I missed this at first. You might be right. The gut is a bit too big even for him.
But then this would have shown symptoms for a long time previous, doctors correct me if I'm wrong. And you'd assume he actually does do very regular health check-ups. If he doesn't it's only because he actually wants to die for the Olympia.
The reason I suspected heart failure is there is no way to verify heart failure before it's too late as the symptoms will be shortness of breath, fatigue and edema which isn't uncommon in hardcore bodybuilding. The only way to verify heart failure is an echocardiogram/electrocardiogram, to measure ejection fraction and heart strength. There are blood tests to show heart issues but heart failure is not noticeable until end stages when the heart is so weak that it can't remove blood and fluid anymore, so you just bloat up like a balloon and can barely breathe.
Given he was just weeks away, heart failure seems the one thing that could cause THAT much edema rapidly. That's not a couple cheat meals.
The other could be kidney failure, but he and his team should have been monitoring creatinine and other kidney blood markers to have an idea. Heart failure is different and normal docs won't order echo/electro cardiograms for 29/30 year old guys as it's not protocol. Pro bodybuilders should be getting an echocardiogram, electro, and even an angiogram once a year. But it's hard to get insurance to cover it for a guy in his 20s so its thousands of dollars. There need to be doctors who specifically treat pro bodybuilders and will look at these possibilities.
Like when Dallas McCarver was gasping for air onstage, no one did an echo. He likely died of heart failure, as his autopsy just said the heart stopped, it was not a heart attack. He felt no pain, just couldn't breathe.
Only good news is that while heart failure usually has no cure, it CAN be reversible and ejection fraction restored IF it was secondary to the bodybuilding lifestyle but to risk it again would be very dangerous.
I genuinely hope it's nothing serious and I'm wrong