Gorging on junk food, binge drinking vodka and downing ten litres of fluids a day are just some of the extreme methods women are using to prepare for bodybuilding competitions.
But a leading Australian doctor has warned that intense techniques are putting the lives of the young women that use them at risk by threatening their long-term health.
Dr David Mountain, the head of emergency medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, said the use of steroids and oestrogen blockers could leave women with kidney problems, liver disease and fertility issues.
He also warned that the extreme dieting and gruelling workout regimes could have an impact on their behaviour and self-esteem.
‘These are all basically (ways of) pushing bodies to extremes to look a particular way,’ he told Perth Now.
‘It drives more dysfunctional behaviour, more problems with body image and I think it’s problematic that we have a whole branch of pseudo-sport that is completely about image and distorted body shape.’
Fitness models and female bodybuilders are believed to have started using a number of controversial techniques in an attempt to ‘bulk up their bodies’ before competitions.
‘Waterloading’ is one extreme practice that is thought to have become popular among competitors.
It involves drinking up to five times the recommended amount of water per day and then dehydrating the night before a competition.
Some even use diuretics to aid this process and make their muscles appear more dramatic.
Disturbing pictures have also emerged of women drinking bottles of wine and spirits while waiting backstage in competition areas.
A number of bodybuilding forums recommend drinking alcohol before competitions – again because it aids dehydration and can make muscles appear more defined.
In addition, some contestants told The Sunday Times they would drop their calorie intake to below 1,000 while exercising more than three hours a day to prepare for competitions.
Courtesy of: Daily Mail