4 Things we can learn from Finnish bodybuilders

A new study has just looked at Finnish national-level physique competitors and followed them for 23 weeks into their competition and 23 weeks after their competition. Here are four things we can learn from this study.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:15 1. Metabolic damage is a myth

03:25 2. It’s incredibly difficult to get below 5% (men) or 12% BF (women)

04:12 3. It’s possible to build muscle in energy deficit.

05:50 4. Women respond just as well to dieting and training as men.

Transcript

First, metabolic damage is a myth. The researchers concluded, based on a wide variety of assessments, that adaptive thermogenesis was observed in both sexes, with concurrent changes in crucial hormone levels regulating energy metabolism, nervous system function and resting energy expenditure. These responses to weight loss seem to be temporary and related to energy intake and body composition as they returned toward baseline levels after the recovery phase. These results are entirely in line with a study that I conducted myself together with Anastasia Zinchenko We found, across a wide variety of samples: wrestlers, bodybuilders, starvation experiments, including the famous Minnesota Starvation experiment that during a diet there is, of course, a decrease in your energy expenditure, and most of this is very predictable. Most of this is just because you’re losing body mass. especially if you’re losing some muscle mass. Your energy expenditure is going to decrease.

Even your resting energy expenditure. You’re also eating less food, so you’re consuming fewer calories and that decreases the diet induced thermogenesis. So that’s the energy basically, that your body needs to absorb and digest the nutrients. on top of these predictable changes, because have less body mass. There’s also something called adaptive thermogenesis. Adaptive thermogenesis refers to a decrease in energy expenditure beyond what you would expect based on the aforementioned variables. So beyond what you’d expect based on their body composition. And in our experiment, we measure this, for example, as a ratio between they’re measured in their predicted energy expenditure. And in this study, again, they found that the metabolism of the competitors slowed more than you would expect based on their body mass loss. However, this was temporary after the experiments, which is also what we found in a wide variety of samples. When you regain the muscle and the fat that you lost, your metabolism comes right back up to the exact same level as before. So there is no such thing as metabolic damage. There was only metabolic adaptation. And I think this is very good to know. It’s very reassuring for a lot of people. And I think honestly a lot of people during their diet, they are, in my experience, very preoccupied with finding excuses essentially to eat more food. And metabolic damage is a big one there. It’s good to realize that your body is doing fine.

There is no metabolic damage occurring. In fact, most health markers during a diet improve like insulin sensitivity improves , heart rate typically goes down, cholesterol profile improves, blood pressure may go down, a lot of things improve in your body. So dieting is for the vast majority of people, very healthy and most of the negatives that you experience are mental like fatigue. And of course, in this study they did find that there was also suppression of the immune system and some variables, but also these variables returned to baseline afterwards. When you get close to essential body fat levels, yeah, then you’re going to have some of these more negative effects of dieting. Of course, for most people to just want to get like six pack lean. That is not a concern. your body is doing okay. There is no permanent negative effects of that on your body. In fact, what you’re doing is very much a good thing. For more information on this, I’ll post an article below with more details about the study we conducted so you can read up on that on my website if you want. Moving on, Lesson two It is incredibly difficult to get below 5% body fat for men or 12% body fat for women. The competitors in this study reached a body fat level of 5.6% for the men and 12.6% for women. Mind you, again, these were national level competitors. These results are very much in line with a recent video I did, where I showed that in a systematic review of bodybuilding studies, they find it is almost impossible to get below 5% body fat for men and 12% body fat for women because that’s bordering on essential body fat levels. Essential body fat levels in men are typically 3 to 5% body fat, and in women there are around 10 to 12% body fat. So whenever you hear someone say like, oh, I was 1% body fat, no, you were not less than free. It is possible to build muscle in energy deficit. It is difficult and it gets more and more difficult the leaner and the more muscular you are. However, in this study, the women actually experienced an increase, a significant increase in lean body mass leading up to the competition. weeks out to the competition in that period, there was an increase, a significant increase as measured by the DEXA scans in lean body mass DEXA scans may be accurate, but as average of the sample, it is very likely that at least some of these women experienced an increase in muscle mass.

And these results are in line with an article I wrote that you can read on my website where I show that it is very possible to build muscle in energy deficit. there is no reason you can’t. It is difficult, though, and it gets more difficult.

Like I said, the more muscular and the leaner you become. But there are now multiple studies that find, even in elite athletes and physique competitors, some people do manage to still achieve positive body recomposition. And especially for the majority of viewers, you’re probably not that advanced. So it should be much more realistic to experience body recomposition, especially for beginners, it should be the norm. Intermediates. In my experience, most of my clients also achieve positive body recomposition more advanced trainees. Then it depends on your genetics, depends on how advanced you really are and how perfectly dialed in everything is with your training, your nutrition, etc. But theoretically it might still be possible, or it is certainly theoretically possible. Whether you’re going to realize it in practice, that depends on the specifics, how dedicated you are, your genetics, etc.. The fourth and final lesson we can take away from this study is that women overall respond just as well as men to dieting and training. In fact, as I said, the women, but not the men, experienced an increase in lean body mass during the study. wrote an article on this, again on my website that shows that women can build just as much muscle as men relative to their starting body mass. Of course, women start off with less total lean body mass. They’re not as tall, they’re not as big. They’re not as muscular when they start lifting.

But given that starting point, the percentage increase that women and men experience in both strength and muscle size seems to be the same. So if a man and a woman both start out with the same body composition, then they can actually most likely achieve the same outcomes. If you want to see what your maximum muscular potential is and I have a calculator for that on my website. And like I said, you can read more details on the article on my website. Was one of the most, popular articles I ever wrote because I think I was the first to really make this compelling argument that men and women can gain the same amount of relative muscle mass.

Right. I hope you find this useful. Some lessons we can learn from the Finns If you like this type of content, I’d be honored if you like and subscribe.