eli5: How come gorillas are so muscular without working out and on a diet of mostly leaves and fruits?

Question

eli5: How come gorillas are so muscular without working out and on a diet of mostly leaves and fruits?

In: Biology

Answer 1

I’m surprised nobody is talking about myostatin in humans and the lack of it in many animals.

Edit: Search for Wendy the Whippet or Bully Whippet Syndrome for extreme examples of myostatin mutations in animals that normally have myostatin (the Mutation limits or stops it).

Edit2: [Myostatin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myostatin)

>Myostatin (also known as growth differentiation factor 8, abbreviated GDF8) is a myokine, a protein produced and released by myocytes that acts on muscle cells to inhibit muscle cell growth…

>Animals lacking myostatin or animals treated with substances such as follistatin that block the binding of myostatin to its receptor have significantly larger muscles. Thus, reduction of myostatin could potentially benefit the livestock industry, with even a 20 percent reduction in myostatin levels potentially having a large effect on the development of muscles.[21]

Edit 3:
[Wendy the Whippet](https://www.google.com/search?q=Wendy+the+Whippet&oq=Wendy+the&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i60l2.1895j0j4&client=ms-android-motorola-rev2&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)