Many professional bodybuilders make the rounds on popular fitness podcasts, where the inevitable questions about their diet come up. To the dismay of many fans, the details about their diets are sparse.
However, a recent study went into detail about a Mr. Olympia-level bodybuilder’s offseason and prep diet. If you are able to qualify for the Mr. Olympia competition, you are among the best in the world, no matter where you end up placing. While an average gym rat would never follow this routine, it’s interesting to see what the top-level competitors do.
The daily offseason/bulking diet is as follows:
The daily prep diet is as follows:
Even when dieting, the sheer volume of food is still large. If you’re like me, you probably can’t imagine cutting on over 3,000 calories per day.
The biggest change, from a macronutrient perspective, is in his carbohydrate intake. Going from 850g to 320g is a 62% decrease. It’s not surprising though; when you cut calories, the majority is going to come from carbohydrates, due to the essential nature of protein and fats.
As expected, his protein remained the same, since maintaining muscle is paramount during a cutting phase for a pro bodybuilder.
The researchers measured muscle thickness and quality throughout the study. He lost 6.4kg of body weight during the diet, mainly through fat-free mass (muscle, water, and glycogen). While this may sound strange, he was already quite lean going into the dieting phase.
Among the 9 muscles measured, all of them shrank from a muscle thickness perspective. The biggest drops were in the upper traps and calves. Muscle quality/density dropped as well, particularly in the hamstrings and biceps.
This isn’t unusual, but it goes to show how hard it is to maintain muscle size and quality, even for an Olympia-level bodybuilder with the best resources. This study is a reminder that even genetic outliers with elite coaching, dialed-in nutrition, and decades of training experience aren’t immune to the tradeoffs of competition prep. So the next time you see a pro bodybuilder looking their absolute best under the lights, know that what you’re seeing isn’t necessarily their “best” muscle in a physiological sense. It’s the result of a calculated trade-off, made just in time for the judges to see it.
This story was originally published by Men’s Fitness on Jun 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men’s Fitness as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
