Type “12 Week Transformation” into Google and you’ll be bombarded with page after page of links to the best 12 week transformations. Inside some of those links you’ll find absolute guarantees and promises, and supplement offers along with their own guarantees and promises. While not all the sites listed will guarantee your end result, they will make it sound like you are about to uncover the Holy Grail of fitness, and finally get the body you’ve only dreamed of. In just 12 short weeks!
Only 12 Weeks? Sign Me Up!
I, in no way, want to deter anyone from embarking upon their own personal fitness journey. You can make a decent amount of progress in 12 weeks, assuming you stick to your plan. But 12 weeks is not some magical period of time where all your fitness dreams will come true. Unfortunately, we have to be real here.
The probability of transforming your body from what you have now to the physique of that fitness model you idolize–or that of the person offering the program–within 12 weeks, is relatively low. The amount of time it actually takes to achieve the look you want greatly depends on the point at which you start your fitness journey. Some start from an obese state, while others start out skinny and want to add curves. Everyone will start at a different point, therefore everyone’s goal date will differ. Taking this into consideration, along with each persons’ goal physique (which obviously will differ, as well), I don’t see how one can guarantee the meeting of said goals within 12 weeks.
B-b-but the Before and After Photos, Though
All these sites and plans feature before and after photos of the people who’ve undergone their 12 week transformations. Before: flabby, fluffy, frumpy. After: tight, toned, taught. You talk about motivating! The fact that you can go from this to that in 12 short weeks? It’s the ultimate motivator, I will not argue there. But while some of those before and after photos show a legitimate transformation, as promised by TheFitnessMiracleoftheMonth.com, there are other “before and afters” that are not so legit.
The Muscle in Fat’s Clothing – Some folks in those before photos already have a decent amount of muscle hiding under the body fat they want to lose. I’m not saying it’s exactly deceptive, but this person already has half of the equation solved on the way to reaching their 12 week goal. In the majority of those “after” pics, everyone is ripped, with six-pack abs and defined shoulders and arms. Sure, you can build some muscle in 12 weeks, but not that much. Add to that trying to lose fat at the same time, and it would be very hard to obtain that ripped look in such a short time. So while others are killing themselves to build muscle and lose fat at the same time (which is hotly debated among fitness vets), this guy over here just needs to focus on retaining muscle while losing fat.
The Fit Faker – What you don’t realize about this particular person is they are in excellent physical shape already, but they use a few tricks to achieve a believable before and after photo. The following vid will break it down for you:
PhAT (Photoshop-Assisted Transformation) – As touched on in the video above, this one is self-explanatory.
The Tortoise and the Hare
Like I said before, I don’t want to deter anyone, nor is it my intent to shed a negative light on fitness. Quite the opposite. I just want to help open some eyes, introduce some different ideas, and hopefully convey that this takes time. There is no quick fix for anything in life. If you take on a 12 week transformation and you reach your goals, that’s awesome! And if you don’t meet your goals, keep going! You will get there, just keep going.