That isn't what I wrote. I said after Tim came along in the 80s., mind you I actually was around at the time and not in grade school or diapers. I know a few pros of that time personally, and all three -Mentzer, Defendis and Richards were massive. None used insulin. Only one used GH -in 88 at his last show.
I'm sorry but visceral fat can't be calibrated when doing a bodyfat percentage. It's the fat that's packed around your internal organs, and not something that can be pinched.
I'm in full agreement with the idea that someone can be ripped and still carry a severe amount of visceral fat in their midsection.
Under normal circumstances, this is extremely unlikely to happen, especially in precontest BB'rs. Fat cells which accumulate around the internal organs are not more resistant to lipolysis than subcutaneous fat cells. In fact, when following the typical BB'ing precontest diet, visceral fat will be lost at a more rapid rate than subcutaneous fat. Recent reserach confirms this.
A recently puclished meta-analysis of 61 different studies confirms that during periods of weight loss, visceral fat is preferantially mobolized in comparison to subcuntaneous fat. This is the body's way of getting rid of the "bad" fat which is responsible for numerous health problems, including, but not limited to, chronic inflammation, increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, and organ stress.
In addition, the type of foods consumed will influence the rate at which fat is both stored and released from visceral fat cells. Generally, the types of food consumed on pre-contest diets work to facillate an enhanced rate of visceral fat loss. In other words, it would be nearly impossible for a pre-contest BB'r in contest shape to be carrying a large amount of visceral fat.
Even in the off-season, most pro BB'rs follow dietary guidelines which are counterproductive, or at least nuetral, for encouraging visceral fat gain. Yes, insulin can and will increase one's propensity for increasing visceral fat storage, but the fact that most pros stay lean in the off-seasn...or at least leaner than the average man...shows that the BB'r is not consuming a large enough amount of excess calories to store a significant amount of bodyfat. The amount of subcutaneous bodyfat stored can often be used as an indicator of visceral fat storage. This is not always the case, as visceral fat can be stored independently of sub-q fat "IF" certain conditions are met, but off-season BB'rs (especially pre-contest BB'rs) almost never meet these conditions to a significant enough degree to result in a disproportionate amount of visceral fat build-up.
The stomach distension experienced by competitive BB'rs is always due to more than one factor, usually several, with insulin use being only one part of the overall drug picture.
Look at Milos Sarcev. He is the poster boy for Insulin use. Even says that training without it is a waste of time lol. And even now at 48 he posted pictures with a tiny waist and V taper.