Meet Nika Sedghi of Neeks93

I am a full-time mechanical engineer living in San Diego, California. I am currently 25 years old and have been bodybuilding with Team Titan Fitness & Nutrition* since June 18th, 2016. I started my athletic career as a Division 1 NCAA athlete at San Diego State University playing water polo, and transitioned to bodybuilding shortly after I graduated.

In college, I gained a good amount of weight despite my rigorous water polo workouts simply because of the surplus of readily available processed food that was being offered with my meal plan at the time. I also struggled with emotional stress eating as I got closer to my daunting engineering exams and didn’t even realize it. It wasn’t until I started seeing photos of myself during this period that I noticed my weight gain and decided to take action.

I started to eat clean in 2014, by beginning to prep out balanced meals while tracking my macros on “MyFitnessPal.” I became obsessed with logging every meal and even achieved a solid 500+ day streak at one point before bodybuilding even began. The first time I lost weight, I went from 177lbs (26%BF) down to 167lbs (19%) in 4.5 months of, working out at OrangeTheory Fitness**, playing D1 water polo, taking spin classes, and watching my diet meticulously.

My first fitness mentor, Tee Parrish, taught me the basics of eating clean, working out like a beast, and legitimately is the sole reason that I became so interested in fitness and nutrition like I am today. Later in September of 2015, during one of my water polo practices, I started to feel a strange heart palpitation, and I could not get my heart rate to slow down.

* Team Titan Fitness and Nutrition – (619) 822-7406, www.titanfitnessandnutrition.com

** OrangeTheory Fitness – www.orangetheoryfitness.com/locations

*** The Rush Cycle – www.rushcycle.com/

After being taken to the emergency room with my athletic trainer and spending the night in the hospital, I walked out the next day with a normal heartbeat but strict instructions to avoid working out. I was devastated, shocked, and had no idea how I was going to handle my diet. Up until that point, I was following a textbook 500 calorie deficit seven days a week from my predetermined TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) using The Body Fat Test San Diego’s**** Hydrostatic Body fat testing report.

Now that my daily expenditure had dropped significantly from the lack of daily exercise, I was hit with the problem of my appetite level staying the same with a new calorie allowance that was about 1000-1500 calories less than my active normal. I had to get a heart rate monitor implanted in my chest, and per doctor’s orders, I had to completely stop my workouts. Sitting in a hospital bed while being told I couldn’t work out again until my condition was diagnosed was possibly the most devastating thing for me at the time.

I stayed strong for about a week or two staying on this lower calorie “plan”, but ended up having a true eff-it moment because of the unknown knowledge of my condition, return date to sport or my ability to maintain eating at this 500 cal. with my new lowered TDEE.

I simply gave up on any hopes of staying lean because I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. As a result, all the weight I dropped in those 4.5 months came back within a 40 day period of emotional overeating. This clearly shows that my counting calories and strict protocol of being 100% committed with a black and white mentality on eating clean and hitting macros perfectly failed when “life” happened.

After finally getting another heart palpitation to occur (this time with the HR monitor in my chest to record it), the doctors were able to diagnose me with Supraventricular Tachycardia. I got the monitor removed, was cleared to workout, and was told to slowly ease back into my normal exercise routine. I began eating clean again and got myself down from my peak weight of 180 lbs. in October of 2015 to 170 lbs. in April of 2016, and then back up to 175 lbs. again as my college career came to an end. After I graduated, I participated in a fun floating obstacle course race with some friends when I saw another photo of myself in a life vest that truly HIT ME by surprise.

**** Body Fat Test SD – (760) 505-2341, www.bodyfattestsandiego.com/

I knew I had to make a more drastic lifestyle change and this time I wanted professional help. I signed up for my first bodybuilding show and committed myself to a 20+ week prep with Team Titan training at World Gym San Diego.***** I lost over 40 lbs., won first place, and nationally qualified. After my first show, I competed one more time then stepped off stage with every intention of building lean muscle in my very first offseason flexible dieting.

This is when I started to educate myself on nutrition, and how the brain works so I could outsmart my old ways of overeating scientifically (as soon as I was off a structured plan). My goal was and always will be to optimize the fuel I choose to put in my body to continue to perform better, with health being my number one priority always! As a natural bodybuilder, this is just essential. My coach, Chris Ford, has been prescribing my macros and checking in on me weekly since I last competed on March 24, 2017.

I’m thrilled to have lean bulked my way up and now have cut back down without a single meal plan being written by him! I have built up the confidence to properly flexible diet, and I may have coded an excel file with my own database of foods to track my daily macros (my own version of MyFitnessPal to avoid any incorrect or skewed food entries). I have learned so much from this process including reverse dieting out of a show, being “free” to enjoy great meals in an offseason, handling family events along with life celebrations, and as a result, have created this guidebook as a means of sharing what I’ve learned with other people who might identify with my past struggles or who are simply looking for one source to access a shortened cheat sheet of all my findings.

This isn’t a meal plan or a document that’s going to tell you how much you need to eat. I was not paid to create it or promote any products. It is a compilation of some guidelines and practices I recommend to start living a balanced, healthy lifestyle. Consider reading this before you start another 30-day detox, 60-day transformation, or pay for another coach to write you a meal plan before you are able to handle that kind of commitment and succeed long term! And for the record, I have tried this method with close friends, and the results have been nothing short of incredible…

“My goal was and always will be to optimize the fuel I choose to put in my body…”

***** World Gym San Diego – (858) 272-3400, www.worldgymsandiego.com/

-Weight loss

-Heart condition

-Herniated disc

-Lost grandmother in August

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
Known for my nutrition reviews on Instagram, I do daily “Neeks” approved reviews for common food items! But I put things in perspective, so those numbers on the labels make sense! I use things like egg whites, cups of rice and tsps of oil. I teach people about ingredients and just wrote my first ebook! (Link in bio of Instagram) DM me for free download.

Figure bodybuilder that has been through a crazy journey! Ex D1 water polo and full-time engineer. Want to teach people that you can have a career and accomplish your health and fitness goals.

We live in paradise! The beach is 15 minutes away. We have amazing hiking trails all around us, and the weather is sunny 300+ days a year.