“JUST TELL ME ONCE AND FOR ALL – IS THIS STUFF FOR REAL?”

One of my clients tagged me in a Facebook post with an ad he’d seen as many times as I had in our news feeds. The ad shows a young man in a picture sequence going from a little fat and frumpy, to an awesomely ripped god in just 60 days. The caption reads, “Want to know what fat melting supplement he’s using? Find out here!” and links to a website using impressive before and after shots. Apparently even Hugh Jackman and Henry Cavill swear by the products. The whole thing reeked and I quickly replied that it was “the penis enhancement pills of the fitness industry” – playing on insecurities to sell a questionable product.

Then, after launching our DNA Make Me Hot Challenge Facebook page, I received a comment. “Hi, what’s the deal? As someone who is 40 pounds overweight I checked out the website [with before and after photos of previous years] and was expecting a more dramatic transformation given the three months put into it.”

At first I was taken aback. So far we haven’t had an entrant who is 40 pounds overweight but even still, we’ve had good results over the years. It was a bit disheartening.

Then I realised that these two messages were related. It’s easy to find amazing before and after photos both offline and on. They’re in Facebook news feeds, emails touting phenomenal transformations, YouTube videos from prettyboy vloggers and hardcore trainers, and fitness magazines with countless examples like the one my client had sent me: dramatic transformation that would satisfy my overweight fan.

But how often do you notice these advertisements guarantee you will achieve the same transformation as the person pictured? You too can get this ripped from consuming six pills a day and eating anything you want!

If you take away the before-and-afters that were achieved using steroids, experimental drugs, photoshop or unrealistic training and diet methods then you’re left with ads showing changes you might be able to achieve under exceptional circumstances. Subtract from that the images of entrant photos in major bodybuilding competitions, or those that were ‘sponsored’ by a supplement or equipment company, and you’ve got the genuine transformations.

So you see, take heart that losing one pound of fat a week, or gaining one kilo of muscle in a month, is actually pretty extraordinary despite what the marketing machine tells you.

more: visit dnamakemehot.com to keep up with the progress and take part in the worldwide exercise challenge!