Steroid gut isn’t bloat. It’s much worse – MRI study

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:55 Body composition and organ size

02:01 Growth hormone?

03:48 Conclusion

Transcript:

Elite modern day bodybuilders are often extremely lean, yet they have a huge gut. What is up with that? An obvious explanation is steroids, but if it’s steroids, why didn’t the golden era bodybuilders have bigger guts? Or is it just that they have to eat so much food and protein in particular that their gut extends?

A new study finally investigated this palumboism with gold standard MRI scans on three different populations: an active control group of normies, drug tested natural bodybuilders, and enhanced bodybuilders. The enhanced users, on average, had been on anabolics for 6 years and were currently on an average dosage of androgens of 1 gram per week. A hefty dosage, indeed. 1 gram of androgens per week corresponds to about 10 times the normal dosage of testosterone replacement therapy. Other than having a 10x TRT dosage, the enhanced bodybuilders did not significantly differ from the natural drug tested bodybuilders in terms of training volume, training experience, or protein intakes.

The MRI scans revealed the obvious expected difference in body composition between the groups, with the controls being here, drug tested bodybuilders being significantly more jacked, and the enhanced bodybuilders again being a step up in terms of jackness. In addition to the obvious body composition difference, the MRI scans revealed a shocking difference in organ size. The good news is that the natty bodybuilders did not significantly differ in organ size from the recreational control group.

This means that despite far larger muscles, a lot of extra muscularity, a lot of extra food volume, and a much higher protein intake, averaging 2.5g/kg per day, well in excess of what most people need, they did not have bigger organs. This confirms most research at this point that high protein intakes and training and a good diet are not bad for your organs. They do not harm your kidneys or your liver.

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The shocking finding was that compared to the other groups, the enhanced bodybuilders had massively enlarged organs with effects ranging from 35-52% in the heart, liver, kidneys and spleen. This validates the term steroid gut. However, many people speculated that it’s mostly the growth hormone, not just testosterone or androgens that caused the enlargement in organs. Growth hormone quite literally makes everything in the body grow, ironically, except muscle mass if you’re not also on a lot of other androgens and presumably insulin.

This is why people with very high growth hormone levels develop what’s called acromegaly. And we see these symptoms in bodybuilders as well. You get an enlarged head, enlarged hands… Basically everything grows. Again, except your muscles if you don’t combine it with a lot of androgens.

So growth hormone mechanistically sounds like a plausible explanation. It also fits with the Golden Era bodybuilders not yet having palumboism. Bodybuilders like Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mike Mentzer were also insanely jacked. However, they did not have the palumboism, steroid gut yet, so presumably the rise in steroid guts has coincided with the rise of growth hormone and insulin usage in pro bodybuilding, and this enabled pro bodybuilders to get to the true freaky mass monster stage above the Golden era levels.

However, an alternative explanation is that bodybuilders simply using a lot more gear or using it for longer periods of the year. In support of the explanation that is just total dosage that matters, only 20% of the bodybuilders in the current new study were on growth hormone, or insulin at the time of the study. Now, of course, it could be that they used it before, and it’s the side effects from the previous usage that caused these effects, but my experience is that, especially with growth hormone, most people that are on it, they kind of use it long term and they go to a lower dosage, they don’t completely stop using it. Growth hormone is not used as cyclically as other androgens.

Still, this study cannot completely tell us if it’s just growth hormone, but it strongly suggests that if you just use enough androgens, including testosterone, you also develop steroid gut. Regardless of which drugs exactly cause palumboism, it’s most likely not benign. It’s not just water retention, and it’s also not just abdominal distension from extra food. It’s massively enlarged organs. Steroid gut might just be as bad for you as it looks.

If you like evidence based reviews of popular fitness topics, you might also be interested in this video or my MH Physique App. You can get a two week free trial with the link in the description. See you next time!