The secret lives of fitness models by Tampa Bay Magazine. What price does one have to pay for buns of steel, washboard abs, killer calves and a chiseled chest? It certainly isn’t the clichéd model’s diet of celery sticks, chewing gum and water.

For local fitness model Doug Zimmerman, it takes a huge grocery list to keep publications like Men’s Workout Magazine knocking on his door for his genetic gifts. Bodybuilding models like Zimmerman have to juggle complex diets, demanding jobs, love lives, arduous workout regimens, competitions and photo shoots to make it big in a modeling subculture that may come across as intense and masochistic.

But more and more people, local gym rats included, are catching on to the fitness lifestyle. – Read more –>