In a controversy shaking the bodybuilding world, a Rochester-based bodybuilder publicly accussed Sarah Villegas of using DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol) to accelerate fat loss after her second-place finish at the 2025 Women’s Physique Mr. Olympia, where she was unanimously defeated by Natalia Coelho.
The controversy arose immediately after the 2025 Women’s Physique Mr. Olympia, held in Las Vegas, when Villegas, widely praised for her symmetry and conditioning, lost unanimously to Natalia.
On January 1, 2026, American bodybuilding figure Bob Cicherillo sparked controversy on the Voice of Bodybuilding podcast by accusing Sarah Villegas of possibly using DNP, a highly dangerous chemical historically associated with fat-loss and even found in things like rat poison and dynamite, to get extremely lean for competition.
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He challenged Sarah directly, using transparency about her contest preparation. On the live stream, Bob said,
“Why don’t you put your stack or whatever it is that you took for this show and list it out there online… the court of public opinion can weigh in and see what’s acceptable and what’s not.” , “If you want to put all your cards on the table, then here’s my challenge to you: put out there what you took. I don’t know what you take.”
Bob Cicherllo
Bob then referenced the rumor he’d heard about DNP use, saying,
“Maybe she takes DNP, I mean, she shows up pretty ripped up, bro. DNP… is a drug that was around years ago that is basically an element that’s found in rat poison and dynamite. It was used to melt fat off your body. Unfortunately, sometimes it costs people dearly.”
Bob Cicherillo
The backdrop of these comments is Villegas’s loss of the 2025 Women’s Physique Mr. Olympia title to Natalia Abraham Coelho, a result many called a close battle.
Moreover, Sarah had responded to that defeat by accusing the Brazilian champ Coelho of using performance-enhancing filler in her quads, which ignited the public debate.
This caused the outburst, with some of the sport’s biggest names taking sides. Earlier, Sarah made a post featuring bodybuilding legend Chris Cormier, in which she clarified that bodybuilding should be about building actual muscle, not finding a workaround.
She wrote,
Bodybuilding will never be watered down, too many of us that genuinely love the sport! Just in case some still need clarification on this subject: Bodybuilding is a sport of building actual muscle. Finding a workaround to muscle building undermines the integrity of the sports entirely.
Sarah Villegas
Sarah also said that plastics, PMMA, oil, or any form of implant is not muscle.
However, bodybuilder Bob Cicherillo has accused Sarah Villegas of using DNP, and she has yet to respond to the allegations.
