Participating in a bodybuilding championship requires arduous preparation, with intense weight training, hours of aerobic exercise and restrictive diets. For an athlete who does not use anabolic steroid hormones (AS), this phase can be even more delicate.
Liane Barbosa Cavalcante, 25, has never used this type of ergogenic aid and has been competing for around two years. Since taking the stage for the first time, she has become a professional for two different federations: INBA/PNBA (International Natural Bodybuilding Association/Professional) and WNBF (World Natural Bodybuilding Federation).
In an interview with the column, the dentist and bodybuilder reports that “natural athletes can make even fewer mistakes” than their hormonal counterparts.
At the most extreme moment of her last preparation, Liane, in addition to weight training, needed to do two hours of cardiovascular exercise daily. This with the contribution of approximately 800 calories that his diet at the time contained.
The athlete explains her team’s strategy and shows the entire path taken until she reached the aforementioned diet: “Normally, we cut calories little by little. Generally, we reduce them every four weeks, but it depends on the context […] Weight training is continuous: five times a week. On ‘off’ [“Off season” refere-se à época do ano em que os fisiculturistas não se encontram em preparação]I did half an hour of ‘cardio’ a day and when ‘cutting’ [termo usado para se referir à hora em que os atletas iniciam o déficit calórico] It started, I spent an hour doing it. During this preparation, there came a point where I was doing two hours a day.”
Despite the suffering that extreme calorie deficit causes, not every moment of preparation is like this. At the beginning of 2025, the bodybuilder went through a period that she characterized as a “micro-off”, where she was able to eat larger quantities in order to build muscle mass.
According to the Bikini athlete herself, her body needs an “off season”. When talking about the feedback she received from the referees at the WNBF and the NPC (National Physique Committee), federations for which she competed last season, Liane is direct: “I need to make an ‘off’. At the WNBF, the ‘feedback’ was that I shouldn’t change anything. At the NPC, they told me that there was a lack of volume – which was expected, as I was a natural competitor in a federation that is not tested. But they praised my line a lot.”
For the 2026 season, Liane’s plans are based on competing in at least one of the championships announced last year by Musclecontest, the largest promoter of Brazilian bodybuilding events. According to the company, the NPC calendar will feature four shows tested this year.
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