Since there are weight classes, I would assume having a better muscle to fat ratio would be better, and not packing uneccesary fat.
In: Biology
When you lose weight, your body burns fat and reduces muscle at the same time, because it takes a lot of calories to maintain the extra muscle mass. So while dieting to lose fat is done by most people who lift weights to look good, people who care just about maximum strength don’t do that because they will lose strength in the process of dieting.
You have to eat a lot to build and maintain the muscle size and density they have. Its really hard to eat enough and stay lean so most just get chubby/fat. Plus when you do some of the bizzare strong man lifts (Google atlas stone) it’s probably more comfortable to have some extra padding.
Most powerlifters are actually reasonably lean. You are correct that since it is a weight class sport, any weight you carry that does not benefit your lifts is a detriment and reduces your competitiveness. An extra pound of fat on you is an extra pound of muscle on your competition.
But there are a limited number of weight classes.
When you see really fat powerlifters (that are successful), they are always in the highest weight class because there is no upper limit in that class. To those people, the extra fat they carry is not a detriment to their placings because they don’t have to worry about missing weight and being bumped up into the next class with tougher competition, because there isn’t another one to get bumped into.
The extra fat mass does indirectly help them lift more weight, and that’s why the most successful superheavyweights are typicallly fat.
To add to this, a disproportionate amount of public attention goes to superheavyweights because they are lifting the most absolute weight. People in the general population are less interested in seeing a little 120 pound guy lift, even if his relative strength is very impressive. (Edit: … which is why you get the impression powerlifters are all fat – you only see the big monsters in the news, not the little guys in the lower classes).
If you look up top lifters in each weight class – you won’t find big big fat guys at high levels in any other weight class but the biggest.
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