Original Material from FLEX Magazine
Jay at the 2005 Mr Olympia
"When people come stay with me for more than one day, they think they're watching the movie Groundhog Day," Jay Cutler says. "Every day is just like the one before. That's what works. You do the basics, and you do them over and over. The more often you do them, the better the results you'll get." In fact, Cutler's life is even more repetitive than Bill Murray's was in the 1993 film--Cutler's cycles repeat endlessly as he cooks and eats the same foods several times within the same day.
FLEX went behind the scenes to find out exactly how Cutler structured his nutrition program and why. We already know the results. He was in the shape of his life for the 2005 Mr. Olympia, where he finished a close second to Ronnie Coleman.
FLEX: How many weeks did you diet? Was this the same as usual?
JAY CUTLER: I dieted for 17 weeks, the same as I did when I took the year off before the 2001 Olympia, when I was at my previous best. Last year, I dieted only for eight weeks because I had done the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic earlier in the year. The biggest variable in how long I diet for a show is how many times I've competed that year.
How many meals a day did you eat while you were dieting?
I ate all day and all night long so that I could get in as many meals as possible. Sometimes that was only eight meals a day, but sometimes I would take in nine, 10 or more. When I wasn't sleeping or training, I was either making food or eating it.
I get up really early, so while I was dieting, I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning and start eating. I would eat every two and a half hours, then I would go to bed early around eight or nine. I would set my alarm and get up two or three times during the night and have a meal.
Did that deprive you of sleep or make you crazy?
Not really. You just get used to it. It was part of my routine. I didn't think twice about it when I woke up in the middle of the night. I would get up, go make a meal, eat it and go back to bed. It didn't interfere with the quality of my sleep.
What did you eat at each meal during the day?
Here's my typical routine. Meal one, I ate egg whites and oatmeal. Meal two was my training meal. I took in whey protein and more oatmeal. Meal three, I grilled a steak and ate it with brown rice after I trained.
While I was dieting for the 2005 Olympia, meals four through eight or 10 were fish with green vegetables. I was eating a pound of fish at each meal--usually I had orange roughy or flounder. For green vegetables, I ate mostly green beans and asparagus. Altogether, I was consuming more than 600 grams [g] of protein each day while I was dieting.
Do you need 600 g of protein a day to maintain your muscle mass?
No. Nobody needs that much. But no bodybuilder really knows exactly how much protein he does need to prevent his body from breaking down muscle mass, either. I need a certain amount of calories to keep from losing bodyweight and bodyfat too quickly, and I need a certain amount of protein to keep my muscle mass from breaking down. By taking in so much protein and such a high percent of my calories from protein, I know that I'm emphasizing burning bodyfat while doing everything I can to keep my muscle mass intact.
How much time did you spend cooking?
I spent almost as much time cooking as I spent eating. Most people would probably cook their food ahead of time and then just eat three or four meals that were already prepared. I cooked each meal individually. I was always out in my backyard grilling. Every two and a half hours, I would grill another pound of fish and some vegetables, and eat.
After I finished a meal, I'd have about 20 minutes or so to do some paperwork, answer e-mails or return phone calls, then I'd have to go back out to the backyard and cook the next pound of fish and vegetables.
Why did you do it that way?
I'm a little obsessive, I guess. That way, I was just spending my whole day on being a professional bodybuilder. I love my job, and to be as successful as possible at it, I have to do it all day long. I wasn't looking for shortcuts. Plus, the meals taste better if they're cooked fresh rather than being a few hours old.
Do you always eat that much fish?
That was my diet for most days, but I didn't eat that much fish every day. Sometimes I would eat three chicken breast meals instead. But I would make it the same way. Every couple hours, I'd go out and grill about a pound of chicken breast and eat it right afterward. Chicken takes longer to cook than fish; that's another benefit of eating that much fish.
What is your diet like now, compared to when you were getting ready for the Olympia?
I'm eating the same way, but I'm eating a lot more carbs and a lot less protein. When I was preparing for the Olympia, I was eating only 150 to 375 g of carbs every day--375 g was my max on days when I was reloading my glycogen stores. Now, I'm up to as much as 1,000 g of carbs a day, but I'm still relying on basically the same carb sources: oatmeal and brown rice. I've added some others to the mix--pasta and prepackaged sugary oatmeal instead of whole oats. Then, after I work out, I take in some form of powdered carbs, usually dextrose. When I was dieting, I didn't take in any simple carbs at all.
For protein, I've probably cut my consumption in half. Now, instead of taking in 60-80 g of protein for each meal, I'm taking in more like 40 g of protein per meal. Still, with eight meals a day, I'm getting in over 300 g of protein every day, but that's a significant reduction from taking in 600 g or more of protein a day, the way I was when I was dieting.
What do you think were some of the nutritional keys to improving your physique?
I'd say that relying on fibrous carbs helped me improve my conditioning. I think of high-fiber foods almost as a diet aid. Every carb I ate had a decent amount of fiber in it--oatmeal, brown rice, asparagus and green beans. Most people think of those as primarily carb foods, but they're also great fiber foods. That was a very conscious strategy on my part--to take in fiber every time I took in carbs.
Fiber slows down the digestion of carbohydrates, and that's good for a couple reasons. First, it slows down the absorption of carbs, which means that you'll get less insulin spiking. That's really beneficial when you're trying to cut bodyfat. At other times, when you're trying to add muscle mass, you may want to drive up insulin levels at certain times of day, but when you're cutting bodyfat, you're better off keeping your insulin levels in check.
Slowing down carb absorption also helps keep your energy up longer during the day. If you take in 100 g of carbs that are absorbed quickly, you're going to process them quickly, and then you're going to feel depleted. When you take in the same amount of carbs with a high amount of fiber, they'll stay in your system longer, and you'll have more energy. Carbs that are high in fiber are kind of like time-released carbs. They just go further.
The fiber also slows down the digestion of protein. The longer that it takes your body to process the protein, the more efficiently it will use each gram. That's another benefit.
Besides diet, what else do you think helped you improve your physique?
I did cardio twice a day most days, and I did only bike work. Every morning, I would do 45 minutes, and every evening, I did 30 more minutes. Probably the single thing that had the biggest effect on my physique was the fact that I took a year to get ready for the show. I looked better in 2001 when I didn't compete at the Arnold, and I looked better in 2005 when I didn't compete at the Arnold six months earlier. Taking a year off has always worked for me, and it's worked for Ronnie Coleman, too.
It's hard for a big man to peak over and over. When you don't compete as often and you stay focused, you make more dramatic improvements, and that's what the judges want to see. Realistically, I could have won the 2005 Olympia based on improvements alone.
Cutler's strategy of competing only at the Olympia has worked so well for him that he's contemplating doing that again. His second-place finish automatically qualifies him for the 2006 Mr. Olympia. "I could compete at the 2006 Arnold and I'd probably win," Cutler says. "But I've already done that. The only thing I want in the sport now is to win the Mr. Olympia title. I'll probably spend the whole year preparing for the 2006 show."
BY STEVE STIEFEL
NUTRITION EDITOR
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