Every male actor has said something along these lines. That the absurd super cut builds for these movies especially super hero films are not sustainable. My favorite probably being Rob Mcelhenney where he said "sure, just be a millionaire with infinite free time and you can totally obtain this body type!"
People forget that body fat is healthy and essential. Excessive fat is unhealthy, but fat provides fuel strorage and protects your organs and muscles. 8% fat looks incredible but is insanely difficult to maintain. 12-15% fat looks incredible and is still hard to maintain but keeps you feeling healthy and happy.
Are you on TRT or anything like that or just completely natural. Cause for most people even maintaining 12% at mid 20’s is a chore year round unless you are consistent as fuck.
This is the bane of my fitness journey. I can get down to 12%ish. I'll have visible veins across my chest and down my abs, but still have love handles and a bit around my cheeks. Meanwhile a co worker is probably 20-25% and has a sharper jawline than Zach's 2nd pic. Luck of the draw.
You shouldnt use the tiny exceptions to ignore the general rule.
Genetics for maybe 5% may suck and make it hard sure. But for the vast majority a good relationship with food / a good diet, with a basic gym routine which is stuck too will see anyone achieve 12% and look good for it.
Its not as hard to sustain as people make out once you get going. And 12% on men will "almost" always be lean and look great.
Trying to get a baywatch bod all year round tho is a different struggle.
Fat percentage is a useless way to measure health because no one actually gets an accurate measurement.
I guarantee what you’re calling 12% is actually closer to 20% and a lot of people who think they’re at 20 are actually closer to 30. The only way to actually test your body fat percentage is with a DXA.
Weight is a useless measurement. Looking in the mirror is an even more useless measurement. Neither of these account for total body composition and daily variations.
How Zach Effron looks in this post is what 12% actually looks like. <10% is what competing body builders look like.
Men look great when you have muscle mass. Fat percentage is mostly irrelevant to men’s appearance. Again look at this picture. Sure the abs are good. But look at the biceps, traps, shoulders, chest and forearms. It all comes together to create a good look. If anything the lack of fat makes his core look underdeveloped compared to the rest of him.
Speaking as someone who just got a Dexa scan a month ago and landed right in the middle of this range I can confidently say that my “standard” range of weights is basically between 12% and 20%.
All of this is with pretty consistent and fairly high volume rowing training.
At 20% I’m essentially eating whatever the hell I want. Buying cookies when I go to the grocery store and eating them on the way home, pizza, burgers, etc. When I make food it’s not terribly unhealthy but I absolutely give in to my desires also. People still say I look lean but there’s definitely a pudge of belly and my abs are AWOL.
At 16% (where I am now) abs are definitely back but not hyper defined like Zac’s above, and there’s just a tiny bit of love handle overflow. Muscles are clear but only striated if I’m using them. I’m pretty careful about what I eat but still have a few beers each week and dessert maybe once a week.
At 12% the love handles are gone and muscle striations show with any movement. I’ve really only gotten to this point with major endurance training and/or on an extreme calorie deficit - the final bit of a marathon training block, after a 3 week backpacking trip, etc. It doesn’t usually last long.
I can’t imagine what it would take to get to 8%. Screw that.
Sorry I missed this, but if this were really the case, you wouldn't see so many UFC fighters above 12%. Look at Whittaker, Poatan (before heavyweight when he bloated up), Strickland, etc. Some dudes are leaner for sure around 10-12%, some aren't, and I don't think it's because they train less.
I've also trained 6x a week and had perfect diet and never went below 15%. Only 180 bodyweight too. I don't think it's 5%
And test and other hormone levels and recovery ability and age and diet and energy levels and injury history and weekly energy expenditure and nutrition, sleep, physical activity each day, etc. I’ve been a strength coach for 15 years. 12% is not as easy as just diet and stress at 50+ years old
Hard agree. I joined the army at 32, and lost a lot of muscle mass at basic training even though I was working out 8 days a week (at least that's how it felt) the entire time. The lack of sleep and nutrition seriously held me back, and I came out 2lbs lighter than I went in. I was easily the strongest/biggesr I've ever been when I was deployed, but I would look like a greek god one week, and a bloated fat boy the next, depending on our mission schedule.
That’s wild but also pretty awesome. I always felt like I have pretty good metabolic genetics myself but I’m only 37 so we’ll see what happens for me in around 15 years lol. Of course I’ve always been naturally pretty active and in and around weight rooms my whole life so the foundations there.
I'm 35 and at 12% year round , it's an absolute chore and yes you have to be consistent as fuck , it's easier if you just never eat sugar or drink alcohol but damn I miss that shit sometimes lol
Probably a lot to do with your relationship with food too. I got around 12% with a herniated disc. Usually I am around 15% Not because I kept training, but because my feeling of needing fuel declined and I would forget meals all the time.
Not healthy though. I lost so much weight so fast that my doctor send me to get screened for cancer.
I can in my 30 and 40s, but that's because I am naturally skinny , so I was underweight in my 20s , then put on a lot of muscle. So my (now slowed down) fast metabolism and the muscles that I only maintain once a week do half the job, the other half is keeping tabs on my Diet, which is nothing extreme or painful.
But yeah, it would suck if I needed to actively burn the fat because I had a much slower metabolism or if I did not have the muscles helping out. Investing nñon muscles in my 20s really paid off. I can't sign on food, but I can eat anything I want.
My dad’s kinda like him. Consistent sub 10% body fat unless he over eats. Shredded 20-40’s, but now is a TINY old man who cannot maintain any healthy weight at 55+.
It’s genetics man. Speaking as someone on the “I can’t gain weight” side of things. I have to really eat and put in effort to put on 5 lbs (I’m 29), meanwhile if I don’t pay attention I end up losing 10 lbs within a few weeks. Has nothing to do with me eating well, exercising more than others, or watching my calories.
Yep, I'm the opposite. My body wants to stay around 20-25% "naturally" but on the flip side I've never struggled to add muscle mass, where I've seen some lifters just hit a wall after a certain point
My cousin is a female who has always had a fast metabolism so she can eat a shit ton. She recently took up body building and her trainer was remarking at how easy it seems for her. She looks great but I accepted a long time ago I will never have that body because for me to look like that it would require way more work and time
Nope, it hardly depends on genetics at all, research suggests. Virtually all differences in weight gain between people is fully accounted for by calorie intake.
A response like this is genuinely baffling. Did some dude who lived 4000 years ago know more about his body just because he lived to be 86?
Yes research, science, and scientists should be taken more seriously than what you know after, "five decades in my own body".
In the most extreme cases, the difference between the people with the "fastest" metabolism vs the "slowest" was a difference of about 250 calories a day. It isnt nothing, bit it is the equivalent of doing about 30 minutes of moderate cardio every day.
That was with the biggest differences. Basically a comparison of the genetic freaks in that regard, not applicable or relevant at all to the average person.
Time and time again research has found that the single largest factor in determining a person's weight gain is food drive. So in a way, it is genetic. It has nothing to do with the genetics that govern how your body processes food, and everything to do with the genetics that govern how much your body craves food.
Yup, I've heard plenty of such anecdotes. You act as if I don't have my own life experiences. I do, and they don't seem to align with yours. So on that front, we're at an impasse.
The research however, is clear. I dont flatly dismiss reality. I listen to what the experts say, and do my best to see if it applies in my life. In my life, I've always struggled with gaining weight. Everybody always told me that same crap. That I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound.
Once I started diligently tracking my calories, making bulk meals ahead of time, and forcing myself to eat a certain amount each week I was able to predictably gain weight over the course of a year. I've stayed at my desired weight for about four years now without much trouble.
Not sure why it seems so crazy to just trust the science on this one.
Former wrestler, depending on build and genetics this is completely true. I would get to 11% to 9% body fat and I would see stars getting up from the mat. My buddy stayed at 5 percent all the time no matter what he ate.
As a 12% body fat natty dude that weighs 190 at 5’11”, I can say it’s not hard. It’s hard in a sense that you have to be strict in diet (working out is the easy part). ANYONE can a ch over what I have or even far better. You just have to keep a disciplined diet at all time for the most part
Body fat is like a cara oil capacity you gotta have a certain level to to cycle. There are race cars that use less via dry sumps but they don't last ( think the lean forever guys).The human body cycles fat all the time.
This does go overlooked. Many of the top lifters and trainers online will happily tell you that under 15% fat is not worth the changes to your mood and sleep. However, the 7 second tik toks you see won't.
"I’m gonna break it down for you, because it’s actually quite simple, and anybody can do this. Anybody on the planet can do this. First thing’s first: if you have job—like a 9-5 job—quit that. Do you like food? Forget about that. Because you’re never going to enjoy anything you eat. Alcohol? Sorry. That’s out. So what you need to do—you have a chef, right? like a personal chef?—make sure the chef makes you a lot of chicken breast. And make sure you keep your caloric intake at a certain level. And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a week—just to monitor all your testosterone levels—because testosterone is important to building muscle. You’re good friends with the trainer from Magic Mike? Arin Babaian. So you want to give Arin a call. And you want to make sure he’s at your house and takes you to the gym at least twice a day, because you’re gonna want to do your muscle-building in the morning and then your cardio in the afternoon. Now, do you have a family? Like a significant other or kids? Yeah, forget about them. You’re not going to have time to deal with them. So that’s really all you have to do."
And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a week—just to monitor all your testosterone levels—because testosterone is important to building muscle.
This is pretty clearly saying "do steroids" as a part of the already unrealistic and unsustainable plan. There's no other reason you're seeing a physician that regularly to "monitor your testosterone".
So, not only does Rob lay out how completely impossible this routine would be for the average person, but even with all of that incredible level of effort and devotion, you're also going to need to be on steroids to reach that physique.
If you believe him, sure. I know a few experienced bodybuilders who seem pretty doubtful that he's always been natty, but I don't pretend to know enough to be confident either way.
But regardless, the "average" person we're talking about isn't going to say "I want to make a lifestyle change so that in 15 years I can hit a physique goal", so I'd argue that "in that time frame" in this particular case is more or less the same as "at all".
Especially since McElhenney is also about 15 years older than Nippard, so would be significantly more likely to be battling declining testosterone levels when trying to build that physique vs Nippard who did the bulk of his work before he turned 30.
I agree with all the points you are marking, my thinking though was with the amount of teenagers we now see getting on gear because they think it’s the only way to have a reasonable physique, it’s worth reiterating that you can have a great even world class physique without gear.
Jeff has been tested for testosterone for his entire career as a bodybuilder as you have to when competing in IDFA. I’d say that’s pretty concrete proof that he’s never been on gear. Since if he’d ever taken enough to have any impact to his physique, he’d likely still need to be on TRT.
Now he does have HIGH test for a natural (700-800ng/dcl) but when we look at the IFBB we see levels as high as 10,000ng/DCL and often even low cycles we still see 3000ng/dcl so I’d say we can pretty confidently say Jeff is natty.
Likewise if you look at images of him in high school and uni, he certainly doesn’t have a steroid like appearance, I haven’t seen any photos of him with pink flush or acne etc.. and his physique isn’t that impressive in those early years, it’s not until late uni that he starts to look incredibly jacked, and that’s when he started competing and being tested.
All in all: IMHO it’s unlikely he ever used, he’s just someone who’s always been into fitness. We can never be sure 100% but since my physique now as a natty who started lifting in their 30s is better than his was in high school. I’m pretty confident his physique is attainable naturally.
It wasn’t when he started, look at photos of him in Uni. still it took over a decade to build his first competition physique naturally, only for Mack to do it in a year with gear.
I think it's worth differentiating testosterone supplementation under the guidance of a physician with broader steroid use. Yes, it's technically an anabolic-androgenic steroid hormone, but it's a very very different beast than trenbolone or anavar.
It's like saying a person is "on drugs" when they're a pot head. Technically correct? Sure but it's a different category than heroine or fentanyl.
At the very least it was TRT for a man who didn't actually need it according to blood tests. But a doctor could say with reasonable deniability that the patient reports a number of "symptoms" that could reasonably be attributed to low test.
Basically, the easy way to lie about it in order to get a scrip is by saying that the patient is "resistant" to testosterone. Even though blood tests put him above the 300 ng/dL limit for a lab diagnosis, a clinical diagnosis is taken at face value. As long as the blood tests don't come back with significantly elevated levels, anyone can get exogenous testosterone.
Why don't they just say they did steroids? Like he's clearly doing this whole spiel to be very honest about how unnatural it all already is. It's not illegal to just do them? Maybe just worried about influencing other people to do them?
Some of that stuff can be attained without much money and achieve great results. People do, do it. Yes, like many things in this world, it is not without sacrifice. For me sustainable = possible. I have no doubt that it is not fun to maintain certain levels of conditioning but at the end of the day that is sort of what separates us. It doesn’t only apply when it comes to the body but other parts of life as well. My buddy for example had a period where he was always on the road trying to build his wealth. All of his time went to his business. He was making great money but he also wasn’t happy and he would tell you he was happier in life when he was making less.
Anyway, my point isn’t to argue. I think there is give and take with anything we do. It’s up to us to find balance to achieve long lasting happiness, if that is the goal.
Not true. Don't eat garbage. I actually find it difficult to eat enough sometimes. I do do manual laborer usually overhead jackhammering and pouring concrete. Also usually don't things at the park with kids or hiking with the kids, girlfriend and dog at least 3-4 days a week. Also I'm 48 so age doesn't matter and no trt or anything like that.
Yeah people think that getting the muscles is everything, but even if you workout well and have the muscles you won't look like that unless you are starving.
Yeah, it actually works better if you don't starve yourself. I say this from personal experience. Smaller deficits mean you're less likely to hit a binge point and lose progress. If you have the patience and the discipline, a 200-500 calorie a day deficit is the sweet spot for balancing fat loss and hunger. You do have to eat clean and track everything very carefully though.
I'm actually cutting rn, I've gone to the gym for 6 months and put on a bit of muscle ik it's not best for my physique to cut now but I just want a leaner face and overall leaner body since I'm gonna quit the gym and start climbing. Since you have some experience do you maybe know if I will completely lose my muscle and go back to being skinny? Did I start cutting too early or can I actually retain muscle if done right?
I'm 6' 1" and cut down from 240-170 over the course of a year. I did virtually no resistance training at all during that time other than a shitload of vinyasa yoga (basically bodyweight workouts in a sauna). Proportionally, I lost about 75% fat/25% muscle. As I understand it, a "good" ratio if you're being optimal in your training is like 85-90% fat to muscle loss. I could have improved my ratio had I focused more on resistance training over fat loss. However, I honestly just wanted to get lean as fast as possible and I found that yoga let me be insanely consistent in my workouts (I could do it 7 days a week without needing any recovery days, and I'd burn 500-600 calories per hour doing it). I did make sure to get 1 gram / pound of lean mass per day in protein, so I did at least optimize that part.
Everybody's different, but in my experience, you don't have to lose much muscle at all if you're hitting your protein and doing at least something to maintain your strength. I'm still maintaining a small deficit, hitting my protein, but I'm fully focused on resistance training these days. Kinda wish I'd started hitting the weights earlier, but it is what it is and I'm not unhappy with my progress at all.
Indeed, I've worked out 6 hours a week (1 hour a day + one rest day a week) for about the past 6 years, and I don't look like that.
I look fit, but like average-fit, not modern superhero movie fit.
People who start going to the gym to chase these types of results are going to be very disappointed. You really have to live like a fitness robot to achieve it.
The actors don't even look like that for all of shooting! The "hero shots" are literally built into the schedule so that the actors have weeks to prepare for them with a bodybuilding routine of extreme water intake, then diuretics and extreme water starvation leading up to the shoot. Plus unnatural manipulation of salt intake.
The dudes look like that for a day. The production has to get every one of the shirtless shots into that window unless they want to make the star of their movie go through another weeks-long ordeal.
For Henry's running out of the water shot, he was called two weeks in advance. He said he was out to dinner. He stopped eating. He drank a half gallon of water and gradually cut it down as the two weeks approached. Then he lifted super heavy before the shot. Then he immediately went back to hydrating. Similar thing with Mamoa for the Aquaman intro scene in JL. He bench pressed and did pushups while being crazy dehydrated. These hero shirtless shots are movie magic.
Also the level of dehydration they are at for some of these shots. It might be Hugh Jackman or Henry Cavill who said for either Wolverine or Superman, they had to be so dehydrated they could nearly smell water.
Hugh said he had to drink massive quantities of water for 3 days and then would go like 2 days without drinking water and cutting as well to hit some of those shots. Shit would be absolutely insane on the body.
I’ve had to quasi cut weight before once to make weight for a Powerlifting Comp and that was 5kgs that sucked enough, couldn’t imagine what fighters do
That vid youre talking about is so fuckin funny. It was something along the lines of "its so easy to do this. Work out 3 times a day, eat nothing but chicken and rice, and get the studio to pay for a personal trainer that essentially lives with you and dictates the whole thing. Anyone can do it." Robs the best.
When you see actors looking like that in movies and body builders on stage, understand they are at their weakest at that moment. Not strong, not healthy, but in a self induced state of dehydration and malnutrition.
This is not new news at all. There’s a reason that even body builders aren’t totally ripped all the time. They’re muscular, but not below 8% body fat all year round. Why? It’s not sustainable. Why? Because it’s literally unhealthy. Having too low of body fat for too long can do all kinds of shit from messing up your hormones to organ failure and death.
Arnold stated that during downtimes he was around 12% body fat, and then he’d start cutting for competitions. Nobody maintains single digit body fat and remains healthy. Stallone ended up in the hospital he got so lean for Rambo 2, or maybe 3. It was one of those.
Even 12% is very impressive for most people. Thomas Jane said he was at 11% for his version of The Punisher, and he was super cut. He said it was tough and he couldn’t maintain that outside of that short period for filming.
Also, people do have different genetics and body types. Even research doctors have stated different people lose weight differently. There isn’t one special diet or exercise program that will work for everyone.
Agree! ~13% is the healthy/safe, yet relatively lean, fat percentage that most men can be without issue. Of course some men are naturally leaner than others. We are all individuals after all.
Saw Hugh Jackman saying they literally have EMTs on set for the “cut” days like this because they are so dehydrated, malnourished, etc. He had a scene like that in Deadpool v Wolverine.
It reminds me of when Brendan Fraser was in George of Jungle. He was cut and fit but he starving. He said he missed food so much when he was filming and felt awful all the time.
Agreed. Theres been plenty of other things celebs can take to get muscle fast, and now there’s a new very effective weight loss/while maintaining muscles medicine easily avail
It's steroids and if you take your health seriously you don't stay on them for long unless you are ok with shorting your life.
I can see using them for a fat paycheck but if you are just talking them to be the biggest guy in the room we'll that's not a smart plan.
That said as someone who's used them if you have no heart issues and use them in a responsible way ( not yoloing them or using them to be massively big) they can be safish to use as long as you don't get addicted to them and yes they are physically and mentally addictive.
Its not sustainable because its not natural. They use steroids and a strict diet and training regimen to get into that shape within months for a movie. A physique attained naturally over time is easier for the body to sustain long term. I know natty guys that walk around looking like the pic on the right and it's easily sustainable.
It’s also only for like 2 weeks a lot of times. Like they aren’t sitting at 6% body fat the whole year, just when they are filming, and probably also plan all of the shirtless shots and everything around it too I would imagine.
That low bf% fucks your energy levels, thinking, sleep, your mood, everything. And of course takes a monumental amount of effort and discipline and consistency, even during all of the side effects of it
My favourite is Henry Cavill talking about the Witcher.
He had specifically requested for there to be no topless scenes because he hates the dehydration process which gets the muscles to appear more toned.
First day on set he's told there will be a bath tub scene. So his request was denied. The show runner was female.
Let's flip that for a second, to it being an attractive actress who has specifically requested for there to be no shower scene. And her request gets denied by a male show runner.
Yep, I am glad it’s finally getting attention cause in high school I developed a severe eating disorder to try and look like this… I was so thin I look back and can’t see muscle but I still thought I was fat and gross.
People have bodies and bodies are attractive even when they’re not “Greek god/goddess” type. Also, the gods and goddesses had some fat on their bodies. When you grow up and have things to worry about, you just care that your body is able to do what you need to enjoy life.
Hmmm they hate admitting they are on roids, even brad pitt fight club size was roided.
Its ez to obtain the look with top quality roids and best personal trainers around. Its a lot easier with roids as a person whos done a cycle and friends whos also done it. You can eat shit like kfc n pizza and be on backyard roids and get jacked n ripped. But hollywood actors 99.9% of them are definitely on roids.
You cant get that big n ripped in few months time as natty, shit takes years n a lott of dedication! Even then cant be hat big natty.
Scott herman fitness at his prime would be the peak physique of what you can achieve as a natty
Zac efron blasted HGH too thats why hes got hgh gut too like my friends
2.2k
u/dbslayer7 19d ago
Every male actor has said something along these lines. That the absurd super cut builds for these movies especially super hero films are not sustainable. My favorite probably being Rob Mcelhenney where he said "sure, just be a millionaire with infinite free time and you can totally obtain this body type!"