FEMALE BODYBUILDING: The real effects of competition dieting:

Most saw a 35 to 50 percent decrease of fat mass. Yeah, they got ripped. Muscle size was either maintained or only slightly decreased. Weight training plus a higher protein diet allowed them to keep all or most of their muscle, the researchers concluded.

That’s all good, but their hormonal systems were wrecked. “Serum concentrations of leptin, T3, testosterone, and estradiol decreased,” researchers noted. Menstrual irregularities were also common.

Several years ago my trainer did a bodybuilding competition (I forget if she was competing in the “fitness” class or the “bikini” class, but both are far more rigorous than the full-on Ms. Olympia was a couple of decades ago). She won both the Novice category and, impressively, her weight class. But she didn’t feel right for six months afterward.

Bodybuilding, both male and female, has mutated to the point where it’s not about looking, or being, healthy. Some of that is the influence of steroids, but some of it is basically just mission creep.

Related: The Death of Women’s Bodybuilding. “When Corey Everson was Ms. Olympia from 1984 to 1989, the contest was often held in Madison Square Garden in front of a sellout crowd of screaming fans. Thirty years later and it’s a sideshow at the Olympia expo, or at least it used to be.”