Sacrifices of a high-performance bodybuilder

The sacrifices of bodybuilding are not about a lifestyle; they are about the effort and fortitude required to diet and train hard.

Social media accounts dedicated to fitness and bodybuilding show you a series of perfect physiques with defined muscles and not a gram of excess fat. These are shredded physiques… they are the result of the sacrifices of bodybuilding, which are not always known…

This leads you to see more shredded bodies and focus your mind on that ideal; as a result, icons emerge, helping to revitalize a younger generation.

But there is a problem with this, because influencers cannot be compared with real bodybuilders. Ultimately, many brainwash their followers so that they do not understand the sacrifices of bodybuilding required to achieve a certain level of physical composition—to become shredded.

The reality is that there is a high price to pay, and you have to make several sacrifices to reach that level.

The difference between lean and shredded

Being lean (~8–12% for men and 18–24% for women) is completely different from being “defined.”

Bodybuilders, the covers of fitness magazines, and the ultra-lean social media stars who are “defined” are often in the 4–6% range for men and 12–16% for women.

But excluding genetic outliers, maintaining this level of leanness for more than a few days or weeks is truly unsustainable and is not something you should really strive for or maintain through the sacrifices of bodybuilding.

The reality is that it is possible to achieve this level for short periods, but there are things you have to do to get there.

Moreover, there is little difference in terms of your overall quality of life. Realistically, almost no one except a handful of judges at a local competition will care whether you have 8% body fat or 5% body fat.

Remember that at some point in your athletic life, you will require adaptogens in your sports diet.

Prepare to feel cold

If you have ever dieted down to extremely low levels of body fat, you know what it is like to feel cold all the time, even on hot summer days.

There are many reasons why this happens, but the three main ones that are part of the sacrifices of bodybuilding include:

• You have less subcutaneous fat and therefore less thermal “insulation.”
• To obtain and reach this level of leanness, you consume fewer calories.
• You have less body fat to generate heat.

Subcutaneous fat definitely acts as a layer of thermal insulation, as it helps maintain your body temperature when the ambient temperature is below 36 degrees.

When you consume a low number of calories to lose weight, you have a lower metabolic rate and your overall body temperature may decrease slightly, but this small decrease is very noticeable.

This happens because body fat is a source of heat, and having low body-fat levels reduces the amount of heat generated by fatty tissue.

Combined, each of these mechanisms is a reason why you feel cold all the time with very low body-fat levels.

Your sleep will probably be terrible

Although this is not a very well-studied phenomenon, one of the most commonly reported “side effects” as part of the sacrifices of bodybuilding during dieting is poor sleep.

Most scientific studies examine how sleep deprivation makes you eat more; however, some evidence supports the anecdotal findings that dieting itself reduces sleep.

For example, in a study of young women, calorie restriction worsened sleep along with thyroid levels and heat production.

Considering the great importance of sleep for training, recovery, mental sharpness, mood, and so on, the benefits of being extremely lean begin to be offset by the drawbacks of poor sleep.

Always accept the DOMS

If you cannot even sit on the toilet after leg day, then your DOMS are at their worst. Now, if you are trying to diet down to extremely low body-fat levels, you will have to accept that feeling.

One of the best-documented anecdotes regarding the sacrifices of bodybuilding is suffering from pain, which lasts longer while dieting—and this is obvious… there is a lack of raw materials to recover the tissues…

DOMS become a problem very quickly because you cannot train as hard or as frequently. In other words, if it takes you 6 to 7 days to recover from leg day, there goes your training for the following week.

Say goodbye to your sex drive

Dieting down to very low body-fat levels is generally done because you want to look good naked, but if you lose all interest in your sex life, then you will have defeated the purpose.

It is fairly well documented in the scientific literature that dieting, especially to low body-fat levels, reduces testosterone and diminishes desire and even performance.

Conclusions

Achieving a “shredded” appearance often requires many sacrifices of bodybuilding; therefore, you must prepare to feel cold all the time, sleep poorly, and put your romantic life on hold.

You will also be sorer and for longer periods, which will probably affect your ability to train, and you will have to reduce both your training frequency and, probably, your intensity.

But these sacrifices will be worth it when you look spectacular at a competition or in front of the mirror—or will they?

To clarify this topic, we present a video prepared by the MASmusculo Athletes about the life of a girl who goes from Amateur to Pro.