pretty much
taking steroids your protein synthesis doubles or more and your metabolism overall so it may have benefits since you have a hard time shoveling down all the calories/proteins your body can utilize.
doing it as a natty doesn't give any benefit only nets you a calorie surplus making you fat.
I also fell into this as a teenager reading flex. Because they where not transparent about the drugs obviously and how much difference it made.
The Elephant in the Room for (nearly) all bodybuilding mags.
But still, apart from the night-eating the amounts of food also seem to have increased
Perhaps I missed it, but I can't remember Arnold, Franco, Serge Nubret, Zane, Ferrigno to have eaten such extreme amounts of food as many of today's builders.
Fat percentages now are lower due to drugs.
But if I look at the best arms and chest of the seventies or eighties, and compare that to now. I don't see much progress. Glutes now are what 3 x bigger, and so are many guts
The extreme eating and extreme quantities do only seem to work for some muscle groups
Ric Drasin on bodybuilding food in the seventies:
He states GH and insulin as reasons (At the time I was amazed at how much food Rich Piana ate, well into the night, half of his vids seemd to consist of him and his girlfriend eating)
Olivier Richters claims to also get up in the middle of the night and eat. He doesn't look like a GH / Insulin user to me
https://www.instagram.com/thedutchgiant/?hl=nlBut he sells food, so it might be a promotional thing
