Post-Show Recovery in Bodybuilding: Life After Contest Prep
By CoachAk · · 7 min read
Post-show recovery in bodybuilding can take longer than you might expect. Body fat usually returns within a few months, but some hormones, strength and, for women, periods can take longer, and the first weeks can bring intense hunger, rebound eating and a low mood. The answer is to plan the weeks after the show as carefully as the weeks before it: bring food back up on purpose, expect your weight to rise, ease off cardio, and give your body months, not days, before the next prep.
Post-show recovery in bodybuilding: the short answer
- Your stage condition is not meant to last. Weight and body fat coming back up is part of recovering, not a failure.
- Bring calories up promptly and on purpose, with high protein, rather than either staying on prep food or abandoning all structure.
- Expect a rebound in appetite. In one study, almost half of drug-free male bodybuilders reported binge-eating episodes after competitions.
- Give it months. In a study of 27 female competitors, two hormones were still slightly below their starting levels about four months after the show.
- Watch your health. If periods have not returned, or you feel persistently exhausted, low or unwell, speak to your doctor.
What happens to your body after a show
Only a handful of studies have followed competitors after the show, most of them small. Together they give a consistent picture.
Female competitors, about four months later. Hulmi and colleagues (2017, Frontiers in Physiology) followed 27 female fitness competitors through a diet of about 20 weeks and a recovery period of about four months (17 to 18 weeks), alongside 23 women who did not diet. Fat mass measured by body scan roughly halved during the diet, from 14.6 kg (32 lb) to 7.1 kg (16 lb). By the end of recovery it was back to 12.7 kg (28 lb), still a little below where they started. Two hormones, leptin (which helps regulate appetite) and oestradiol, were back at their starting levels. Thyroid hormone (T3) and testosterone were not quite: both were still slightly below where they started, a statistically significant difference. Resting heart rate and systolic blood pressure (the top number) were also still a little lower than at the start.
One natural male bodybuilder, over six months. In a case study by Rossow and colleagues (2013, International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance), a drug-free bodybuilder went from 14.8% to 4.5% body fat for his show and returned to 14.6% afterwards. His testosterone fell from 9.22 to 2.27 ng/mL during prep and returned to its starting level after the competition. His resting heart rate dropped from 53 to 27 beats a minute in prep and was 46 one month after the show. His mood scores worsened sharply during prep and were back to normal six months later. His strength had still not fully recovered after six months.
Periods can take much longer. In a case study of a drug-free figure competitor (Halliday, Loenneke and Davy, 2016, Nutrients), her last period during prep came in week 11. Her food intake, weight and body composition were back to where they started by 20 weeks after the show, but her periods did not return until 71 weeks after it. In the Hulmi study, 28% of competitors still had no periods after recovery, compared with 14% of the women who had not dieted, though that difference could have been down to chance, and many of the women were using hormonal contraception, which also affects bleeding.
Small studies and single cases cannot tell you exactly what will happen to you. They do show that recovering from a prep is measured in months.
How long does post-show recovery take?
| What | What the studies found |
|---|---|
| Body fat | Mostly back within about 4 to 6 months |
| Leptin and oestradiol | Back to starting levels within about 4 months (women) |
| Testosterone and thyroid hormone | Still slightly low after about 4 months in women; testosterone back to its starting level in one man |
| Strength | Not fully back after 6 months in one man |
| Mood | Back to normal by 6 months in one man |
| Periods | Absent in 28% after about 4 months (14% in women who had not dieted); over a year in one woman |
The rebound: food, weight and binges
After months of strict dieting, hunger after a show can be intense. In a 1995 study of 45 drug-free male bodybuilders by Andersen and colleagues (International Journal of Eating Disorders), competitors reported losing 6.8 kg (15 lb) on average across the competitive season and regaining 6.2 kg (13.7 lb). Almost half (46%) described episodes of binge eating after competitions, and 81.5% said they were preoccupied with food at least some of the time.
When Mitchell and colleagues (2017, Sports) interviewed seven experienced natural bodybuilders, most described a more relaxed diet with "treat" foods after a show. Two described overeating and feeling physically unwell, and one regained 8 to 10 kg (18 to 22 lb) in three weeks.
None of this means you did something wrong. It is a predictable response to a long, hard diet, and the best defence is a plan:
- Plan the post-show meal, and enjoy it. Then go back to regular meals the next day, rather than turning one meal into a week.
- Raise calories properly, straight away. Staying on prep calories "to keep the look" just stretches the diet, and its hunger, past the finish line.
- Keep protein high at about 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight a day, and build meals around foods that fill you up.
- Keep some structure. Tracking loosely for a few weeks helps prevent a slow drift.
- Get help if it does not settle. If binges keep happening, or eating feels out of control, speak to your doctor or GP. That is a health issue, not a willpower issue.
The post-show low
You may feel surprisingly flat after the show. The goal that organised every day is gone, the strict routine stops, and your body is changing in the opposite direction to the one you worked for.
Some things that help:
- Put your stage photos in context. That condition was built for one day. It was never meant to be your everyday body.
- Set your next goal before the show, so there is something to work towards the week after.
- Reconnect with life outside prep: meals with friends, rest days that are actually restful.
- Speak to your doctor or GP if a low mood does not lift or starts to affect your daily life.
A practical post-show plan
The first week. Rest, sleep and eat well: bring calories up from prep levels, keep protein high and drop most of your prep cardio. In the Hulmi study, competitors cut their cardio from about 5 sessions a week during the diet to about 2 in recovery. Expect the scale to jump as food, salt and water return, and as your muscles refill with stored carbohydrate. That jump is not all fat.
Weeks 2 to 6. Settle at around maintenance. After a show you are leaner than you can comfortably hold, so recovering well matters more than finding your maintenance to the exact calorie. Reverse dieting compares going up in one step with going up gradually. Keep lifting, with the aim of getting your strength back, and judge your weight by the weekly average.
Months 2 to 6. Start your off-season. Once your weight has settled and training is going well, you can move into a slow, planned lean bulk to build muscle for next time.
Before the next prep. Give yourself enough time. Halliday and colleagues suggested that competitors who compete every year may not leave enough time between preps for their periods to recover. If your periods, energy, sleep or training have not come back, the next show can wait. When you are ready, contest prep: what the weeks before a show look like covers planning the next one.
When to see your doctor after a show
Speak to your doctor or GP if:
- your periods have not returned within a few months, or have changed;
- you feel dizzy, faint or exhausted, or your heart rate feels unusual;
- your sex drive, mood or sleep stays low for weeks;
- you used any drugs or medicines to prepare, so that your doctor can check your health with the full picture.
Blood tests can show whether hormones and other markers are returning to normal, but they need to be ordered and read by a doctor.
How coaching helps after a show
The weeks after a show are easy to neglect, because all the planning went into the weeks before it. With one-to-one contest prep coaching from CoachAk, your calorie, macro and step targets live in a private app and are adjusted as you recover. The weekly check-in takes about three minutes and covers your weight, training and nutrition adherence, steps, sleep, energy, hunger, stress and digestion, with optional measurements and photos. CoachAk replies with written feedback on what went well and what changes next and why, and you can message your coach directly, with photos and voice notes, when the hunger or the low mood hits.
If you want help recovering from a show and planning your next phase, apply for coaching.
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