Cutting Weight For a Photo Shoot

By Franco Ruggiero

Its about 12 weeks until you step in front of the camera for your upcoming photo shoot. You have put on anywhere from 12-20 pounds of muscle during your time off from shooting. That's a good thing. However with that muscle comes a little bit of body fat. Its time to shed the unwanted pounds of fat so you have the best muscularity and definition for your upcoming photo shoot.

Eating Prior to Your Photo Shoot

Cutting weight all starts with your diet. You must first eliminate all simple carbohydrates from your diet with the exception of your post workout meal, which is strictly to replenish muscle glycogen. You should stick to complex carbohydrates only and you should cut all carbohydrates off within 4 hours of the time you go to bed to prevent your body from storing unused carbs as fat.

Complex vs. Simple Carbohydrates

Complex Carbohydrates are brown rice, whole wheat bread, and yams. The difference between complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates is that complex carbohydrates break down slower in the body with a slower absorption rate. Simple carbs break down fast if not used for muscle glycogen replenishment or for immediate energy will be stored as body fat. The closer you get to your photo shoot, the less overall carbohydrates you should be consuming and you should be compensating for them with broccoli and green beans which are known as fibrous carbs. Broccoli and green beans will fill you up but won't be stored as fat.

Upping Protein

The next component of your diet is protein. You should already be consuming 1.5 grams of protein per pound of your body weight.

But now you may need to up it to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight to preserve all your hard earned muscle that you built up in your time off.

You should stick to the leanest sources such as plain tuna, grilled chicken breast, turkey breast, and egg whites. Red meat should be eaten in strict moderation due to its high saturated fat content.

Essential Fats

The final macronutrient is fat. Fat supports our organs and plays a key component in supporting our sex hormones as well as energy use. The best and healthiest sources of fat come from nuts, avocados, and fish oils. Stay away from anything high in saturated fat and completely avoid transfat. Essential fats should be consumed early in the morning as well.

Lowering Total Calories

To sum up the nutrition part, you should gradually cut down total calories. If you would usually consume 2700 calories per day to maintain or gain weight, you should lessen it by 300 calories to create a slight caloric deficit. This way your body doesn't get shocked by the sudden lack of calories. Also, continue to eat 6-8 meals throughout the day. Rather than moderate sized meals, eat slightly smaller meals with the proper amount of nutriance to support you're fat loss diet. The best way to keep track of this is to keep a food log.

Keeping a Food Log

A food log is where you record you're cardio and calories consumed each day. At the end of the week, you check your body fat and body weight to measure your progress. If you still haven't lost any weight, you need to cut more calories. If you have lost too much weight, you may want to ease up on the cardio. Maybe skip a session or go for less time.

Cardio

The next big factor is cardio. It doesn't matter how clean you're diet is. You will never be in your best shape for that photo shoot if you do not burn calories through cardio. Cardio is what is really going to take off those unwanted fat pounds allowing your muscles to shimmer for the camera.

Cardio on Empty Stomach in AM

Cardio should be done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach at a light-moderate pace four days per week, typically on non weight training days if necessary. You will burn the most fat on an empty stomach because your body will have to dip into its carbohydrate/fat stores to burn fat.

Start at 20 minutes, then increase

In the first two weeks you should do about 20 minutes per cardio session and then up to 35 minutes in the mid weeks prior to the shoot and then you should do cardio for 45 minutes during the last four weeks. Cardio can be done using the elliptical, treadmill, stairmaster, or stationary bike.

Water Weight

It may help to wear a second layer of clothes to help sweat out any excess water your body may be retaining. Water retention will keep you from maximum definition. Sodium is the key contributor for water retention so make sure you don't consume too much sodium.

Summing it Up

Overall, the two main factors for weight/fat loss when getting ready for a photo shoot are the proper diet and properly performed cardio. Your sets and reps in the gym don't need to change. It is best to keep them in the 8-12 range because those are the repetitions that are used to stimulate muscle hypertrophy - muscle development. Certain supplements that I would recommend for this process of preparation are 100 percent whey protein that's extremely low in fat and low in carbohydrates, a multivitamin and a thermogenic or fat burner to speed up the fat loss process.

So put down that cheese steak, have some grilled chicken breast with steamed broccoli, hit the treadmill, and lose those pounds of fat because that muscle you've put on is dying to be showed off.

Be sure to also read the mistake guys make when building muscle for a photo shoot.

Shane also provides on-on-one fitness advice. Visit this page to sign up for low-cost, one-on-one personalized fitness advice from Shane..