Let’s get one thing straight proper off the bat: As a lot as may suppose you possibly can, you possibly can’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 may’t contract it, and no veins come out of it. It simply sits there and obliterates all the things price 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 construct/keep as a lot muscle as potential 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 area.
Fats, by comparability, isn’t as dense and takes up rather more quantity. Subsequently, when you’re preparing for a bodybuilding competitors—with the purpose to come back in shredded, i.e., extraordinarily low physique fats—and since fats is extra voluminous than muscle, shedding it might scale back, not solely your physique weight, but in addition your dimension—shedding fats means you’re getting lighter and smaller. But, individuals hold considering they’re shedding muscle throughout prep.
“I’m getting smaller,” they cry. “I have to be shedding muscle!”
No, bro. You’re shedding fats—the issue you’re having with it’s that every one the fats you gained within the off season isn’t deposited below your pores and skin. A few of that fats is within the muscle—like a well-marbled steak. Merely put, you’re not as huge as you thought you have been. (No one was.)
Right here’s the way it works: Fats will get saved in two principal locations—subcutaneous (below the pores and skin) and intramuscular (contained in the muscle). Now, suppose 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 greater as a result of it’s taking over area within the muscle—like nature’s synthol. That being the case, return to the prime rib—reduce 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—by means of food plan, coaching, medication, or any mixture thereof—it doesn’t give attention to one spot like like everybody needs it might (as long as you possibly can specify the place). It’s a systemic burn. Which means it pulls fats from in all places concurrently. Subcutaneous, intramuscular, visceral—all of it will get dumped into the bloodstream and oxidized. You may’t goal one over the opposite. And also you positive as hell can’t hold the stuff that made your arms appear to be they belonged in a Marvel film whereas solely ditching the chub round your low again.
Are You Actually Dropping Muscle?
The very best metric to know when you’re shedding muscle? Power. That is particularly vital for the primary time competitor. In case you’re nonetheless robust, you’re good. In case you’re lifting near what you have been when energy have 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? Generally. 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 the easiest way potential. Smaller and tougher isn’t worse. Larger and softer is worse. Watery is worse. Dry and onerous makes dimension 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 often called “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 possibly can make the most of as much as half your each 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 present right into a craving, not damage your self—one in every of my shoppers as soon as proudly informed me his cheat meal was a big double-meat pizza, three orders of tacos (9 tacos whole), 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, sooner than your final progress pic hits Instagram. It would take you days to get well, assuming you went proper again to the grind.
Give it some thought: In case you practice 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 may’t power it to make use of greater than that—nicely, you possibly can, 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 considering they’re jacked. And they’re—if you wish to depend the marbling. Getting peeled is the one option to know what you’re working with. Every contest prep after that will get simpler as a result of you recognize the reality getting into. And that information can significantly scale back the psychological torture of prep.
The Onerous Reality
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 components 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 largely manteca.
However you by no means know till you go low.
One of many largest obstacles to next-level conditioning for first-time opponents is the abject worry of shrinking. They spent months strolling round with their lats flared, sporting three hoodies, and changing into Golden Corral’s worst nightmare—all within the title of “getting big.” And now they need to money in most of it?
Yeah, that’s a troublesome 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 mushy. Situation will at all times trump dimension—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 “dimension.”
As a result of when you don’t, someday it’s possible 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 if you flex it, like a 22-inch Olympian gun. Fats, my associates, flexes none.