• Literature often overemphasises the importance of both Protein and carbohydrates for strength and physique athletes whilst also undermining the importance of fats within these athlete's diets.

• It is evident that dietary fats influence anabolic hormones concentrations (72) which is of interest in bodybuilding.

The role of dietary fats

• It is evident within the literature that depending on our daily fat intake, this will effect specific hormones response, specifically testosterone.

• For example, a study by demonstrated that when Fat intake was lowered from 40% to 20% of our daily calorie intake, testosterone levels dropped significantly (73).

• However, often a reduction in testosterone levels are not correlated with a reduction in lean body mass and is well maintained during a higher carbohydrate, lower fat approach (60)., the importance of health must be taken into consideration as the irregularities within hormones levels can effect the individuals physical and mental health when low fat intake is paired with intense training (74).

• In order to mitigate these effects, ensuring that saturated fat consumption is adequate is shown to help prevent further decrease in testosterone levels (75).

Daily fat intake

• Recommendations for strength and physique athletes to obtain and increase performance are to consume 20%-30% of their caloric intake from fats (76) .

Example: 3000kcals a day would equate to 67g of fat (3000x0.2=600/9= 67g)

• however during a caloric restricted phase, particularly during the closing weeks of a competition prep it may not be feasible to have this as high in order to maintain muscle mass and performance through adequate protein and carbohydrate consumption (70).

• Thus, specifically for competition preparation, a fat intake of 15%-20% will be more approiate to ensure protein and carbohydrate intake is adequate when overall calories are low (75).

Example: 2000kcals a day would equate to 33g (2000x0.15=300/9+33g)