Wesley Vissers talks about the Olympia diet, says Urs Kalecinski "is hard to predict" and that Ramon Queiroz "can never beat me again".

Time is running out and bodybuilders are finishing their preparations and at the same time completing the last training sessions before the biggest event of the year. Wesley Vissers is Classic Physique's hope to dethrone Chris Bumstead, but there are several contenders who fans believe could legitimately contend for gold, including Ramon Queiroz and Urs Kalecinski.

Vissers competed against both of them at the 2024 Arnold Classic Ohio and shocked the world with a first place finish. He defeated "Miracle Bear" for the second time at the Arnold Classic UK show, further cementing his position in the highly competitive division. With visions of glory, he broke down the problems associated with his diet along with his unfiltered opinion of the top opponents he plans to face.

Wesley Vissers 'built' his metabolism, talks about dieting for Mr. Olympia 2024 and top contenders

At the beginning of his bodybuilding career, Vissers was concerned about upping his carb intake in preparation for bodybuilding shows. However, his coach Stefan Kienzl showed him the way and explained to him how to eat properly for competitions.

"For example, whether you're behind on your show, he'll never tell you we're ahead and on schedule, but he [my coach] will give you more re-feed days, more higher-carb days, which if I didn't have Stefan [Stefan Kienzl], I would have worked my ass off. I would drop my carbs too low and that reminds me in 2021, he was shocked to see my diet, how low it was for someone with my height and weight limit."

"Over the years we have rebuilt my metabolism. I eat twice as much now than I did when I started working with Stefan. I had to go super-deep at the first Olympia because I messed up with that."

And how did that work out? Although it's often believed that eating less will help athletes lose weight for competition, Vissers says it's important to eat more food to look fresh on stage.

"When I was training, I went up to 1,700 [calories] myself because I had the idea that I needed to be more fit, more conditioned, and then you always think you need to eat less, but the opposite is actually true if you want to look fresh on stage."

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Over time, with his trainer, he slowly increased his caloric intake and adjusted his metabolism. This has paid off for him given the results of his last two bodybuilding competitions.

"That's why we've been slowly increasing calories, but mainly through carbohydrates because they also make it relatively low in fat and protein is not great to have high but not low either, just a moderate amount," Wesley Vissers said. "It's very difficult for me to decide, okay, now I'm going to have a higher carb day. I never think I deserve it and you always think, oh, you need to lose more fat, so why would you give yourself a high carb day now?"

Vissers believes there will be four competitors vying for the Mr. Olympia 2024 title: himself, Ramon Queiroz, Chris Bumstead and Urs Kalecinski. Given Breon Ansley's age, he had his doubts that he would be among the top four.

"I think it will be our top four, maybe Breon will be in there somewhere, but to be very honest, if he shows up last in Dubai, he won't be in the top four. If he shows like he did at Arnold or maybe even better, then he could be part of the top five."

"You never know because you get older. All the other guys are much younger. So we have more opportunity to keep improving and putting our bodies under more stress without taking too many risks," he said. "I think it's going to be the top four [Wesley Vissers, Chris Bumstead, Urs Kalecinski and Ramon Queiroz]."

He added that Urs Kalecinski was hard to predict because he looked much better in the British Arnold than he did in Ohio. If he can match or improve on his Arnold UK appearance, Vissers believes Kalecinski could beat Queiroz.

"Urse is hard to predict because at the first Arnold he was off, then at the second Arnold he was great, but then the placings were kind of weird relative to how he looked, so then you're like, okay, so where does he really place, you know? I think if he improves his form at the Arnold Classic UK, it will be a challenge for Ramon as well."

In terms of being as objective as possible, Vissers doesn't believe Ramon Queiroz will ever beat him on the podium again.

"To be honest, I don't think Ramon will ever be able to beat me again, "

Vissers feels he can beat Chris Bumstead on stage next weekend. His reasoning also has merit, as his front double biceps, pectoral muscle and shoulder girdle remain some of his strongest weapons against the longtime champion.

"He's not perfect, nobody's perfect. When I stand next to him, I want to overcome his weaknesses and my weaknesses won't be so easily overcome by his strengths, "

Vissers says. With Chris Bumstead set to retire soon, perhaps Vissers could catch the champion in the slip in the coming days. Don't miss our full Olympia weekend mapping on the web!