Extreme body transformations

Some

You are spot on! I have never seen a diet that works. What does work is a life style change. Paying attention to what you eat, portion sizes, and a balanced meal plan. I also find it important to eat within the first hour after I have worked out for that day!

I rarely eat red meat and make sure I have dark greens with most meals. I eat slowly, letting my mind catch up to my body, and I exercise portion control.

I do a combination of walking and running intervals at least 4 days a week with weight training and recently core on those same days.

There is no easy way out and it takes an effort to keep the pounds off as we age. The choice to maintain your body depends on how healthy you want to be and how healthy you want to feel!

I honestly believe there is no magic pill or diet to losing weight and keeping it off.

For me (and it doesn't for work for everyone) it is a combination of things

I eat slowly

I reduced red meat intake

I increased dark greens

I exercise 4 to 5 days a week
(combination of aerobic and anaerobic (my aerobic consists of power walking 30 to 45 minutes a day, anaerobic is combination of weight lifting after aerobic exercising, or on my non lifting days I incorporate sprints mixed in with my power walking.) I rarely drink alcohol

This isn't about a diet, it is lifestyle change.

Once we are done having babies, I might consider jumping on a var cycle and just going balls to the wall in the gym.

See my post in "What is your WOD (Workout of the Day). I went from 320 lbs to 245 lbs in 2 years, and have been keeping it at that level for the next 3 years. No steroids, no starving or fasting, I still had some alcohol and an occasional desert. I don't know if this counts as extreme or not. I decided to do it, figured it out and stuck to it. For awhile I was stuck at 265 and I hired a personal trainer for 10 sessions over 10 weeks to get unstuck - because doing the same thing and expecting different results is one kind of insanity.

Diet + anabolic enhancer, workout hard = big change to your body.

I talked to a doctor one that said using steroids can be beneficial if you follow certain guidelines. These include not using a million different one together. No more than 2-3 at the lowest dosage that can get results. Youth have to monitor your blood work religiously and to cycle off to give your body a break. The doc further stated that the people that hurt themselves are the ones using everything under the sun at very huge amounts with no break. I would not be surprised if these stars were using very low doses of something and under a doctors care

Bale and Hemsworth particularly go through some crazy bidy composition changes for their roles. Definitely not healthy in the least.

With that said, even though I think Hemsworth took Testosterone for Thor (due to the amount of lean mass he put on between it and the role 6 months prior), I believe that it is an attainable physique that doesn't require the sauzule; it would just take years rather than months to get. A lot of people underestimate what can be attained natty.

Lyle Alzado would go on to die of a brain cancer.
In his farewell Sports Illustrated article, Alzado wrote :

"I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry success meant so much to me. I just got married to a beautiful, beautiful woman. And I can't take her dancing. I can't take her to dinner. Justin understands that I'm very sick. I try to be real strong on the phone when I talk to him. I hope he'll read this article.

"When I first got out of the hospital I felt inferior. Going from being built like I was to being built like this is very hard. But I don't feel inferior any longer. My strength isn't my strength anymore. My strength is my heart. If you're on steroids or human growth hormone, stop. I should have."

The take-home lesson, perhaps, is that "there is no free lunch". It's pretty clear that deviation from a moderate diet and a consistent program of physical activity will change body shape and composition. It's also pretty clear that manipulation of metabolism with anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and similar, will also change body shape and composition. All of that comes with risk. In so many cases, all of that comes at great cost--paid with treasure and with compromised health and not infrequently, with shortened life.

Was watching a YouTube on some of the transformations that actors go through for certain roles. Although these people may look awesome, what they're doing to get there doesn't seem all that healthy. At a minimum, eatting nothing but plain chicken, broccoli and maybe some brown rice for every meal would suck. Some of the more notable ones were Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, and Hugh Jackman.

Probably the same can be said for body builders. They also consume massive amounts of protein and miniscule amounts of carbs, then wind up dehydrating themselves so that they look more "cut" come performance time.

Some try to do it clean (sans steroid use) but some don't. Though not an actor or a body builder, Google "lyle alzado before and after" to see a reverse transformation after coming off steroids. It's no wonder some of these people get paid large sums of money to do what they do, as it no doubt can take a toll, although Arnold Schwarzenegger is still with us at age 74 ;-)