You finally made it. It’s the day of the show. All that bikini competition prep work paid off and you look leaner than ever. Once you step off that stage and back into real life, you can return to eating whatever you want. Right?

Sorry, but no. Your journey isn’t over. The way you exit a bikini competition is just as important as how you enter. The rigor of food restrictions from your bikini competition diet and the intense exercise transformed your physique—but it also altered your hormones, metabolism, and self-image. Let’s talk specifics.

What Happens to Your Body After the Competition?

Your metabolism is probably lower.

Metabolic adaptation is a very real thing. Those months of vigorous training sent your body into self-preservation mode, causing you to burn fewer calories per day and lower your metabolism. In fact, studies show that when you get to your goal weight, your resting metabolic rate is so severely depressed, that you’ll almost immediately gain weight if you resume your prior higher-calorie diet.

Changes in brain chemistry during bikini competition prep can cause sugar cravings.

Your brain chemistry is probably off.

Extreme exercise gives you the same release of endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin that thrill seekers get—except you’re getting it over and over again. Cut off the release of these hormones cold turkey and you can find yourself with severe mood issues. To compensate, studies show you may crave and binge carbs and sugary foods for the temporary neurotransmitter boost (no, the craving isn’t a result of their long absence in your bikini competition diet like you assumed). But when that high wears off after a few minutes, you’re back to being crabby (and probably bloated).

Your GI tract/stomach changed.

For months, you conditioned your body to live off certain foods, and probably changed your enzymes in the process. Take dairy, for instance. Avoid it long enough, and it decreases the digestive enzymes on the surface of your small intestine, making you less able to digest it. Put dairy back in, and you’ll get diarrhea. This avoidance also affects your brain chemistry. Considering an estimated 90% of your body’s serotonin is made in your gut, making “poorer” food choices can influence this for the worse. Start bingeing foods you’ve been avoiding for months, and your guts and brain will hate you.

Your sex hormone levels are probably different.

A big decrease in body fat, and the stress of metabolic adaptation can affect your sex hormones. Studies show that most natural athletes experience decreases in testosterone and most women will experience decreases in estrogen production. The more rigorous your bikini competition prep, the more likely you are to experience symptoms of low sex hormones, including a decrease in sex drive, ability to burn fat, stamina, and general vigor.

Your carb tolerance is probably not the same.

Most bikini competitors stick to some version of a paleo diet: high protein and low carbs, or in a cycled fashion. If this is your bikini competition diet, don’t be surprised if you can no longer handle a high-sugar meal without crashing. You can blame insulin sensitivity and low carb tolerance for that. For quite some time, you’ll probably feel sick any time you try to increase your daily carb intake.

Body dysmorphia is a common issue after a bikini competition, as you start thinking your body is in worse shape than it actually is.

Your risk of body dysmorphia has increased.

By competition day, you’re at an all-time high in self-confidence, but you’re also facing a high risk of body dysmorphia. You’ve spent three months sculpting your perfect body. You’re leaner than you ever been, partly because you’re dehydrated, which sucks your skin tightly to your muscles. You’ll be able to keep this new and improved physique, right? Sorry, but no. You’ll have a water shift a day or two after the show. You’ll have a cheat meal. You’ll ease up on your training and gain back a few pounds of body fat. It’s inevitable. As you watch your show-body start to change, you risk becoming too critical, seeing yourself negatively, while everyone thinks you look great.

You didn’t make an after-show plan.

You made a very detailed prep plan, but did you create an after-show plan? If you’re like most bikini competitors who just accomplished their goals, you probably didn’t think beyond “I’ll continue to train.” Everything we discussed here needs to be carefully considered and addressed the moment you leave the stage. Your hormone changes, your metabolic shifts, your GI system—it’s all sitting there inside, waiting to make you sick, tired, and flabby. This will be your reality, unless you make a post-show plan and gently move back to your normal metabolism.

Need help with your post-competition planning? Keep an eye out for Part 3 of our bikini competition prep series, coming up next week.

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