Megan Prescott Athlete Interview

Vital StatisticsCurrentAge25Weight57kgHeight5ft 2Body-fatNA

You may remember her from Skins, but Megan Prescott exploded into the bodybuilding scene, lifting her way to an amazing competition back in May.

After breaking her hand three years ago, she was introduced to personal trainer Jay Homewood. At a time she was looking for a project, the opportunity to look after #1 was warmly welcomed – smashing weight training and feeling amazing!

As she works on her own documentary-style project called ‘Megan Prescott: Dumbbells and Donuts,’ covering her journey competing in the UKBFF British Finals, we had to find out more.

Weekly Training Plan

Nowadays I don’t have a ‘set’ weekly training plan. I just train what I want, when I want! Normally I train legs twice a week though, and throw a couple of HIIT workouts in there somewhere too.

Example Weekly Meal Plan

I really don’t stick to any meal plans that are set in stone since I’m not prepping at the moment. Now I eat 4-5 times a day (as opposed to 6-8 times a day when prepping!) I just base every meal and snack around protein, and I make sure I’m getting lots of vegetables as well as a decent amount of carbs and fats with each of my meals.

Hi Megan, thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Let’s dive right into it – let’s kick off with some quick fire… What is your New Year’s Resolution for 2017?

In terms of fitness goals for the year, I really am now trying to incorporate healthy eating and a good amount of exercise into my everyday life.

When I was competing, it was pretty much all or nothing - so I was either miserable and looking insanely ripped or also miserable but bingeing on all the food I wasn’t allowed while on prep.

Now I need to find a healthy balance; not competing but also not letting diet and exercise completely go out the window! That’s the main thing I didn’t like about competing, there’s no middle ground and therefore it’s not sustainable in the long term (if you also want to be happy and healthy)!

Favourite music to work out to?

If I’m working a muscle group, I don’t listen to music. I can’t concentrate on the whole mind muscle connection if I have music on. But if I’m doing LISS training like high incline walking etc. I get really bored so I will watch a documentary or a drama series on my phone.

The only time I listen to music is when I’m doing a HIIT workout, and then it’s a HUGE mix of everything and the playlist changes regularly because I get bored so easily! At the moment, it’s a lot of 90’s R&B though.

Favourite movie?

You’re asking a writer/producer/actor this… I need WAY more space than I’ll be allowed in your article to explain my favourite movie and exactly what’s great about it - Haha!

Now that the ice has been broken, let’s go back to the beginning and talk about your career up to this point. How did you get into being an actress?

When I was young, I wanted to be a singer - until I realised that I couldn’t sing to save my life. I just always wanted to be telling a story, and I was always so dramatic that Acting just made sense and kind of fell into place.

I was recommended to an agent when I was about 14/15 who took me on and it went from there really.

And since I know people will want me to ask about Skins – tell me about a day in the life of working on such an amazing show?

Wow, it was literally almost a decade ago now so I couldn’t really tell you what a day in the life was like since I barely remember myself!

It was an amazing life experience and I’ve made friends for life through it but it was also a job and very hard work – early mornings, 16-hour days and a lot of sleeping on the go.

People think we were all having a blast and just getting paid for having fun and messing around, but it was a pretty serious job to have at such a young age!

Do you still get recognised for this show? It must have quite the cult following!

I do still get recognised, but surprisingly much more in America than here!

It’s amazing to me that people still know the show enough to recognise that characters and its really nice to know it’s still in people’s hearts after all these years.

What kinds of projects have you been working on recently? Your Instagram certainly looks like you’ve been busy!

For the last year and a half, I’ve been working on a project called ‘Megan Prescott: Dumbbells and Donuts’.

It is a documentary style project that follows me on my journey to compete in the UKBFF British Finals. I’m very excited about it. I’ve also been writing, and currently am in pre-production stages of a Short film called ‘MUM’ that I’ve written, and will also direct and star in along with some of my other Skins cast mates.

I’ve just finished filming for a project called ‘The Verge,’ where I play ‘Brute;’ this crazy violent beast girl… That was SO MUCH FUN and I can’t wait to see it.

How has your focus on fitness and nutrition changed your role as an actress?

You notice very soon after transitioning to healthier food and weight training how much more energy you have, how much better you sleep, and how much better you are looking!

And all of those things contribute to a much better actress… I am better at dealing with long working days, better at memorising lines, better at fight scenes and better at not looking like a troll in the morning!

When did you catch the gym bug and start on your fitness journey?

I broke my hand about three years ago, and finally decided to get my arse into gear and train properly. My friend was friends with Jay Homewood (a personal Trainer). We both needed projects to focus on so we decided that project would be me!

I started with Jay training me once a week (I needed the rest of the week to recover) and gradually built it up until I genuinely wanted to train with him 5 times a week and I felt amazing.

I also noticed very quickly how much better I was beginning to look just by weight training alone, and no cardio and I had a kind of epiphany about how weight training was the answer!

Do you have a favourite exercise?

I love the leg press. There was a time many years ago, (and before competition prep) where I pressed 300kg for five reps!

But I turned into a bit of a weakling for the Bikini Fitness Comps so can literally barely do a third or that now! I’m building these quads up with donuts though so soon it will happen again…

And the one you loathe the most?

I really hate bent lateral raises. They’re so much effort for such a small muscle, it always makes me feel like such a wimp doing them with 5kg weights!

I haven’t been able to train upper body properly in ages now though because of a neck injury, so it’s been an excellent excuse not to do bent lateral raises…

Have you ever had a time when a couple days’ break from the gym has turned into a couple of weeks? If so, how do you motivate yourself to get back into it?

I don’t know if it’s ever been for weeks that I’ve let the exercise slip because after a week or so, I start feeling groggy and looking a bit grey if I don’t exercise. So, I always want to get back into it after a week or so.

But there’s often times since the British Finals where I’ve been filming/working on other projects so much, that I genuinely don’t have the time or energy to exercise for maybe a week or so.

But I feel like if I genuinely don’t have the time to exercise, I must be running around like a mad person anyway so don’t need to!

When times like that occur, I just try to eat a bit healthier so that I don’t start feeling super lethargic, and can get through the busy week and then start a fresh next week with the exercise.

Now for your diet. What was the thinking behind your meal plan? Does that meal plan change with the seasons, or is it generally the same all year round?

I don’t really do meal plans. I just eat 4-5 times a day and drink lots of water. I make sure all my meals and snacks are mostly based around protein and that they also include a healthy amount of some type of carbs and fats.

After the British Finals, I did a very mini bulk - really just to build back up what I’d lost in the process of becoming so lean!

In that time, I was eating lots of carbs, lots of protein and lots of everything really. Now that I’m feeling nourished and stronger, I have cut out some of the bad food but I’m still eating basically what I want within reason, as long as it is nutritionally balanced. And the occasional donut… or four.

What are your Muscle Food favourites?

During Prep, the sugar free maple syrup saved my life! I got so bored of my protein pancake in the morning (it was literally just half a scoop of protein, one egg and one egg white and 40 grams of oats…) so the syrup made it easier to swallow!

I have a Muscle Food Garlic bread in my freezer right now which I’ve had before and really really liked!

I am also a big fan of ANYTHING with almond butter. I get giant vats of it from you guys and I’m also a big fan of the almond butter pralines

Do you have any recipes you’d like to share with our audience of readers?

I make a really good Vegan banana bread that I recently put on my Instagram.

I’m always making healthy(er) brownies and adapting recipes I find to make them slightly healthier by subbing out things like refined sugar for healthier alternatives.

I usually film when I’m cooking and post step by step guides on my snapchat (DandDDocSnap).

How far ahead of time do you meal prep? And how do you keep yourself motivated to do so?

Now I usually only meal prep when I need to. So, for example, if I’m going to film all day and I know there won’t be any healthy options, I’ ll prep all my meals the night before.

But back when I was prepping for my Bikini Fitness competitions, I’d do a big prep once a week every Sunday and then a little additional prep mid-week for the last part of the week.

I’m motivated by hunger and a bad case of FOMOF (Fear OF Missing Out on Food), so the thought of being hungry on set/when I’m out and away from my fridge is motivation enough to make me prep all my food for the following day!

Final few questions. What has been your biggest achievements when it comes to health & fitness?

I would say coming 4th in the whole of Britain in under 163cm Bikini Fitness is up there. But, what means more to me is that I have helped bring weight training to light for a lot of people who may have been starving and killing themselves on running machines before!

If just one person has seen my journey and stopped starving themselves, started fuelling themselves with good food and started feeling better through weight training, then that will have been my biggest achievement.

What are your plans for this new year?

New year involves a bunch of filming, writing and producing for me as well as my first Directing Gig - which I’m really excited about.

Do you have any inspiring words for the thousands of Muscle Foodies who read this?

Hmmm, I don’t have all that many wisdomous words in me, but if anything, I would say find a happy medium that works for you.

Don’t neglect your diet and not exercise, but also don’t become obsessed with it. Find the best way to incorporate a healthy diet and a healthy amount of exercise into your own routine because that’s the only way it’s going to stick and you’re going to be happy doing it.