While most people are dieting to trim their post-Christmas bulges, Britain's budding bodybuilders are breathing out again and letting the pounds roll on after trimming surplus fat for the Stars of Tomorrow competition.
At the Bill Stevens Gym in Stratford, east London, the novices spent five nights a week last month preparing for the competition, sponsored by the English Federation of Bodybuilders. Each lost at least a stone for the opportunity to bulge their biceps and thrust their thighs in the time-honoured tradition of every muscleman's hero, Mr Universe.
Ray French explained: "We can't have any surplus fat. We've been on strict 1,000-calorie-a-day diets although we started eating carbohydrate again two days before the show. It fills and rounds the muscles. You can't have them looking flat."
Mr French thrusts a newly-waxed leg in the air. "It shows the muscles off better," said the 5ft 6in body builder with a 47in chest.
In another corner Will Hogan, once a 9st weakling but now a 12st 6lb muscleman, was tanned after sunbed sessions. His bottled tan was used up in the Stars of Tomorrow competition. Muscles look flat when they are lily-white.
The musclemen have no trainers. Their bedroom mirrors tell all: "They say we are vain," Peter Dean said, "but if I didn't take my clothes off and pose in front of the mirror at home, I wouldn't know what I look like. It's self-pride." Mr Dean, a 22-year-old underground track maintenance worker, added: "Why should we feel silly? We would only feel silly if we had no muscles. My friends don't find it strange, they are all bodybuilders too and the women either love the muscles or hate them. There is no in-between.
"I used to have a 35in waist through beer drinking. Now I have a body to be proud of. We are no more vain than women who wear makeup."
It costs £40 week to feed a growing bodybuilder. Breakfast consists of low-fat milk, wholemeal bread, five eggs and coffee. At mid-morning there is a snack of cottage cheese, turkey and liquid liver followed by a lunch of fish salad and a protein drink. Tea brings more cottage cheese, and dinner is chicken and vegetables.
Mr Hogan's wife Helen lamented: "It can be difficult. We have cut down on our social life and the food is a small fortune to buy."
Her husband, a milkman, runs up and down tower block stairs in east London to keep fit. "Obviously we'd all like to win titles. Bodybuilding is 30 per cent weight training and 70 per cent nutrition, it is all about self-pride."