At the show, Milne checked in at 212 pounds — 18 pounds under his normal weight — after feasting on acres of sweet potatoes and an ocean of tuna fish. The worst side effect? Tuna breath. That, and an overwhelming desire for a really good meal.

Many bodybuilders break the bland diet in a big way on contest day: They pig out on junk food. Milne munched chocolate chip cookies, baby food and cupcakes back stage.

Sugary foods provide quick carbohydrates and raise glycogen levels, which makes muscles look bigger.

"It's a weird sport," said Brumley, who ate spice cake and waffles for breakfast before show time.

By the end of a competition day, the only thing on a bodybuilder's mind is that really good meal.

"I went out to Chili's right afterward and had some steak fajitas," Milne said. "I gogged down on them, man. It was delicious."

Amateur bodybuilders, by and large, are regular people with jobs and families. Working out and eating right is part of their lifestyle. But it does not consume them.

Dave and Jamie Evans are affectionately known as "Ken and Barbie" at the gym where they work out together five or six days a week. Jamie, 35, who competed as bodybuilder a decade ago, persuaded her husband to enter the bodybuilding contest.

Dave Evans, 46, laughed at first but then decided, "I like to break stereotypes." He has one arm.

A water drilling rig chewed off his left arm just above the elbow 19 years ago. It hasn't stopped him from tying his shoes, playing guitar or lifting weights.

Evans rigged a harness for his stump that links to the pulley on a weightlifting machine, allowing him to work the chest and back on both sides of his body. His pecs and lats are remarkably symmetrical, a quality important to judges.

The Qwest customer data technician ended up taking one third and two fourths in three categories in his first contest.

"I was elated," he said. "I wasn't expecting to place at all. I was just doing it for the heck of it."

Dori Townsend works out for mental health as much as physical health.

"When I first started doing this, I did it for vanity. Now I do it for sanity," she said, noting she comes from a family genetically prone to big legs and large butts.

The married 40-year-old mother of two teenagers has neither. She exercises two to four hours a day while working full time for a home health-care firm. She's as lean and muscular as a woman can be without the benefit of testosterone. But "I'm not over the edge."

"Bodybuilding is a lot of vanity," Townsend said, who has six titles to her name. "That's why you have to try to find a balance in a sport that is so shallow."

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