Ever wonder the insanely ripped or jack guys who walk around your gym and wonder if it possible to get that muscular? Sure it may be steroids, or it may be years of hard work, great diets, and amazing genetics. How can you tell? There is a pretty accurate assessment you can do of someone called the fat free muscle index test. Basically you take someone’s weight, height, and body fat and insert it into this calculator. This will spit out a # FFMI ratio.
Here is the scale below:
19 and under: Out of shape and doesn’t work out at all - do you even lift bro???!
19: Average male
19 – 22: People can can tell you work out and you look fit
22 – 23: You are a great natural bodybuilder and have been training very hard for years.
24 – 26: The “Cross-over” realm, the best of the best genetics, exercise programs, and rigorous diet. Very rare but possible. This is 50-50 if you are "natty" or not.
26 and over: Very unnatural and statistically not possible. 99% chance they took steroids.
These are all guidelines to benchmark certain fitness model and bodybuilder stats! Let’s take a look at certain figures based on their claimed height, weight, and bodyfat. I took conservative estimates not to over inflate their score. Then let's determine if they are indeed natural or not! This test and research only applies to men.
First one on the list me :):
6 feet tall, 183 pounds, 9% bodyfat. FFMI 22.6:
So I am definitely natural and look good for a natural bodybuilder!
Next…
Christian Guzman –
6 feet tall 163 pounds, 6.3% bodyfat, FFMI: 21.3.
You can tell he is most likely natural by the scale. Also, for his size and stature he is very cut but has a reasonable amount of muscle at this bodyfat.
The “Arnold” Schwarzenegger!
6 foot 2, 235 pounds, 28.7 FFMI:
With an FFMI greatly exceeding 26, Arnold is blatantly on steroids. Arnold definitely took steroids around the time of this photo and even admitted to doing so. This just goes to show to get this big sizeable look, one would have to be on synthetic hormones.
Simeon Panda:
6 foot, 220 lbs , 5% bodyfat. FFMI of 28.0.
This guy maintains large muscle mass and single digit bodyfat year round – almost impossible to maintain naturally. This guy has to keep up this weight for his fitness sponsorships and magazine. With an FFMI over 26, no way in hell he is natural, although he never really claimed to be! So that's okay.
Jeff Seid:
6 foot, 190 lbs, 6% bodyfat: FFMI of 24.6
This is 50-50. Jeff could be unnatural, but it would be very believable that he is a natural bodybuilder because Jeff has fantastic genetics (great muscle symmetry, narrow waist, wide shoulders), has been training for 10 years, and has posted and show cased his strict diet in many of his videos. Additionally, a lot of his pictures are in the perfect lightening, muscle pump, and good camera angles, he doesn't appear as big in real life according to many verifiable sources.
So there you have it. My own personal example as well as 4 well known fitness models within the bodybuilding community. This FFMI is a very accurate benchmark for determining if someone is natural or is taking some form of steroids, but is not 100% accurate. Go ahead and test yourself or one of your famous athletes and see what they come out to be! Have fun with this! Thanks :)
Click the link for the FFMI Calculator: https://www.calculators.org/health/ffmi.php
Awesome pictures pal! Your conservative estimates was accurate and fair enough without over inflating their scores. ...let's determine if they are indeed natural or not What a great hardwork they've put up and I love your physique and FFMI result wished I could have something similar but impossible.cheers
Thank you I tried to be conservative. Great comment sir, bravo. Upvoted.
👍
U r doing good buddy..! 💪
u only have 9% fat, thts really cool..!👌
keep it up..!
~Greetings from Tennis Girl 🎾🎾
Yeah! I try to stay cut! It's easier for a guy. Thanks :)
hehehe... :p
Wow, 9% BF that is super impressive! How do you figure out your FFMI and what did you use to calc your body fat %
Thanks! You use that calculator with the link to figure it out. The last time I got a physical done, they had me hold a device that sends electrical pulses through your body and it told me how much bodyfat I had.
my scale does BF not sure how accurate it is tho. According to your calculator I am FFMI 18 :/ My BF% must be wrong, cause if I were to lose 7lbs I would be classified as underweight. Maybe measuring with Calipers would be the most accurate body fat measurement to trust.
Sorry. But as I disclosed in this article. The scale is used only for men. There is probably another scale for women out there, so you're probably not underweight! Don't feel bad!
Oh I see, I missed the part about being for men. Thanks!
Nice break down of all of the different bodybuilders. You can def tell who is natty and who isn't. Although being natural is obviously the better route even the guys on roids have to work super hard to look the way they do. I've met women and men at the gym that just told me straight up that they do roids, but have shown no results. At least you are keeping it natty!
Thanks for the reply, yes being natty is worth it in the long run. That's crazy you meet so many people at your gym that take stuff!
Yeah I thought I was in bazaro land. Like what but people are very self conscious about there body’s. Have you seen true life mtvs I take steroids. It’s really old but the guy wanted bigger calves and he would do anything to get them. So he found steroids online lol started taking them and started to get suicidal because it obviously messes with your hormones. But he got a bad batch and wanted to kill himself. If you haven’t seen it check it out it’s probably on YouTube.
You perfectly shaped your body.....I can only dream of it. lol
Thanks!
Do u take steroids? 😛
Lol no. If I did I would be a lot bigger. Steroids are super bad for your heart and organs - they decrease longevity. They also make you grow acne, your skin gets gross and red, and your hair falls out!
Yeah i've read multiple articles about that when i was workin out. I never take any supplements either. I only ate proper foods for diet. I did it all naturally. You did a good job. Keep it up. I'm planning to do workout with my daughter when she could walk already. Cheers!
@jfitmisc, i think to have a body like you we should control our food system and wok hard, you perfectly shaped your body bravoooo
I followed you! I'm excited to see some of your fitness posts. Thanks man I workout and diet hard. I'll post more of it on here!