• Sadew Weerasinghe’s Gold medal-winning bodybuilding journey

In today’s image-saturated, goal-driven world, fitness means different things to different people. For some, it’s about strength and stamina; for others, it’s about aesthetics, health, or mental clarity. And for some, it’s about physical transformation. Among the many paths people take towards physical transformation, few are as demanding – or as misunderstood – as bodybuilding.

Last month, Sadew Weerasinghe won a Gold medal at the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation (WNBF) Gulf Amateur Championship in Dubai in the Sports Model category for the 65-75 kg weight class. 

Apart from being a Lankan making a mark for himself and his country internationally, Sadew’s Gold medal was extraordinary for another reason – he was a first-time competitor who, only eight months prior, had weighed 106 kg and had never imagined himself stepping onto a bodybuilding stage.

Fresh off his win, The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with Sadew for a chat on what it was like being part of an international bodybuilding competition, and also about what bodybuilding actually is and what it takes to be a bodybuilder. 

‘I wasn’t aiming to win, just to show up’

Sadew explained that his journey into bodybuilding didn’t begin with any expectation of victory. “Honestly, I just wanted to lose fat and feel better in my body,” he said. 

A former rugby player and team Captain for Ananda College back in 2017, Sadew had always been active, but the years after school had taken their toll. “I gained a lot of weight. I was tired of being overweight, tired of feeling like I was missing out,” he added. 

In early 2024, he reached out to fitness coach Yohan Seth with the simple goal of fat loss. “We started a 16-week programme. After just two months, my body had already changed a lot,” he recalled. Encouraged by his progress – and by friends who saw his potential – Sadew decided to take things further. “People started saying, ‘You should go on stage.’ That’s when I began to think about competing.”

After completing his initial fat loss programme, he began training with Wild Fitness for formal bodybuilding competition prep. It was his first experience of the sport, and it pushed him further than he had anticipated.

Examining bodybuilding

Bodybuilding is often misunderstood. “People confuse it with weightlifting,” Sadew explained. “Weightlifting is about lifting heavy objects and setting records. Bodybuilding is about how your body looks – muscle definition, balance, and symmetry.”

For bodybuilders, and for competitions like the WNBF, bodybuilding is a sport where you train and diet to shape your body to look as lean, muscular, and defined as possible, and then showcase that on stage through posing and presentation. It’s less about lifting heavy weights and more about extreme discipline and visual transformation. 

The WNBF Gulf Amateur Championship Sadew entered was a natural bodybuilding event, meaning participants were not allowed to use steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. “They do full checks – blood tests, screenings – to make sure you’re natural. Only once you pass can you compete.”

What mostly sets bodybuilding apart from the conventional understanding of weightlifting is that bodybuilding isn’t simply about building muscle; it’s about refining the body to display muscularity and proportion under stage lights. “That’s why cardio, diet, and posing are just as important as weight training,” he said. “It’s not just about how strong you are; it’s about how well you have conditioned your physique.”

On stage, competitors performed choreographed posing routines and then responded to mandatory pose instructions in front of a panel of judges in a manner somewhat similar to a pageant. “It’s not a beauty pageant, but it is a performance,” Sadew said. “You are presenting months of discipline and sacrifice in just a few minutes.”

Building Sadew

To enter the 65 kg weight category, Sadew had to bring his body weight down by more than 40 kg from where he had started. “I had to do a quick cut to meet the weight. It wasn’t just the number – I also had to drop my body fat to around 7% or 8%.”

He explained that when he began, his body fat was over 34%, well into the ‘obese’ category. “By the time I got on stage, I had brought it down to single digits. It took eight months, but it happened.” Given his height (174 cm), he felt his ideal long-term body fat percentage would be between 12-14%. “That’s where I want to stay now; it’s healthy and sustainable,” he said.

When Brunch inquired on the hardest part of the process, Sadew didn’t hesitate: diet.

“Bodybuilding is 75% made in the kitchen,” he said. “The gym is only 20%, and the remaining 5% is recovery.” For four straight months, he followed a rigid meal plan with no variation. “I ate the same thing every day, down to the gramme.”

His daily meals, when preparing for the WNBF Gulf Amateur Championship, included boiled or air-fried protein (typically chicken breast or tilapia), vegetables like broccoli and beans, and occasional berries. There was no butter, oil, sugar, or sodium. “You are like a dog on a feeding schedule. If your owner loves you, he gives you the same thing every day,” he joked.

Sadew took a very hard stand on carbohydrates for months at a stretch. “This was a personal choice, though. My metabolism absorbs carbs really fast and makes my skin hang, so I couldn’t afford to have any, not even oats or rice. I went zero-carb for weeks.”

Then came what bodybuilders call ‘peak week’ – the most intense part of prep. Sadew described it as borderline dangerous. “You reduce your water intake to dehydrate the body so your muscles look dry and defined,” he said. “I went from drinking six litres a day to just one, and then nothing for 48 hours.”

He acknowledged that this phase was extremely risky. “It’s not something you should do without professional guidance. You are weak, you are drained, but you still have to perform.”

Despite the exhaustion and mental toll, Sadew said he felt proud when he finally got on stage. “I was scared before going up, but once I started posing, the nerves disappeared. I just focused and performed.”

When he was announced as the winner, he was overwhelmed. “It wasn’t the medal, it was the journey. I remembered the version of me that hated how I looked and felt. That kid wouldn’t have believed this moment.”

In a lighter vein, Brunch asked what his first meal was after his win. His first post-show treat was a chocolate muffin, handed to him by his coach. 

“I started crying. I hadn’t had sugar in four months,” Sadew said, adding that on the first day following his win, he had indulged in biryani, tiramisu, pizza, and even five cheeseburgers. “It felt amazing,” he laughed. “But I went from 65 kg to 75 kg in one week.”

His attention now that he is back in Sri Lanka and beyond competing is to build a more sustainable figure that he can maintain long-term. One of the side effects of the extreme bodybuilding Sadew undertook is a loss of muscle mass, and now he is beginning a ‘lean bulk’ phase, increasing his daily calorie intake to 3,000 to regain some muscle mass. 

His weight is now around 72 kg and his goal was to stabilise at 70 kg with 12-14% body fat. “That’s realistic and maintainable given my body and height,” he said. “No more extremes.”

He also made it clear that he had no plans to compete again. “I did it once. I proved to myself what I could do. But the level of commitment is extreme; it’s a lot of time, money, pain, and patience.”

What people don’t see

Sadew was also candid about the risks of bodybuilding. “It looks glamorous on Instagram, but people don’t see what it does to your mind and body,” he said. “You are weak most of the time, mentally and physically. You don’t have energy to do basic things.”

He described the lifestyle during prep as isolating. “You skip social events. You are constantly tired. You are pushing your body to its absolute limit.” Despite that, he said, bodybuilding gave him a deep appreciation for discipline. “It’s not just about muscles. It’s about learning how far you can go when you decide to commit.”

While Sadew doesn’t recommend competitive bodybuilding to everyone, he firmly believes that transformation is possible for anyone willing to commit. “You don’t need to be extreme,” he said. “You can eat rice and curry, even ice cream – just in the right portions.”

He encouraged a balanced, patient approach to getting fit. “Give it 8-16 weeks. Stick to it. Portion your meals. Move your body. You will see the change.”

He also highlighted the importance of understanding that fitness was not just about appearance. “Don’t do it for how you look, do it for how you feel. Confidence, self-respect, control – those are the real wins.”