Episode 004 - Andy Scott – gut health and bodybuilding, gaining muscle, losing fat

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Andy Scott is one of the UK's top amateur bodybuilders. In this episode, we dive into the world of bodybuilding and discuss in detail the psychological processes bodybuilders go through, along with the science of diet and the role the gut biome plays in their health and training performance.

Bodybuilding is the pursuit of aesthetic perfection, with perfection meaning different things to different people. Many of the core principles that are associated with success in bodybuilding can be applied to microbiome improvement and gut health. These include consistency, discipline, eating minimally processed micronutrient-dense food, training muscle groups and experimenting with diets to figure out what works best.

Prioritising gut health is becoming more and more popular in bodybuilding, with top athletes now undertaking elimination diets, taking probiotics and eating more ‘microbiome-friendly foods.

Some of the topics covered in this conversation:

• Top bodybuilders take decades to build their physiques. Consistency, forming habits and discipline were recurring themes associated with success throughout the podcast.
• Bodybuilding has evolved over time, just like other sports, with improvements to techniques, methods, supplements and systems.
• Andy competes within the super heavyweight division (225lbs+) at 3% body fat. To put that into context, the average male is 19/20% body fat and typically abs become visible at 9/10% body fat. Bodybuilders like Andy achieve this through year-round intense training and dieting. There are only a small number of days/weeks in a year where a bodybuilder doesn’t feel full all the time (growth phase) or is hungry all the time (dieting phase).
• To achieve maximum muscle growth, bodybuilders train muscles to failure (when it is not possible to do another rep) with a controlled tempo (a slow eccentric, typically 2-3 seconds, and a fast concentric). This training philosophy can be adopted by anyone wanting to improve their physique and not necessarily only those who want to be a bodybuilder. Andy thinks that it is still possible to build an amazing physique without training to failure, but it would take twice as long.
• In Andy’s opinion, the fastest way to lose fast is a low-carbohydrate diet. Some people recommend a zero-carbohydrate diet. However, to retain muscle, maintaining carbohydrate intake is important. Slowly decreasing calories in a tapered fashion while maintaining intense training is the best way to lose fat and preserve muscle.
• Andy implements elimination diets for himself and his clients with a view to improving gut health and reducing gastric distress. In these diets, Andy removes a food source for 3-5 days, sometimes longer, in parallel with tracking how the person feels. Anecdotally he sees improvements in performance in the gym because of diet modification through elimination diets.
• In terms of foods that typically cause problems, he finds that oats and broccoli can be a problem for his clients. Simple changes like moving the oats to a guaranteed gluten-free source and moving to another vegetable type can have a positive impact.
• Bodybuilders can take up to 20 weeks to get show ready. Towards the end of the show, they lack energy. So much so, that even getting up off a sofa to make a coffee is a challenging task.
• Andy eats 6,500 calories a day from micronutrient-dense, unprocessed food. He prioritises animal sources of protein. Interestingly, Andy is not aware of any top professional bodybuilders being vegan or vegetarian. He does have clients who make good progress on these diets though.
• Andy and James discussed something called ‘if it fits your macros’ which is a diet philosophy underpinned by hitting macronutrient targets through any food/drink sources i.e diets are not fixed/set in terms of food choices. It was agreed that food sources and the quality of food is equally if not more important than simply hitting a calorie/macronutrient target.
• Andy’s advice to those getting started is to start slow and to make small changes that you can stick to every day and consistently e.g walking for 30 minutes each day, building up to walking and then lifting weights. The same can be said for diets.