Prep Diaries: Being Stage Lean

November 26, 2019

2:00 PM

In this day and age, it seems that everyone’s goal is to lose weight, drop body fat, and get lean. But what happens when you lose too much and end up being too lean?

Let’s Begin

Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as being “too lean” even from a bikini bodybuilder’s perspective. Many judges want competitors to be conditioned and shredded, but they don’t want girls to look unhealthy and sick. They also currently don’t like bikini competitors to look too “hard” (but yet they also can’t be too soft- figure that one out).

Judges opinion aside, there are many negative side effects that result when one is too lean, especially if it’s been for an extended period of time.

How Lean is too Lean?

For women, a healthy body fat percent ranges between 21-35%. Men tend to naturally hold much lower healthy body fat percentages at 10-24% (healthline.com).

The average female bodybuilder usually is under 14% body fat and men tend to get under 6%.

Ten weeks out from my show, I was at a 10% body fat percentage.

"Ten weeks out from my show, I was at a 10% body fat percentage."

So What Happens?

Our bodies need fat to survive. Plain and simple. Essential fat helps our brain function, it affects our nerves, protects our organs, and has a major role in hormone regulation.

Temperature Regulation

The first thing I experienced was being unable to regulate body heat. It started out with me getting cold after every time I ate, which then turned into me being cold CONSTANTLY. I was fortunate to be prepping during the Summer, but I hardly ever turned on my air conditioner.

Brain Function (or lack of)

To be honest, it wasn’t until I put body fat back ON did I realize how much my brain function suffered while I was on prep. I’m not quite sure how I was able to continue working my day job while dieting...

I remember one day a couple weeks out from my show I was in a meeting, and I could see my boss’s mouth moving. I knew she was speaking to me, but I couldn’t hear her words until what seemed like minutes later. And then it took even longer for me to process those words never mind formulate my own thoughts to respond!

Poor Digestion

Because I was eating less, I was naturally using the bathroom less. This may be TMI, but I never had any digestive issues before going on prep, but about three months in, days would go by. My fiber intake was high with all the broccoli and spinach I was eating, but I just was not going. I did end up investing in Bowmar Nutrition’s Colon Cleanse, which was a Godsend. After starting that, I didn’t have any issues the rest of prep.

Taken three days before competition. Extremely hungry, extremely tired.

Lack of Sleep

This is actually a symptom that I personally never experienced (thank goodness), but one that I know is extremely common for those with low body fat. Many competitors are unable to get to sleep nor are they able to stay asleep throughout the night.

This is somewhat ironic as low body fat causes one to be SO tired. All the time. I never had energy and basically lived off of caffeine. The simplest motion would take so much effort that I had to actually plan physical activities into my day.

For example, if I needed to vacuum, I had to make sure I set time aside in the morning when I had the most energy to be able to get it done. And once I finished, guaranteed I would need a nap.

Hormonal Imbalance

I consider this symptom to be one of the most serious particularly for females. At a certain body fat percentage, it is extremely common for women to lose their periods, and for 8 months, I didn’t have mine.

While some females reading this, you may think that was a good thing! But not having a menstrual cycle for a long period of time can lead to infertility. Many female competitors (myself included) need to take this into account, especially if they are planning on starting a family in the somewhat near future.

"...not having a menstrual cycle for a long period of time can lead to infertility."

Hormonal imbalance due to lack of body fat also leads to a major decrease in libido. This could have a domino effect in causing a strain on relationships with significant others as well.

Final Thoughts

I mentioned in an earlier blog how competing wasn’t as glamorous as it can be made out to be. While on the outside, a competitor may look amazing and unreal (like OMG look at her veins!), but keep in mind that they really aren’t healthy at all. They're suffering.

Stage lean is NOT sustainable and overtime creates extreme health complications.

So raise your matcha tea, loves…

...Here’s to Health. Cheers.