You see it all the time when some influencer or popular YouTuber has this program about how to lose fat in 30 or even 15 days. Of course this comes along with the absolute need to purchase whatever bogus supplements they just happen to sell on that site and I got bad news for anyone that falls for this stuff: It's not true.
Outside of liposuction, there isn't such a thing as a "fast way to lose fat."
Losing weight while keeping muscle is a tricky game and one that I have done incorrectly many times. Your body doesn't know the difference between muscle and fat and in many cases, if you are starving your body of fuel, it will actually go after the muscle first leaving you with just the fat.
As far as these programs are concerned, I never really tried any of them because thankfully I have a close friend who is a very highly regarded personal trainer and she told me the real story about how anyone seeking to improve their overall health and lose weight that there is only one way to get there - even though the fitness industry touts otherwise. She even admits that she sells supplements as well even though she doesn't believe in them. I had to be sworn to secrecy before she let me in on the industry secrets.
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I'm not saying that nobody has ever made this sort of transformation but I can guarantee you one of two things: Either the pictures are of two different people or it was over the course of a VERY LONG TIME.
I saw a good video the other day with a trainer that was talking about how all of these "shortcuts" to losing fat or weight or whatever, that they are giving people false hope and when it doesn't work, it demoralizes them and they return to their old ways, sometimes putting on even more weight than they were carrying around before.
Weight loss and health really isn't that difficult, the problem is how hard it is, the problem is that just like getting fat in the first place, it takes a LONG TIME to accomplish. The people out there that are telling normies that they can get ripped and lose weight in 30 days are totally full of it. They might use some sort of celebrity as an example of "how it can work" but you don't have to think very hard to realize that an actor or actress is going to have the assistance of people managing their time, they are going to have personal chefs monitoring their caloric intake, they are going to have personal trainers deciding their workouts for them, and they are going to have doctors as well as a whole mess of Performance Enhancing Drugs like steroids.
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Vin Diesel, Ryan Reynolds, and Chris Hemsworth are frequently referenced in these "transformation" examples but honestly, if you don't realize without even checking that these guys and many others like them have a ton of help that you are not going to have access to in your fitness regimen, then you probably have more problems than just carrying around a few extra pounds.
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I like Athlean-X and don't want to call him out too much for bad information. He has a lot of really informative stuff on his channel about weight-lifting techniques that are extremely helpful. However, like a lot of popular channels, he has to come up with new stuff all the time and with catchy titles or clickbait, he is able to maintain and grow the popularity of his channel and therefore, his own wallet. At the same time he has to continually come up with new episodes and honestly, there is only so much you can talk about the same things over and over again so he has to come up with a new gimmick just like everyone else. He also sells his own supplements and whenever you see this happening, you need to be apprehensive about what the person is saying.
Some of the best information out there comes from trainers or athletes who aren't selling anything and most of them come to the same conclusion that I have come to in many years of being a lot more healthy after my terrible 30's where I basically just let myself go to hell in a handbasket. There aren't any shortcuts when you are attempting to make long-lasting changes to your overall lifestyle. If you crash diet for 30 days and kill yourself on a treadmill at the same time you are definitely going to lose weight. You are also not going to maintain this because it is simply unsustainable and like most people, you are going to return to the same bad habits that got you to that point in the first place.
Make lasting changes to your overall lifestyle and incorporating them into your day-to-day life is the ONLY thing that is going to have a lasting change on you and your health. PED's, crash diets, expensive and ineffective supplements might get you there in the short-run, but I have never seen a SINGLE CASE of these "quick fixes" ever leading to lasting change.
This isn't a sprint folks, it is a marathon. The quicker you accept that the faster you will be on the road to better fitness, better sense of self-worth, and better overall health.
I'm not a professional but I have seen what has worked in my own life. I lost over 50lbs and am now stronger than I have ever been ever in my life. It wasn't a quick fix though, it took me nearly 2 years to accomplish this. If i can do it I believe other people can as well