the UAE, which yeah, that was, that was the first time I lost that season as well. So it's kind of like
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: a bit of sweet. It's like you've turned pro and then you've just come seventh. So it's kind of like, you know what I mean? So then, yeah, you have kind of like that dump and then it's like, wow, I've now got, you know, seven hours travel back home and then I've got a four hour drive down south. All whilst now, because we obviously had to travel and stuff, we're again, not carving up for the next show because we're trying to pull the fluid retention off from. the travel. So yeah, it was just like really low energy. And then it kind of took two, three days once being back home in England to feel a little bit normal. But then it was kind of like, okay, we're feeling normal again. now it's, we're peeking for the next show in another unconventional manner. again, it's just like, by then it's, it's like three peaks in that manner. does really like. wear you down like energy wise. And again, because I've just come out of like the massive reality check of you've climbed the amateur tree really quick, you're right now back at the root of like the pro ranks. So you're almost like going into a show knowing you're going to lose. Like I even said to like my girlfriend on the way. to the show, like, I'm not winning the show. Like that was the first time, like the whole prep, I said, like, I'm not winning the show. there's, because I knew Robert was doing it, I knew Keefie was doing it, I said, there's no way I'm winning the show. I said, I'd be happy if I came further than I came forth. So yeah, was kind of, was kind of, it was kind of just like, was going for the sake of going because I've already entered the show. So I was just kind of
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: filling my obligation.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, well mate, I
Donte: I'm
Jacob - Temu BK: probably learn a thing or two there because I'm still yet to have my first defeat. and I was actually thinking about that today. I said to myself, okay, next time I start prepping actually have to write down like what I'm gonna do. Just just to give myself a little bit of a off branch. Like, hey, when this happens, if it happens, because it might, like this is how you're gonna process it because I think everyone can say they focus on the process. they put that's where they put all their energy. But when it actually happens, it's not a bad idea to have a plan. And it's not because we don't want to be
Donte: Yeah. This is something that I say to like a lot of clients who are first time competitors, who obviously because it's the first competition, they're so drive and like motivated to win. You have to like almost bring him down a bit and not bring him down, but almost like give them the reality of like, look. You have the potential to win very much so and obviously it's my job to make sure you are as competitive as you can be on the day but you you need to be prepared in case of the eventuality of a genetic outlier turns up on the day which does happen especially with bodybuilding now becoming a lot more popular that does happen these we're seeing now on instagram pretty much week a week now these freaks are just turning up at shows who no one's ever seen before So you need to be prepared for like, if that happens. And if that does happen, ultimately, like, if you win the show, if you lose the show, if you feel like you should have won, but you've lost, if you've feel a bit like you've been robbed or whatever, like the result at the end of the day is always the same. Regardless, if you win or lose that show, you're going to go home and you're gonna do the same thing. You're going to eat your meals. You're going to train. So like, I know it's hard in the moment to think like. have that sort of like foresight of like, it doesn't kind of matter in the grand scheme of things how the show goes because the end result is always going to be the same. You're always going to chase more physique development down the line anyways, especially if you want to actually have a career within bodybuilding, how your first show goes doesn't actually matter that much. But obviously as a first time competitor, you do big it up in your head of this massive grand event and know ultimately like the outcome will always be the same you know win lose draw whatever you're still going to go home eat and train because it's your passion it's what you love to do and i think like within the pro ranks especially you you have to have a bit more of that mindset because you know who you're competing against and you know how good the levels are and obviously for yourself who hasn't obviously made your pro debut yet like there is kind of like a factor of you just need to see what you look like in a pro lineup and then from there you can kind of refine it's like it's why it's called your rookie pro season it's why it's called your pro debut you're finding just where you stand within the pecking odds
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, and I and the Yeah. And then, you know, I you know, you can shift your your mindset around okay, well there's there's more to progress. I can I can progress here. Like, you know, as soon as I get off stage I'm gonna go straight to the judges. I'm going to get feedback and you know, set up that plan and I mean I I would just be excited to go up against other passionate competitive individuals like that in itself is just a really cool thing. man, what's going on now? Like half the time it seems you're washed up or something on on socials. like you're sick one week and then I don't
Donte: and washed.
Jacob - Temu BK: know, dead the next. you know, what what's in
Donte: Watched
Jacob - Temu BK: the near future for you?
Donte: So I've just completed my first week of my pre-fret diet. So yeah, the plan now is to obviously pull off a bit of the excess body fat from the last, I think it was 45 weeks I spent pushing up. And then from there, I'm not sure actually how long this diet is gonna last because ultimately it depends on obviously the look and... obviously biofeedback and how training goes and how quick the body weight and body fat comes off because like this week I'm down three kilo in this first week obviously naturally it will taper off as the weeks progress but if we kind of keep our foot on the gas how it is now I'm down to 200 pounds from 206 we likely will end probably like somewhere in between 185 and 190 so probably looking at another nine to probably 11 weeks of dieting, give or take. And then we will set up for our prep next year. So we'll obviously reverse out and then we will push up until around March, April time next year where we will start competition prep for my rookie pro season. Timeline wise where I am thinking about mid September to October. with potential of doing WMBF Worlds, but I'm kind of waiting to see how the season unfolds because the main thing for me this year is I just want to be competitive within the pros. But, you know, as bodybuilding goes, I want to be competitive against good lineups. know, I don't want to be like anyone can go to team Bok 2 in the middle of nowhere and be competitive and form a lineup. I want to be competitive in deep pro lineups. So I'm thinking about lining up pro shows, which will be very competitive. And I'm very open and honest in my bodybuilding approach. And I'm not like scared to say what shows I'm thinking about doing. You know, at the end of the day, like the people who turn up are going to turn up anyway, so.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, man, let me know. We might line it up.
Donte: So like we're thinking mid September to we will either probably do WNBF Spain so the Minotaur Cup or we will do the Pro Show again in the UAE but
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: we can't we can't I kind of want to see what we're looking like and what the lineups are looking like because those two shows typically run a week apart or maybe sometimes over the same weekend. So kind of be like one or two, because obviously Spain for myself, it's a two hour flight versus six and a half hours. We also need to see what like is going on in terms of like a macro event with obviously how things are at the moment in the Middle East with, you know, Iran
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: and the USA. Because that's another thing when this is actually a funny story. So when that conflict kicked off, I was actually in Dubai and Thankfully, I was able to come home, but it was a nine-hour flight home compared to six and a half hours, so.
Jacob - Temu BK: How'd you have to go how'd you get back? Do you have to go down towards like do you have to go up or?
Donte: We flew like all the way around. So usually we fly like up and like past Turkey. We had to like fly down and around like the outskirts of Saudi Arabia. like
Jacob - Temu BK: Wow.
Donte: past like where like, I'm not sure what the channel of water is, but you know where like, I think Ethiopia and like Saudi Arabia have that like stretch of water. It was like we had to fly all the way around.
Jacob - Temu BK: Insane. The Gulf of
Donte: So yeah, that's.
Jacob - Temu BK: Aden and the Red Sea.
Donte: Yeah, so we have to do that route, which I did three hours on top of the flight. So yeah, if that's like conflict isn't resolved, I probably will do Spain. So that's kind of why we've highlighted those two shows because nine
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: hour flight during prep isn't, well, especially your first show in prep probably isn't the greatest thing. Well,
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah.
Donte: for you, you'll have to do that anyways. Friday show.
Jacob - Temu BK: Mate, it's a non negotiable. It's like just fucking suck it up, mate. Yeah. no, Asia Asia looks good, but that would be a challenge for you for sure to get to.
Donte: I would like to compete in Asia. I do think at some point in my career, I will do a show or two in Asia, because
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: Taiwan is obviously a fantastic show. Hong Kong is another great show.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah.
Donte: I actually have like a decently sized following in Korea, funnily enough. So I would actually like to probably do the Korean Pro-Show. But I think they're at the moment a bit like one year to do it, one year to don't. it's kind of
Jacob - Temu BK: Okay.
Donte: one of them. So I would like to do those two shows from like a production aspect. But it would be a case of like, if I did those shows, like I would have to send them a whole season around like that time of year. Because obviously the Hong Kong shows always like in the middle of the year and then Taiwan's
Jacob - Temu BK: Earlier. Hm.
Donte: like, yeah, at the end. So. It's a bit challenging to do that.
Jacob - Temu BK: really hard to keep yourself in shape for that many weeks.
Donte: Yeah, definitely. But yeah, after that we'll then I will be doing the WMF UK Pro Show because why wouldn't I? And then I will do the MBW show next year as well. So AJ Morris's show. And then from
Jacob - Temu BK: man.
Donte: there, I will I will make my decision if I go to Worlds or not.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. 'Cause it is a big trip. I think they are improving their standards, you know, making worlds a world event, not a
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: you know, subpar world event. but to leave the the chat today Do you have a funny prep story?
Donte: so I've, I've kind of, well, on the flight home from competing in Dubai,
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: my flight, obviously anyone who's from England and flown to Dubai, pretty much all the flights are overnight on the way back to England. So the flights like, like two, three AM local time coming back. So I went to sleep on the flight and I was actually wearing Birkenstocks and when I woke up I tried to put my feet back in my Birkenstocks and my feet wouldn't go back in my Birkenstocks. My feet had swollen that much from falling asleep on the flight. That's how much the water retention was. In terms of actual
Jacob - Temu BK: That's crazy.
Donte: comical stories from Pratt. I don't think I have any like good stories that are like funny. No, I don't really have. Pretty boring. Pretty anti-climactic.
Jacob - Temu BK: Ha AJ's not too far off from talking about you, it's just a horizontal line, just parallel,
Donte: Yeah, it's just...
Jacob - Temu BK: no deviation.
Donte: Well, I guess like the only deviation I had like throughout my day is like at like one, two o'clock in the afternoon, I would just like lie down in bed like just smashed. Like I wouldn't even go to sleep. I would just lie down on my bed, just stare at the ceiling like
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: in a pit of fatigue. In like the
Jacob - Temu BK: Ha ha ha.
Donte: heights of prep. What about yourself? Have you got any funny stories?
Jacob - Temu BK: What what yeah, I think I've said this one before, but you get to a point where digestion slows down and then the refeed day comes in and everything sort of gets moved through the system.
Donte: News.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. and for whatever reason this was
Donte: You go from having like rabbit droppings.
Jacob - Temu BK: Well mine would just hold in there for an extra couple of days than normal.
Donte: You
Jacob - Temu BK: and this and this toilet was unfortunately a little bit too small. And I hadn't quite
Donte: God.
Jacob - Temu BK: clicked on that I needed to do a double flush, you know, as I'm doing my bi doing my business. So that was as I'm sure everyone can probably picture in their mind, I had to get a little bit creative with to get to get the toilet to flush. So that was kind of funny. I mean, no, I'm not gonna say that. It's a little bit too personal for me. But
Donte: TMI.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, that was a little bit Yeah. If I ever see you in person, I'll tell you, you just have to remind me though it was actually a pretty funny one. You'll be you'll be kind of shocked about it, to be quite frank. Libido libido l related, let's put it like that. Add a little bit of suspense to it.
Donte: You
Jacob - Temu BK: funny stories Not really, not really. Th that was probably it, to be honest. Prep in itself isn't necessarily a comical you know, time.
Donte: No, it's definitely not. You actually lose a lot of your sense of humour.
Jacob - Temu BK: I mean I did like sort of strolling through the aisles of a fresh fruit and vegetable shop. So I'd I'd go and
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: have a look, you know, the the canzi apples are on special this week. They look pretty good. Or, you know, go past the carrots and like, the carrots, fuck, they look I just it it wasn't like going through an ice cream shop or a You know, a lolly shop or anything like that.
Donte: You know, I never did that.
Jacob - Temu BK: But mm.
Donte: Like with my food shops. Like what I did was I would eat my meal and then immediately after eating, I would go and do my food shop. Like I would never like do my food shop like in between a meal or like on the way home from like the gym or something. would literally like, I made it a conscious effort. So it was like, I've ate my meal right and do my food shop now. While some kind of like. not starving because I do think that's kind
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm, mm. No, I like that.
Donte: of where a lot of like food focus starts to stem from when you're just like people watch like food porn videos and food challenges
Jacob - Temu BK: for sure.
Donte: on the phone and
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: they'll go in like the supermarket they'll stare at like crisp and biscuits and stuff and it's like you're just self torturing yourself.
Jacob - Temu BK: There's a couple of thought processes, right? There's I've heard this from coaches who predominantly coach male or predominantly coach female clients and there seems to be a little bit of a difference in opinion, depending on who you talk to. Like, I think for one, hey, let's not go crazy on strolling up and down aisles of chocolate and s like lollies and snakes and stuff. Like it probably didn't help me, but I wasn't doing that. I was more just getting some steps in and walking through the local fresh fruit market. But I probably won't do that next time. But the other thought
Donte: Do you think that has... Go on.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah. The other thought process is like, hey, let's keep in a bit more food variety. Let's not have plain and bland foods where we're potentially downregulating the you know hedonic effect of of food where we get that stimulation without actually eating, which could overload into a you know, an outburst or an event of eating off plan. And and and this seems to be maybe a little bit more popular within the female circle, at least of what I've heard. I have some male clients that were a little bit more flexible with their intake going up until that sort of eight to ten week outmark, and then I'm like, Hey, let's keep things standardized, let's increase the correlated power of body mass at the back end of this contest prep here so it it can have a bit more of a meaningful impact in terms of decision making. but And then the other argument is like, hey, let's have, you know, a food you really like. Like maybe it's a homemade pizza, which you can make pretty, pretty blandly, or maybe it's like a little Freddo frog type of like lolly or something like that. That you keep that in throughout the entire prep. And to be completely honest, I for me personally, that's not what I would do nor what I'd recommend because it just plays into that. thought of something that's very hyper palatable, you're thinking about food a little bit more. Like maybe you have, you know, X amount of macros each day or on a a refeed day to play around with. I mean, I can't see that being super productive at the back end of a contest prep.
Donte: Yeah, myself, I don't do cheat meals on prep. I don't do like for myself or for clients, like if you're having a high day, you're just having more of already what you're eating.
Jacob - Temu BK: Same foods. Yep.
Donte: And even post show, like if you have got a season mapped out, post show, I don't do cheat meals, post show either, unless you've actually got like a significant gap between contests because for me, it doesn't make sense. Like if you've just competed and you've got your next contest in two or three weeks time, you wouldn't have like a burger and fries or a pizza or whatever two weeks out from your first show. So why would you do it for your second or third or fourth show? And I do think as well, there is a bit of like a correlation between the individuals who struggle quite a lot post show. with how they handle like prep and like the high days that they've had in prep and having like massive varieties in their diet throughout the majority of their prep when it actually then comes to the pro show. Which is why I've kind of adopted the approach of like, right, once you've competed, go home, have a bowl of oats, have a bowl of cream of rice or whatever. So something actually quite voluminous because Obviously throughout show day you're not eating significant amount of food because naturally you probably pulled your protein down a little bit for the day. You should already be full of carbohydrates from loading earlier on in peak week. So on show day you're having very low volume food. So you actually probably do have a bit more room at the back end of the day with putting in a lot more fluid, having a more voluminous meal. So that's typically what I like to prescribe for people. post-competitor. And then like in the kind of recovery of the season, I do think having some flexibility, but not a whole bunch is kind of the sweet spot. But obviously it's also the balancing act of if you go too far one way, you will just have someone who will just do what they want anyway.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it really comes down to the individual in front of you, what their skill set is, their timeline like you put forth. I do really like a a story I heard an Australian coach. He's doing quite well, but he's in the enhanced realm. He he did one of his preps where he tracked flexibly dieted every single day and made it a challenge to almost have something different. Every single day. So, you know, he's constantly introducing variety on a meal to meal basis. And he said it was the
Donte: WAH!
Jacob - Temu BK: hardest thing he has ever done. or at least maybe not hardest thing he's ever done.
Donte: How many different ways can you cook a chicken?
Jacob - Temu BK: Well, no, he would have a different meal. Like it would be slightly different each day. Like maybe he goes chicken to
Donte: wow.
Jacob - Temu BK: fish one day. to to really assess it for himself. And he said it was very challenging. I I'm sure you could I mean, I can imagine
Donte: Yeah, because...
Jacob - Temu BK: just the the process. Okay, I had this yesterday, like what can I have today? How do I fit this into my macros? Like planning it out each day, you'd have to give a good half hour.
Donte: You're almost over. you're almost throwing yourself into like food focus because not even from an aspect of you want into like cheating your diet because you're food focus but you're just hyper fixated on what your next meal is going to be then just having to make that
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Yeah.
Donte: decision on a day to day on a two hour basis.
Jacob - Temu BK: Hm. I I would like to sort of do something along the lines, not to that extent, across a just a fat loss phase. again, just to go, hey, like let's give this other side of the equation a try. as a lot on top of I want to do a slightly more aggressive fat loss phase as well, but that's a different a different conversation. But yeah, I I also think like, let me let me try it. Let me see if I can handle it. let's see how challenging I sort of find the variables. 'Cause then I might be able to be a better coach for the
Donte: With like,
Jacob - Temu BK: back of it.
Donte: with like your diets and stuff, do you kind of go completely like 180 and like cleaning up your diet or do you gradually like come into it or are you just like round dieting like bang cold turkey on like everything you've been having?
Jacob - Temu BK: I have got to a standard in which we coach all of our athletes to, where in an off-season we have three tiers. The top tier in an off-season setting is plus or minus five grams of protein, fat, and carbs. The second tier is we're hitting a minimum protein, which is normally set maybe I don't know, 20 to 30 grams underneath the the target. So we're hitting that minimum protein or we're even setting the target at the normally the normal prescribed target. And then we're getting within plus or minus a hundred calories, 150 calories. so protein and sorry, fat and carbohydrate sort of shifts. And then the the third tier is where we're not inputting anything into a tracking application. So you're basically eating off intuition. and in the off season we'd say hey one to two days per week at T two. And then five to seven days per week at T one as a sort of minimum standard. I personally operate at T one most of the time. and when I just transition into a diet, I just tidy things up a little bit more. Like I mightn't weigh things cooked weight when it comes to like sweet potato or rice. Like I might go back to raw weight. or it might be the little bit of dash of milk I put in my morning coffee. Little things like that where it I do put them in but I don't necessarily measure them to the exact gram
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: in the off season, but I account for them and I'll probably also pull back on tracking things with my eyes when it comes to to eating out, which I do a bit of. So it would be a little bit more yeah.
Donte: I don't think I've ever tried to me a lot.
Jacob - Temu BK: So like well yeah, I like to say, hey, take a take a photo
Donte: I just, I just bank calories.
Jacob - Temu BK: of it. Yeah, take a photo of it, bank a few extra calories because depending on what your allotment is, like it could be quite challenging to eat out with six hundred calories, like good luck. but yeah, I I like putting forth, hey, take a photo of your plate and then break down all the items on it. So you can track it, but it also open up your eyes into how much is actually on your plate when you go and eat out too. So it's a little bit of a educational piece. I
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: found that quite quite easy. And it also means you can take a photo, not even think about it when you have your meal. So you're not sitting there putting it in your nutritional tracker.
Donte: and in the family dinner.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah. It's like, hey man, like chill out, it's okay. Like you could do it at the end, just take a photo. And you know, we can then assess, you know, things like body weight the next day. Like did you Okay, body weight went up four hundred grams. Did it feel like you had five grams of salt in your mouth when you woke up? Okay, there's probably a lot of salt in that meal. you know, you can sort of break it down a little bit and provide some education around it, but Sounds like you're quite similar in terms of going from an off season into a diet. You know, things don't really change. It's just like a little bit of a tighten up and then you're on to onto business.
Donte: Yeah, so for myself, like I said earlier on, in the off season, if I want to eat something, I'll just like, I'll just eat it because my justification is as long as I train significantly hard, like the bag of sweets I've had doesn't matter. But
Jacob - Temu BK: Ha.
Donte: like when it comes to dieting, it's like bang, cold turkey like. nothing matters. I just eat the meal plan and that's it. Granted in the off season, like I still eat off a meal plan. If I do actually have like an off plan meal, I'll kind of do meal replacement. So I'll eat three meals and then I'll leave like two meals replaced obviously with an off plan, but or when like calories get higher, I'll have four meals and just replace one meal because then peak off season you're getting towards pretty big portions of meals anyway. you probably find that like, you probably under ate your caloric intake from an off-plan meal if you're doing that kind
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: of like peak of off-season. Another thing I wanted to mention is have you tried trialing like allowances with, not competitors, with clients? So for instance,
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: have that like bit of flexibility, you'll say, okay, We'll do four meals and then your last meal you can kind of have it like what you want it to be within this kind of like thing or like you have your set amount of meals and then we've got like four to 500 calories which you can just have like whatever you want within those constraints of like if you want to have like cheese you can just put 400 grams of cheese or whatever it is on your meal or something to you know.
Jacob - Temu BK: Hm. I personally haven't, but I know other coaches that have and depending on the person and just the context of the individual, it can be quite quite good. it it maybe you could use it as a tool for adherence. it also might help someone I don't know, maybe someone always keeps struggling because they eating extra after dinner. It's like, hey, you've got four hundred calories after dinner and maybe because the the f the forefront of the day's so structured, they're then able to follow the plan really easily and then it's just that back end of the day. Yeah.
Donte: That is typically when a lot of people fall off. is the evenings and night time.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. No, I do know, I w I listened to a presentation earlier this year that he put that forth as a potential way to you know, maybe create better adherence, give some flexibility, utilize the person the individual structure of their day to your benefit to then allow a little bit more food at the back end of the day.
Donte: Yeah, that is what coaching is. It's about fitting bodybuilding into people's routines, essentially. It's that's what.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Do you have anyone that you use that with?
Donte: I used to not at the minute anymore. And I only typically do that with like, if I've got a lifestyle client, because like ultimately, ultimately, if I've got like a lifestyle client who they do want to follow like a structured meal plan, but want a bit of flexibility, then that's obviously why I'd probably look to implement that, but most lifestyle people, as long as I'm kind of confident in their ability to actually track macros and calories, I do typically like let them like, okay, here's your macros. I'll give them kind of like a framework of how I it to be. So I'll have it like, I want you to have 30 % of like your carbohydrate intake in like your pre-workout, like 35 % in your post. split the remainder across whatever, try to have this amount of protein throughout the day so you know you've got your NPS spikes throughout the day and like little things like that so they kind of have like a framework to work off rather than to just like I'll have a bag of honey bowls as like my carbs for my pre-workout meal kind of thing you know. But
Jacob - Temu BK: Mm.
Donte: again that's only really with people who can like demonstrate like I can effectively adhere to like a macro based approach. Because typically you find the people who do that do naturally fall within their own kind of meal plan anyway.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean I I have I've done something where maybe the person goes, Hey, I I don't need this all the time, but I really like it if I have like a wagon wheel available to me as an example, right?
Donte: Gosh, I've mounted a wagon wheel since I was a kid.
Jacob - Temu BK: And so I will have
Donte: blast from the past.
Jacob - Temu BK: a section within the pl within this plan structure, like allowances and extras. And that might accommodate for five hundred calories as an example. And there might be a few other things in there. Might be some additional fruit to where they could probably pull and play. Like maybe one day they're like, I don't even need to think about this wagon wheel. Or having it in there actually makes it easier for them to not have one because they know they have the option to and when they do, they're like, I don't really feel like it anymore. So then they need to p push and pull with respects to to other food.
Donte: do think that's probably the where a lot of people kind of struggle with adherence through prep? It's literally the fall of like, I can't have this, which makes them want it more, which I guess is like, yeah, which, yeah,
Jacob - Temu BK: I don't want to have this. I want to stick to the plan.
Donte: literally was a staring
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: in the cake island on the food shop.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah.
Donte: But I think that's probably why I don't struggle that much with like food focus through like dieting and stuff because I've over like again it's a skill but like the more diets you do the more you realize like this food actually isn't going anywhere you know like in eight weeks, 10 weeks time I can I can have it and then funny enough you finish your diet you have it and it's like I don't even want this now.
Jacob - Temu BK: Wasn't that good? Yeah. You have one bite
Donte: Yeah, like...
Jacob - Temu BK: and you're like, Why did I why did I purchase that? And then you feel bad because you want
Donte: And it is always.
Jacob - Temu BK: to throw it out and you've spent the money on it. You're like, For fuck's sake
Donte: and it's always something that you would never eat. It's like people will do like,
Jacob - Temu BK: In the off season.
Donte: yeah, people in prep do like hard cream of rice flavours or like whey flavours and it's like the deeper they get in prep, like it's funny actually last year on Instagram, me and my friend, we used to like laugh at people's Instagram stories because we'd like watch them prep and as they like prepped They're like way protein order on a month to month basis that they would post would get like more and more niche. So we'd be like, yeah, he's like, he's struggling at the moment because he'd be like, let's start off at like
Jacob - Temu BK: Hehehehehe
Donte: vanilla and by like the end they've got like cherry Bakewell pistachio or something. It's like, mate, you spend 60 quid on some of those. Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Mate, I might I might start at vanilla and I'll end up at unflavored. Like I'm going the other way. I'm going the other way. But honestly, I think I heard someone
Donte: drive, you know.
Jacob - Temu BK: say this, you know, if you wouldn't do it in your off season, why are you doing it in your prep why are you doing it in your post competition phase? Because
Donte: Nah.
Jacob - Temu BK: like it it yeah, you're buying into the the the event, the timeline rather than like whether what do you actually how do you actually function? you know, maybe you need to change the way you think about the fact that you can't have this food. And it's like, no, I don't want to have this food because it's not gonna facilitate the fat loss that is going to get me those ribcage glutes. Yeah.
Donte: Yeah. Where you want to go? Yeah. And it's, it's one of them as well. Contest prep is obviously different because it's, it's a finite timeline, but with like people doing their first mini cuts and stuff, you kind of have to explain to them like, look, the better you adhere, the quicker it's over. Like I know you probably don't like dieting. Most people don't because of the restriction and feeding hungry and whatever, but it's kind of like the better you execute it, the quicker it finishes, you know, because if you're constantly
Jacob - Temu BK: Hm, yeah.
Donte: like cheating on your diet and whatever, like you're just prolonging the phase that you're in that you're not enjoying really. And again, that's where like the skill of dieting comes into play with obviously experience.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, and you sometimes they need to fall too. Need to fall on their face,
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: make the mistake. okay, cool. It's gonna take an extra four weeks, that's all good. And I'm sure I'm sure you've been there, I've been there too. Yeah.
Donte: most most people do cheat on their first diet. Funnily enough, like my first diet that I did, this was when I was self coaching and I didn't actually like know a whole bunch about like dieting and stuff. So I was dieting on like a calorie tracker and I was literally just like my diet was all over the place. I'll just eat what I want. And I was like it was like a samsulic diet. It was like I'll have whatever I want, as long as I'm in my calories, I'm fine. So it was like, energy would just be like all over the place because like I'd have like 80 grams of carbs from like sweets. So it's just like blood glucose flies, insulin flies. You feel great for 10 minutes and you have this massive crash and it's like, yeah, there's probably a more sustainable way to do this.
Jacob - Temu BK: Man. That that's pretty funny.
Donte: But you've got to experience things like that. Like that's bodybuilding.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent.
Donte: You learn along the way and you become more skilled and more refined within your process and you just become better at it over time. Like you can't rush time and you've got to make mistakes to learn.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah. Yeah. Well man, I'm gonna wrap it up there. I'm looking forward to some dinner. I picked up some oyster mushrooms on special. Tied us over here, but hey, we're gonna make an extra couple of dollars when and where we can.
Donte: Hahaha
Jacob - Temu BK: I've actually got I do have some sweet potato cooking in the oven as well, so that would be all nice and baked for me. But man, thank you very much for coming on. I would love I'd love To one day maybe meet you on stage, maybe next year. Who knows?
Donte: Who knows?
Jacob - Temu BK: Really comes down to how much progress I may or may not have made at the end of my next phalos phase, which could turn into a pre prep. But yeah, we will we'll see what happens. But man, I'm super keen to see the progress you've made when you step up
Donte: Yeah.
Jacob - Temu BK: on stage next time. And yeah, just want you to
Donte: hopefully we're better.
Jacob - Temu BK: Yeah, hopefully, right? Like you're like, all those sessions, all that, you know, failure. Right,
Donte: about someone.
Jacob - Temu BK: brother. I'll let you get on with your
Donte: Bye.
Jacob - Temu BK: day. Thanks so much for coming on, man. Appreciate you.
Donte: Yeah, no problem. See you later, mate.