You’ve seen them: Those body fat loss transformation photos for fat loss programs or fat loss products. Not only is much fat loss evident, but new muscles show; many muscles — lean muscle on the women and much more muscle mass on the men, plus the six pack abs. Is there a gimmick? Trick photography?
Many men and women, upon viewing these body fat loss photos, think, “No wayyy!” Truth is, tricks are used to create the illusion of extreme fat loss and lots of muscle mass or lean muscle. Do these fat loss products, like fat burners, work? If it’s a fat loss program, does that work? Ever notice the clothing in these transformation photos?
Clothing: The men always wear baggy shorts pretty close down to their knees in the “before” photo. This conceals pre-existing muscles in their thighs. Women will wear tight-fitting bikinis that create the illusion of more body fat than what’s actually there. In the “after” photo, the man’s shorts are very high, and the woman’s bikini isn’t as snug. But if the woman has fat loss, wouldn’t the bikini fit less snug? Of course. But why is it that overweight people wear snug clothes for the “before” shot? This creates illusion of more body fat.
Body position: In the “before” photo, the woman is either facing dead-on towards the photographer, or she is completely sideways. In the after photo, she is always in a three-quarters view. The three-quarters view shaves off many apparent inches of fat in the waistline. The three-quarters view naturally is the most striking pose anyways. If a woman is sucking in her abs, it’s not as obvious as it is when she sucks in the abs for a side shot.
The body position for men is typically both arms hanging at sides for the before photo. For the after photo, the man has his arms up, flexing his biceps muscles. Hanging arms always appear to have less muscle mass and more fat, than upraised, flexed arms. Same with the women: They often have their arms hanging in the before shot, but the after shot has their arms raised and muscles flexed.
Lighting: Subtle differences in lighting add further to the illusion of fat loss and more muscle mass. Certain lighting makes a body look pasty with no muscle definition, and other lighting techniques bring out shadows and muscle definition.
Abs: In the before shots, it’s obvious the man or woman is deliberately puffing out the abs. In the after shots, the man or woman is holding abs in.
Diet: To appear as bloated and puffy as possible for the before photo, the man or woman eats a lot of sodium for the few days preceding, and also loads up on water. The high sodium diet causes water retention and bloating, and so does the extra water.
For the after shot, they sodium-deplete themselves and no water for a few days preceding. This brings out muscles and vascularity and illusion of maximum fat loss.
