I often have people tell me about their physique goals and it's an obvious part of why people come to see me. We have all seen Oxygen magazine or Muscle and Fitness and we see 2 versions of extremes. when we see a muscle and fitness model male or female they are typically covered in bronzer and shreded, you can literally see every single muscle. Generally the Oxygen girls fall under the same catagory, but just aren't as bronze and don't have over developed muscle.
How do they get this way... it must be because they workout all the time and do lost of cardio right? Sure in some light they are a product of their training. Why does the body builder do cardio? because they wouldn't want to do anything that sacrifices the size of their muscles. They also wouldn't want to make their muscles so sore that they can't recover for their next workout. Physical size is determined by "time under tension", meaning that super slow movements recruit the muscles to grow larger. They have no concern for physical ability outside the weight room and the bigger they are the better.
They must be cut because of their superior knowledge of diet balance... Not at all. Body builders and models actually spend very little time looking like they do for a photo shoot, by taking advantage of the bodies stress reactions and normal physical cycles, and even a combination of supplements. It's actually very rare to see someone that looks like a photo model every day. How do they do it???? typically its from a few of things.
1.) they remove all carbohydrates from their diet, even weeks before they shoot
2.) They add at least 5000mgs of salt into their daily intake for the week leading up to the shoot/show
3.) at the last 24hrs they remove all salt, all water, and all food
what happens??? their body is so use to flushing the salt out that it goes over board and kicks out extra water that the body normally stores, they are not replenishing the water, so they loose weight. They are also not adding any food (calories) and the same thing the body is flushing the calories, and as a result they loose more weight.
In addition to this, they will typically force the body to sweat by going into a sauna, rather than actually exercising , because of their weakened physical state.
Exercising is this weaken state can cause them to pass out, or worse.
how much can they loose? It's common for a 200lb male to loose well into 20lbs in 24hrs, without even really trying.
Now before you rush off and buy your salt and start installing a sauna in your walk in closet, what are the long term consequences? Creating an un-obtainable body image for yourself can cause disastrous psychological effects. All of these behaviors fall under the description of having an eating disorder. The more often they are repeated the more long term effects will occur because of it. Typically people push the boundaries, each time they do this, and do it more and more aggressively each time they cut weight. Each time gets more and more dangerous. It is typical for a competitive bodybuilder to be checked into the hospital before they even compete so that after they are done on stage, they can have medical supervision for their re-hydration post competition. Rinse lather and repeat for each show/photo shoot
Many athletes follow the same or similar patterns for a 24hr weigh in for a fight, or other type of competition. Athletes that have same day weigh-ins usually follow a little different protocol depending on how far off they are from weight.
The unfortunate news is that almost 100% of the weight is usually gained back within 48hrs, 24hrs if they are trying to get it back.
personally I would rather look good everyday, than just for one picture. Small little changes over time are better than risky and dangerous gambles. Payouts are very temporary, and the consequences can be long term.
see Fat cell theory http://www.crossfitlondon.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=197&p=582&hilit
to understand why especially with weight loss slow and steady wins the race
