205-210 level in the last 4 weeks before a contest and look awful. They’re cut to shreds but they’re
15-20 pounds lighter than they’d have been if they followed the high fat, Anabolic Diet.
That’s where the steroids come in. People on the high carb diet find it very hard to put on
muscle size and still have that defined look. Steroids play the role of the big equalizer.
But long term steroids aren’t the answer. In terms of training, it’s too easy. You don’t learn
the proper way to train or take care of yourself using them. A lot of guys think they’ve become
experts in training and nutrition, when all they’ve done is let the drug do it for them. Take
them off steroids and they’re in trouble.
You see bodybuilders in the gym all the time who look great for the half year they’re on steroids.
The rest of the time, they look horrible. They’re small and thin, or heavy with no muscle tone.
The steroids play havoc with their metabolism. Once you’re off them, you lose all the benefits
you’ve accumulated. At minimum, you get a big estrogen surge and testosterone drop, and you’re
almost back to Square One. The bodybuilder may want desperately to get that same look and
hold on to it, but they can’t without steroids.
WOULD YOU RATHER BURN MUSCLE OR FAT?
Because the diets most bodybuilders use for bulk and cutting are low in fat, you don’t burn
bodyfat off efficiently. You put a hold on your own internal, fat-burning capabilities. Lipase,
the enzyme involved in breaking down bodyfat, becomes almost inactive. You get fat.
With free fatty acid utilization minimized because there’s so little fat in your diet, glucose for
energy has to come from your diet or available protein in the body. That decreases the amount
of protein available for growth. You use it as a fuel instead of as something to build muscle.
Instead of a fat-burning machine, you become a muscle-burning machine. That’s not what a
bodybuilder wants.
Fat is also a very dense energy force. It has 2^1 ⁄ 4 times the energy density of carbs or protein.
For every gram of fat, you’re getting 2.25 times the amount of energy. You’ve got 9 calories per
gram of fat versus 4 for a gram of carbs or protein. The arithmetic is easy. The winner in the
energy competition? Dietary fat.
STRENGTH LEVEL AND MOTIVATION DECREASES
With the added loss of lean body mass during the cutting phase of a bodybuilder’s diet, he’ll
also begin to lose strength. At this point, you can become very discouraged. As you get closer to
a contest, you’ll see your size disappearing. You lose motivation. You can get so demoralized
that you may even give up and opt out of the show.
As you see your progress slip away, you can also become very irritable. This can lead to social
problems. Much of the bodybuilder’s self worth and perception of himself comes from how he
looks. In this way, they’re not unlike actors or people in the media. They have to look good. If
you find yourself getting close to a contest looking like a pencil neck, you’re obviously not going
to feel too good about yourself.
HISTORY OF BODYBUILDING DIETS 23