Six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates was famous for arriving on stage bigger and leaner than anyone else. In this clip from his first London Real interview, recorded in January 2013, Brian Rose asks him what it actually took: how contests are judged, how lean he got, and what he ate.
It’s a candid five minutes, including one of the stranger side effects of extreme leanness you’ll hear about.
▶ Watch the full episode: Dorian Yates – Into The Shadow (Redux)
How bodybuilding is judged
Brian asks whether the best man always wins. Yates says “best” is a matter of opinion, because judging is subjective. Seven judges score each athlete, the highest and lowest scores are removed, and the remaining five count. The criteria, he explains, are muscle mass, proportion, and contest condition, which means extremely low body fat.
Around 3% body fat
How low? Yates says there was no truly accurate way to measure it at the time. He used skinfold calipers, which he found stopped reading well below a certain level. His best guess is that he got down to around 3%.
He tells a striking story from early in his professional career. Backstage, his feet hurt so much he was limping, and other athletes asked if he was cramping or dehydrated. Only later, looking at an anatomy book, did he realise why: the fat pads that cushion the heel and the ball of the foot had been depleted.
A temporary peak
When Brian says that sounds dangerously low, Yates agrees it is not a healthy level to maintain. It’s a peak for one day, he explains, reached after 12 to 14 weeks of specific dieting and training, and it doesn’t last. Within a week of a contest, most competitors have regained 10 to 15 pounds.
Food fantasies
His favourite post-contest meal was nothing exotic: a good steak with fries, and some ice cream. But dieting, he says, plays tricks on the mind. He used to fantasise about strange foods he never normally ate, especially spicy, fatty things his body was missing. Once he woke up in a panic after dreaming he had eaten a load of sausages, even though there were none in the house.
Sleep suffered too. When blood sugar drops, he says, the body wakes you up to eat, so contest prep meant broken sleep.
What he ate
Brian asks about his diet in the final weeks. Yates puts it in context: he competed at around 260 to 270 pounds, so even his contest diet was about 4,000 calories a day, down from 6,000 to 7,000 in the off-season. He aimed to lose two or three pounds a week over about 12 weeks.
The food itself was simple: lean proteins such as egg whites, chicken breast, protein shakes and some lean beef; fairly low fat; carbohydrates from oatmeal and brown rice; lots of vegetables like broccoli and spinach; and a little fruit.
What to take from it
The basic structure of Yates’s diet, lean protein, vegetables and slow carbohydrates, with a gradual calorie reduction, is still standard advice. The extreme part, he is clear, was only ever meant to last a day.
This clip describes Dorian Yates’s competition preparation and is not medical or dietary advice. Extremely low body fat is not safe to maintain.
Who is Dorian Yates?
Dorian Yates is a British former professional bodybuilder from Birmingham who won Mr. Olympia six times in a row, from 1992 to 1997. Known as “The Shadow”, he was famous for brief, extremely intense training sessions, and has since written and spoken widely about training, health and spirituality.
In his full 2013 London Real episode, he talks with Brian Rose about his training methods, his steroid use, life after competition, and his views on psychedelics and cannabis. You can also watch another clip from the same interview: Dorian Yates – Steroid Side Effects.
See everything Dorian Yates has done with London Real on his guest page: Dorian Yates on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Dorian Yates – Bodybuilding Diet: 3% Body Fat, Contest Prep And Food Dreams
0:08 Brian Rose: If you’ve got 27 guys on stage, will the best guy ultimately win, or at least place in the top three?
0:13 Dorian Yates: Well, who is the best guy? It’s a matter of opinion, because it’s subjective. You have seven people judging, and they’ll have seven scores, and they eliminate the highest and the lowest, so you end up with five scores from five people. And we have criteria for the judging process. It’s bodybuilding, so obviously you’re looking for muscle mass, but the muscle mass should be proportionately distributed. And of course, contest condition in bodybuilding means very low body fat. Extremely low body fat.
0:55 Brian Rose: What kind of percentages are we talking?
0:57 Dorian Yates: I’m not sure there’s really an accurate way to measure body fat. I think underwater weighing is probably the most accurate, but I never had access to that. We used skinfold calipers. I found that once you get below a certain level, they don’t read that well anyway. And ultimately you’ve got judges and a crowd looking at you on stage, and they can’t measure your body fat. But I would guess my body fat was getting down to around 3%. It was super low.
1:28 Dorian Yates: I remember a couple of contests when I was a professional at first, walking around backstage, and backstage is a wooden floor like this. My feet were really hurting me and I was limping, and people were like, “Are you OK, dude? Are you cramping up? Dehydrated?” I was like, no, my f*cking feet are killing me. I couldn’t understand why until I looked in an anatomy book and saw there’s a fat pad under the heel and under the ball of the foot, a cushioning, and I guess my body fat was so low that this pad of fat on my feet was actually getting depleted.
2:06 Brian Rose: How insane is that? Those are dangerously low levels, aren’t they?
2:10 Dorian Yates: Yeah, but it’s a temporary thing. You’re not trying to maintain that for any period of time; that definitely wouldn’t be healthy. You’re peaking for a contest. It probably takes 12 or 14 weeks of specific dieting and training to get your body fat down to that level, and trust me, it doesn’t stay that low for long. A week after the contest, most guys have gone up 10, 15 pounds, easily.
2:34 Brian Rose: What was the one meal you looked forward to most at the end of a contest?
2:40 Dorian Yates: It was nothing exotic. It was usually a really good steak. Most of the contests were in the States, so you could always find a good steak there. Good basic steak and fries and a good ice cream, stuff like that. But your mind plays tricks on you. I used to fantasise about all kinds of strange food I never really ate, and even when I finished my diet, I didn’t want it. I guess because your dietary fat intake is so low, you start craving spicy, fatty foods.
3:18 Dorian Yates: And I used to have dreams. I remember waking up in a panic in the middle of the night because I’d dreamed I’d gone downstairs and eaten a load of sausages. I thought, no, I didn’t really, did I? It was impossible; I didn’t have sausages in the house. That’s the kind of trick your mind plays on you. Night time is very tough when you’re dieting for a bodybuilding contest, because it’s hard to sleep properly. If your blood sugar drops below a certain level, it’s like an alarm system: wake up, you’ve got to eat. So it’s broken sleep.
3:54 Brian Rose: What’s your diet like when you’re cutting, in those last four weeks?
3:59 Dorian Yates: Keep in mind that when I was competing I was around 260, 270 pounds, so my contest diet was probably more calories than I’d eat on a daily basis now. We’re talking about 4,000 calories, but in the off-season I’d be on six or 7,000 calories, so it’s quite a drop, done gradually. You carry massive amounts of muscle tissue and you’re working out, so there’s a lot of demand on your body. I’d generally try to lose two or three pounds a week over about 12 weeks.
4:41 Dorian Yates: A typical diet was mainly lean proteins: egg whites, chicken breast, protein shakes, maybe some lean beef. Those were the protein sources. The fats were fairly low. Some carbohydrates from oatmeal, brown rice, and a lot of vegetables, obviously, broccoli, spinach, things like that, and a little bit of fruit, but not too much.
