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A lot of studies on obesity and your heart, but I cant find anything about BBing and your heart other than AAS use. My question, is a greater BMI not just obesity but just larger BMI a strain on your heart and its not necessarily the AAS use but being abnormally large that makes your heart struggle. I'm kinda thinking its akin to taking a small truck with a 4cylinder engine and putting that engine into a larger truck that should have a v8 engine and driving it as hard as you can requiring it to pull weight that it can barely handle?
I think there is some grey area here to be honest. Most people who are fat tend to choose foods that are bad for cardiovascular health and don't exercise (not just eat too much). More modern studies have shown fat people (not morbidly obese) who do still exercise, and eat relatively healthy, but just eat too much, actually don't tend have much in the way of cardiovascular issues. It seems to be more about a combination of poor food choices and sedentary lifestyle than size alone. This likely holds true for body builders as well. If their diet is clean and they do cardio regularly, taking anabolic out of the equation, I would expect their cardiovascular health to be good. Of course bad genetics can play an impactful role in cardiovascular health as well regardless of how clean you live.
It's not a simple equation.
Is being bigger - be that fat or muscle - harder on the heart? Yes.
But muscle is better than fat.
Throw in exercising (more cardio than weights but still) and that's better.
Not drinking (and deffo not to excess), smoking or eating too much crap which I'd hope most bodybuilders and lifters would be trying to keep to and you're, all in all, better off.
All that said, as per strongman, it's still stress. I will not weigh what I do now when I'm older. There are not many 300lb muscular 80 year olds.
Is being bigger - be that fat or muscle - harder on the heart? Yes.
But muscle is better than fat.
Throw in exercising (more cardio than weights but still) and that's better.
Not drinking (and deffo not to excess), smoking or eating too much crap which I'd hope most bodybuilders and lifters would be trying to keep to and you're, all in all, better off.
All that said, as per strongman, it's still stress. I will not weigh what I do now when I'm older. There are not many 300lb muscular 80 year olds.
steve dallas
New member
Small dogs live longer than big dogs.......still don’t want to be a small dog.
yes of course
you are carrying around more mass all day. and what dallas said above is true even with humans. you don't see many obese senior citizens in their 80's, they are all skinny. you also don't see many who smoke or drink either cause odds are they would have died by now. i can keep going. the point is in bodybuilding you WILL live a shorter life, that is how it is.
if you want my moral belief it is i would rather live to 60 but be healthy and strong. then live to 80 and be weak and sick. plenty of people spend their last years of their life in and out of the hospital and that isn't something i am interested in. however if you have kids and grandkids you probably want to see them grow up and be adults, so it depends on your outlook on life.
you are carrying around more mass all day. and what dallas said above is true even with humans. you don't see many obese senior citizens in their 80's, they are all skinny. you also don't see many who smoke or drink either cause odds are they would have died by now. i can keep going. the point is in bodybuilding you WILL live a shorter life, that is how it is.
if you want my moral belief it is i would rather live to 60 but be healthy and strong. then live to 80 and be weak and sick. plenty of people spend their last years of their life in and out of the hospital and that isn't something i am interested in. however if you have kids and grandkids you probably want to see them grow up and be adults, so it depends on your outlook on life.
Yes, being big will strain your heart and shorten your life span. It's no mystery. It doesn't matter if its fat or muscle. Muscle is actually harder to pump blood to than fat. Granted most bodybuilders have better diets than somebody that's obese, so they will have better overall health, but the heart strain is still there. It can and will be detrimental to your health to be too big for too long. That's a big reason I dont really chase size anymore. I'm about as big as I want to be. You just have to find that balance if you want health and longevity along with being big and strong
