BEFORE AND AFTER TRANSFORMATION BS!

Options
2

Replies

  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
    Options
    when you're as lean as he is its east to puff out your stomach and look fatter.

    Ding ding. Just have to relax the outer and push the inner. Also hunch the back a bit.

    And lighting is huge, especially in the 15-19% he's at.

    And you can tell that he added different lighting to the "after" picture. There is a massive shadow that wasn't there in the "before" picture.
  • TribeHokie
    TribeHokie Posts: 711 Member
    Options
    Wow. I've "called out" the professional before & afters before because sometimes it is super obvious that they are manipulating the shots with posture or sucking it in way too much, but it is cool to see him really show this.

    This is also why I try to take my own photos in a completely relaxed/comfortable posture and why I look to mfp'ers for their progress photos instead of the pro sites. Though I have wondered about some people's pics that they post here...
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
    Options
    It would have been better if he had one of those digital calendar/clock things on the wall for both shots.
  • sam308lbs
    sam308lbs Posts: 1,939 Member
    Options

    This is also why I try to take my own photos in a completely relaxed/comfortable posture and why I look to mfp'ers for their progress photos instead of the pro sites. Though I have wondered about some people's pics that they post here...

    yea i have noticed the same
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    Options
    Read this earlier today as well...

    I'd also add that the companies that market this weigh-loss and fitness stuff also use models that are already very fit and have them fatten up a bit...and then basically cut so they suddenly look like they've been working out most of their lives....when truth be told, they have been working out most of their lives.
  • nyboer
    nyboer Posts: 346 Member
    Options
    Wow. Thanks for posting the link.
  • VioletNightshade
    VioletNightshade Posts: 197
    Options
    My best friend is one of the women who does workout programmes and provides before and after photos for a couple of companies. She works her butt off day in and day out and works out very hard, and lost almost 90lb doing so. Not all of them are frauds. There are quite a few legitimately hard working people out there who really dedicate and push themselves to work out and transform their bodies.
  • norahwynn
    norahwynn Posts: 862 Member
    Options
    This makes me sad. Not all before and afters are gimmicks. Mine are true. They are the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. Not just good lighting. Of coarse I flexed in my after to show my new amazing arm muscles. Don't think all before and afters are fake. In my before I did not push out my stomach. I was not bloated.

    I think there is more than an one hour difference in these photos.

    Edited because of my phones autocorrect.

    I don't think that this thread was intended for the before/after pics of the common folk on MFP. The article was about the companies that convince unsuspecting consumers to buy their products....Jillian Michaels, Beachbody, and the like, buy showing these amazing before and after pics of 'regular people' that completed their exercise or weight loss program.
  • CorvusCorax77
    CorvusCorax77 Posts: 2,536 Member
    Options
    This makes me sad. Not all before and afters are gimmicks. Mine are true. They are the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. Not just good lighting. Of coarse I flexed in my after to show my new amazing arm muscles. Don't think all before and afters are fake. In my before I did not push out my stomach. I was not bloated.

    I think there is more than an one hour difference in these photos.

    Edited because of my phones autocorrect.

    Um. Well, the article isn't about YOU. Or ME for that matter.

    My before pics, I was 40% body fat, weighed 174 lbs.
    I got down to 123 lbs and 19% body fat.

    My pics aren't fake.

    But what I *DO* think is really awesome about this article is this guy (if anyone actually read the article) is a personal trainer. He, one day, was feeling kinda bloated and sorta on a whim asked his GF to take a pic of him. Then he shaved his chest hair and head, worked out to get that post work out muscle POP and flexed his muscles and adjusted he lighting to get an after pic. The difference is astonishing.

    What IS positive about this is for those of us, like myself, who have lost a lot of weight and work out hard sometimes see pics of ourselves and think "I look like crud! I must be fat" because all the pics we see online of "fit" people are these glam shots.

    Here's my point, this chart shows different body fat percentages on women:

    body-fat-percentage-women.jpg

    This is my current profile pic:

    25536715_3858.jpg

    based on my stomach alone, I would put myself at 30% body fat, looking at the pics on that chart. But guess what? It's more like 20%. I just look like crap because, like the dude in the article, I was bloated this day.

    Here's another pic of me at 20% body fat:

    550040_4475530456619_1872995046_n.jpg

    That's my point. When you are at maintenance, or near it, or in that place where you have lost the excess fat, you can still look like crap in a pic now and then because a lot of these "after" pics we see in the industry about are posture, flexing, bloating, etc.

    NOTHING IN MY POST IS MEANT TO UNDERMINE the hard work of MFPers.

    I thought that was a no-brainer.
  • norahwynn
    norahwynn Posts: 862 Member
    Options
    My best friend is one of the women who does workout programmes and provides before and after photos for a couple of companies. She works her butt off day in and day out and works out very hard, and lost almost 90lb doing so. Not all of them are frauds. There are quite a few legitimately hard working people out there who really dedicate and push themselves to work out and transform their bodies.

    That's interesting. So she does before and after shots for various companies? Did she lose the weight and get fit on her own, or did she use the companies weight loss tools that she's doing the pics for?
  • CorvusCorax77
    CorvusCorax77 Posts: 2,536 Member
    Options
    My best friend is one of the women who does workout programmes and provides before and after photos for a couple of companies. She works her butt off day in and day out and works out very hard, and lost almost 90lb doing so. Not all of them are frauds. There are quite a few legitimately hard working people out there who really dedicate and push themselves to work out and transform their bodies.

    No?? REALLY!?!?! You mean like all of us on MFP?!?!?

    *head! DESK!*

    Some people obviously didn't get the point of the post.

    Your friend presumably models for quite a few companies whose products she didn't rely on to get in shape. Rather, she "works her butt off day in and day out." Hmmmm... maybe that was the point of the article, had you read it. Being: these before and after pics used to sell crap is used to sell crap the people in the pics didn't use. And instead, they probably, like the guy in the article (and your friend) ate healthy and worked out.
  • HealthyBodySickMind
    HealthyBodySickMind Posts: 1,207 Member
    Options
    Why did they shave his head...? lol

    More importantly, why did he shave the beard?
  • CorvusCorax77
    CorvusCorax77 Posts: 2,536 Member
    Options
    Why did they shave his head...? lol

    More importantly, why did he shave the beard?

    To show off his cut jaw line, of course. The beard was used to hide his double chin when he was all fat and stuff.
  • justinebronson
    justinebronson Posts: 18 Member
    Options
    i still don't believe that the photos were done in under an hour. he looks 20 lbs heavier in the first. but yeah, i guess it goes to prove all the smoke and mirrors in not only before/after photos but in the commercial advertising/modeling industries.

    He cut his hair, shaved his chest, and used overhead lighting in the "after". And was likely pushing out when they took the 1st pick to make him look bigger and sucking in on the 2nd...definitely possible!
  • quellybelly
    quellybelly Posts: 827 Member
    Options
    bump.
  • CorvusCorax77
    CorvusCorax77 Posts: 2,536 Member
    Options
    This is kinda funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M957dACQyfU

    That was AWESOME

    and hilarious :)

    And made me think... hmmm... maybe I should not eat chips or diet soda before I do a photoshoot. Thanks for the tips!
  • ketchupqueen
    ketchupqueen Posts: 29
    Options
    I think it would be AWESOME if some of us did our own before/after transformations with good lighting in the after and puffed out stomachs in before.

    Also, the easiest way to do it is to take the "after" picture while looking great, then eat whatever and take the "before" picture.
  • SchroederNJ
    SchroederNJ Posts: 208 Member
    Options
    At the bottom of the article, they have a slideshow of people who lost a lot of weight and their stories --- I'm not sure what the point of that article really was

    Of course advertisement photos are photoshopped -- same with magazine covers and related pics
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Options
    I never trust the before and after pictures that I see on any site that is asking for money... can't say I'm surprised!
  • claritarejoice
    claritarejoice Posts: 461 Member
    Options
    Personally this guy does not look like a different weight in his "before and after" photos. You can see it in his legs, arms, pecs and face - they are the same. The only thing that changed is he's sticking out his stomach before and he oiled and shaved after. In real before and afters you can see it in their face, arms, legs, everywhere.

Categories