Let’s get one thing straight proper off the bat: As a lot as may assume you’ll be able to, you’ll be able to’t flex fats. You are able to do all types of different issues to it—acquire it, lose it, jiggle it, inject it, get it sucked out, tan it, pierce it, tattoo it—however regardless of what number of mirrors you stand in entrance of or filters you slap on, fats doesn’t striate. It doesn’t separate. You’ll be able to’t contract it, and no veins come out of it. It simply sits there and obliterates all the things value taking a look at—from a bodybuilding perspective, in fact.
That being the case, the purpose of any competitor within the physique sports activities (“bodybuilding” hereafter) is to build/maintain as much muscle as possible whereas burning away as a lot fats as potential. Since everyone knows—or ought to know by now—that fats mass and muscle mass take up a lot totally different volumes. Muscle is denser than fats and therefor takes up much less house.
Fats, by comparability, isn’t as dense and takes up far more quantity. Subsequently, in case you’re preparing for a bodybuilding competitors—with the purpose to return in shredded, i.e., extraordinarily low physique fats—and since fats is extra voluminous than muscle, dropping it might scale back, not solely your physique weight, but in addition your measurement—dropping fats means you’re getting lighter and smaller. But, individuals maintain pondering they’re dropping muscle throughout prep.
“I’m getting smaller,” they cry. “I have to be dropping muscle!”
No, bro. You’re dropping fats—the issue you’re having with it’s that every one the fats you gained within the off season isn’t deposited underneath your pores and skin. A few of that fats is within the muscle—like a well-marbled steak. Merely put, you’re not as massive as you thought you had been. (No person was.)
Right here’s the way it works: Fats will get saved in two major locations—subcutaneous (underneath the pores and skin) and intramuscular (contained in the muscle). Now, assume prime rib. That enormous lump of white stuff between the cap and the attention? That’s fats. That’s the stuff that’s marbled all through each single muscle in your bones. It makes you look larger as a result of it’s taking over house within the muscle—like nature’s synthol. That being the case, return to the prime rib—lower out that glob of chub and push the steak again collectively. It’s smaller isn’t it? However did you lose any muscle?
When your physique begins burning fats—via eating regimen, coaching, medication, or any mixture thereof—it doesn’t concentrate on one spot like like everybody needs it might (as long as you can specify the place). It’s a systemic burn. Which means it pulls fats from all over the place concurrently. Subcutaneous, intramuscular, visceral—all of it will get dumped into the bloodstream and oxidized. You’ll be able to’t goal one over the opposite. And also you positive as hell can’t maintain the stuff that made your arms appear like they belonged in a Marvel film whereas solely ditching the chub round your low again.
Are You Actually Dropping Muscle?
The most effective metric to know in case you’re dropping muscle? Energy. That is particularly necessary for the primary time competitor. For those who’re nonetheless sturdy, you’re good. For those who’re lifting near what you had been when energy had been in a surplus, you’re not melting away. You’re simply getting peeled—which is what you need.
Will you’re feeling weaker in a calorie deficit? Sure. Will you be flat, depleted, and foggy? Typically. However that’s a part of the grind. It doesn’t imply you’re shrinking. It means you’re lastly seeing your bodybuilder’s physique for the primary time.
What freaks out most individuals is that because the fats leaves, the dimensions drops, the fullness dips, and the panic units in. “I’m smaller!” Sure—however in one of the simplest ways potential. Smaller and tougher isn’t worse. Larger and softer is worse. Watery is worse. Dry and onerous makes measurement largely irrelevant.
The Storage Sport
So when does fats storage really occur? As quickly as your consumption exceeds your want.
There’s one caveat, although: a lot has been fabricated from what’s generally known as “the optimum window of assimilation.” This happens about 1–2 hours after a tough exercise, when your physique preferentially oxidizes fats and carbs for restoration. Some say you’ll be able to make the most of as much as half your day by day caloric allotment throughout that window extra successfully than spreading it out over the day.
However be careful for these cheat meals! A cheat meal is a chance to offer right into a craving, not damage your self—one in all my shoppers as soon as proudly advised me his cheat meal was a big double-meat pizza, three orders of tacos (9 tacos complete), and a dozen wings.
That’s not a cheat meal—that’s a cry for assist.
Such reckless extra spills into fats storage and drags tons of water with it, quicker than your final progress pic hits Instagram. It should take you days to get well, assuming you went proper again to the grind.
Give it some thought: For those who prepare your ass off, eat exactly to the gram to get well, and keep slightly below your tipping level, your physique will use meals to construct and restore. Go over that line, and it shops the additional. Each time. The physique solely makes use of what it wants. And you’ll’t drive it to make use of greater than that—effectively, you’ll be able to, to some extent, however, let’s simply say, it’s not for everybody.
The tragedy? Most individuals are strolling round 30 to 40 kilos over stage weight pondering they’re jacked. And they’re—if you wish to rely the marbling. Getting peeled is the one solution to know what you’re working with. Every contest prep after that will get simpler as a result of you realize the reality getting into. And that information can severely scale back the psychological torture of prep.
The Onerous Fact
Bodybuilding isn’t nearly constructing. It’s about separating, shaping, detailing… revealing—showcasing what you constructed. And which means coming to phrases with a number of genetic elements that rear their head throughout prep—particularly the primary one, the place you lastly pull again the curtain and see what’s beneath.
One of many many harsh realities you’ll face? The “muscle” you thought you constructed may’ve been principally manteca.
However you by no means know till you go low.
One of many largest obstacles to next-level conditioning for first-time rivals is the abject worry of shrinking. They spent months strolling round with their lats flared, sporting three hoodies, and turning into Golden Corral’s worst nightmare—all within the title of “getting large.” And now they should money in most of it?
Yeah, that’s a tricky one. Particularly for somebody already mentally irregular sufficient to need to be a bodybuilder within the first place.
Don’t worry getting smaller—worry being tender. Situation will all the time trump measurement—particularly from the again. Don’t chase fullness at the price of definition. And for the love of all that’s holy, cease calling fats “measurement.”
As a result of in case you don’t, at some point chances are you’ll face the mirror, the stage, or the photographer’s glass, Flexing a blob you tried to go off as lean mass. Everybody is aware of actual muscle mounds up and striates once you flex it, like a 22-inch Olympian gun. Fats, my associates, flexes none.
