Eli5: I recently realized fat is stored energy. If thats the case, then how do bodybuilders manage if they’ve got a lot of muscle and hardly any fat.

Question

Eli5: I recently realized fat is stored energy. If thats the case, then how do bodybuilders manage if they’ve got a lot of muscle and hardly any fat.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Manage to… what? Continue living? I assume so.

Fat is stored energy that is tapped *when you have no readily available energy*. If you eat regularly, your body defaults to what it can get from that food and burns fat when it needs additional energy.

Bodybuilders are not completely fat-free, either — they just push body fat levels down to single-digits through harsh dieting prior to competition, and tend to maintain higher levels (though still leaner than average) when training/living otherwise.

You are onto something, though. Having too *little* body fat is quite bad for you. The extreme lows that bodybuilders pursue can be dangerous, damaging organs at low enough fat percentages.