Before/after Transformation: How long do you think it took?

First off, I would like to dedicate this post to the 26 Egyptian soldiers who died in last week's horrific terrorist attack. Please take a moment to pray for them, may they rest in peace. 
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Take a look at those before and after pictures I took:

Before and After Exhibit A

Before and After Exhibit B

This transformation occurred after a rigorous plan that I worked on (I will share it just keep reading). We see many of those plans online. We are thrown in a world where we are unsure what works and what doesn't. We see tons of products, supplements, workout plans, diets etc. All those articles we come across have one thing in common: incredible before and after pictures that leave us 100% sure that this intervention used must work for us, it worked for them after all. Those websites often promise us results in 2-6 weeks! Promising us huge gains and a ton of fat loss in a matter of weeks. We are all guilty of falling for such claims. Our desire to reach our goals accelerate and pave the way for us falling for such false claims. We then proceed to buying in on those diets, supplements, products, etc only to find ourselves not achieving the results we saw online. We become frustrated and give up, we blame ourselves and say "maybe we can never reach such potential, maybe we don't have the genes for it". 

I want you to take a good look at those before and after pictures and guess how long it took me to reach those goals with proper nutrition and exercising of course. Keep that number in mind for now.

Often the correct answer to reaching our goals is right in front of us. It's a mixture of dedication, proper planning and patience. Patience is crucial, you will make progress in 2-6 weeks but you will not transform in that little time. It took you years of being inactive to get to where you are, do you really think a few weeks will fix that? It is simply not probable, I won't say impossible, but not probable. 

The point is do not fall for everything you see online, do not believe false claims, do not look at before and after pictures. Look instead to see how realistic those methods are, no pill will ever make you gain tons of muscle and lose a lot of fat. 

Now back to the pictures, who guessed a few weeks? Now who guessed a few months? I showed this picture to friends and family and I got answers varying from 1 month to 6 months. 

In reality, both before and after pictures are literally... 3 minutes apart. That is correct 3 minutes apart. Some of you might have guessed correctly, most of you will have guessed incorrectly. The only difference between those before and after pictures is my form, pose, did a set of pushups maybe and one big smile. Three minutes is all there is to it! 

My point is, do not believe websites trying to sell you products, pills, plans, crazy diets etc that simply do not work. Do not judge products based on before and after pictures. The only intervention plan that works is a balanced diet, exercise, some dedication, plenty of patience and my blog :D (of course I would say that)

Please note that some genuine people post before and after pictures of their own progress, those people, who are not trying to sell you anything crazy, are not out of line neither are they trying to fool you. They are genuinely exposing their progress that they are proud of. I have seen many of those pictures and I respect them all, in fact I love them. They are in no way misleading because they have no hidden motives behind them. As a matter of fact I have just seen a special one posted today that looked amazing and extremely motivating (they know who they are!). This post is mainly targeted towards companies/individuals who try to sell you crazy products by influencing you with such pictures. Think twice please! 

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it :)

Mohamed