Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comPersonal trainer gains 70 pounds to empathize with overweight
Seeded on Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:48 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
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Best of luck to him. hopefully he has no previous injuries that will complicate his return to form. it will certainly help that his occupation allows him as much physical exercise as he needs, that he will not need to donate all his free time to the effort.
Good for him. He's young enough. Were he 50 he might be dead.
70 pounds - wow, when I gain 5 pounds I feel like a tub of lard, so I can't imagine gaining 70. He does look unhappy. I bet his wife looks unhappier still...
Pictures at www.fit2fat2fit.com/
This is one of the best stories i have read. I give this man credit for willing to understand the feeling of peoples insecurities like this. He really is someone people should look to for help with diet and weight loss!!
He is a young man who has temporarily gained weight--as if, perhaps, he'd had an injury and couldn't exercise. He will have more trouble than he expected losing weight--but it will come off. He hasn't had it on long enough (and he isn't older or female), and it won't be overwhelmingly difficult. Temporary weight gain doesn't change the metabolism like pregnancy or aging does.
It is old, though, thinking that people who are overweight are "insecure." This is all a lot of projection--we used to think that heavy people were "jolly" (which, by the way, is closer to fact). By projecting negative feelings onto overweight people, thin people keep themselves thin (oh, gosh, I don't want to be lethargic and depressed and insecure--so I'd better stay thin!).
He seems like a nice young man--but this is a gimmick. Nothing more. The kind of people who have the body he had originally have quick metabolisms--they have nothing to say to those of us born with "thrifty" metabolisms or who have aged/had children/been given medications that exacerbated the problem.
It's nice of him to try--but he isn't a member of a representative population and will not get results that are typical or generalizable.
I feel differently. I used to be very fit and now I'm not. I still have not given up on this being a temporary condition. I am not jolly at all I am miserable in my skin.I wouldn't say insecure, because it isn't about what others think - it's about how I feel both physically and emotionally.
When it comes to working out,I don't push myself enough by myself , but I have a hard time keeping up in an exercise class because many of the exercises that work great at a healthy weight, are awkward and/or difficult to even do if you are fat. I think this will give this trainer a first hand look at that.
I feel like some sort of alternate program would serve me better.Something that is at my "level" so that I can then progress to the next "level" (rather than starting way above where I am at and struggling hard and feeling like I am failing) I hope this will lead him to design one. I do think it will help him gain a perspective to help people like me.
None of us know where his metabolism stands. He could have just been in good shape because of the extra effort he put fourth not because he has a fast metabolism. Just because your in shape doesn't mean you have fast metabolism. He works out and eats extremely healthy of course hes going to be in shape. He stopped doing what his body was used to. Which in turn could actually present that his metabolism was actually slow. So you can not prove that it will be at all easy for this man to get back in the shape he was.
As for the woman thing of course he wouldn't understand he is man. No matter what weight he was before he was never going to understand it so that made no sense to me. I mean give the guy some credit he is attempting to understand what its like to be something other than what he was.
As for sitting there thinking that people aways think heavy people are unhappy and such is unfair. You are generalizing peoples thoughts into one. Everyone can be unhappy or happy it just depends on who you are. He may think that because the only heavy people he sees are the unhappy ones who come in to the gym trying to change themselves.
As for the gimmick maybe it is but you know I still give him credit. He put a lot of stress on his body for him to understand his clients. For someone to go from working out almost everyday and eating healthy to eating the way the average American eats and not working out that is a lot of stress to put on the body for a gimmick. He is the first trainer i have ever heard of attempting to understand there clients by putting themselves in there shoes.
Brilliant, crazy, unorthodox and thinking outside the box. Interesting to see how his plans unfold.
I see the beginning of a script about a down and out former trainer who's brilliant plan let to catastrophe.
I see a script about someone who thinks he is clever but can't communicate in Standard American English:
"I see the beginning of a script about a down-and-out, former trainer whose brilliant plan led to catastrophe."
I know exactly what this guy is doing, I went to a similar thing back in 1982. I use to exercise and watch what I ate, but my new job did not allow enough time to exercise and contributed to a bad diet. One day I decided to take a jog around the block and to my surprise I could not even make it down the street. I noticed that I had let myself go and gained 40 pounds. I was not only disappointed because I had let myself get into this condition but I decided to take care of business. I worked out every even and went on a restricted diet. Being a family man, I did not let my diet interfere with what my family ate. After one year I had lost the 40 pound and was able to easily run 3 miles daily. I have never allow myself to get into that condition again, by regular exercise and watching what I eat.
Good man! With his understanding and compassion from this experience, he will become a more well rounded individual. Heh. That was a good one. =:D
No seriously, it's a good way of approaching things by seeing both sides of the story. I wish him the best.
I think it will make him a more effective trainer. My exercise teacher is constantly giving us stuff to do that only thin people can do or that are 10x harder if you are overweight ( example - one armed push ups - a lot easier if you weigh 100 lbs and fit vs 150 lbs on a small frame). I hope that he documents his research well and launches a whole new fitness movement that is more effective at helping those who are out of shape get into shape.
This story is worthless without pictures.
lol thats what I was thinking
Me too.
Agreed - a picture would DEFINITELY have been worth the words in the story.
fit2fat2fit.com there's a video as well as pictures and measurements
Just wish pictures had been included in the story. I think he did a wise thing and will be a much better trainer for it.
Here are pics and video
http:// www.mlive.com /health /index.ssf /2011/10/ fit_2_fat_2_fit_personal_train. html
Being healthy and with no other apparent medical complications to interfere with Fit2Fat2Fit, it is great that he can do this and get first-hand experience at what the average sedentary lifestyle is like... however, let's hope he doesn't get a swollen head about it and take on the attitude, "Hey, I lost weight, so you have no excuse!"
That's a fallible hypothesis because people DO have legitimate reasons why they're not whippet-thin and in perfect health. Anything from hormonal complications to genetic diabetes to previous injuries can impact a person's ability to exercise and lose weight. Plus, the older you get, the more difficult it becomes--young people have little or no grasp how one's waning mobility and decreased speed and strength are big factors in weight loss. Now, with the economy in the toilet, fewer people can afford to eat healthier because healthy foods cost too much ($5 for two handfuls of blueberries, anyone?).
In my case, I have joint hypermobility syndrome and several of the complications that accompany it. I'm afraid to run--and with good reason. My ankles dislocate every week just from sleeping, and I've been to the hospital more than once because I get whiplash whenever I sprain an ankle; the sudden jerk to the side knocks my neck out of whack. I recently spent a week and a half in agony that was barely masked by Vicodin because my neck was out of joint, and some fresh-out-of-med-school student tried to tell me it was a muscle strain; I had to grab my own head and crack myself back in to place to get relief (and a most unholy series of cracks it was, too! ew). There is no simple "let's go for a walk" in my exercise book... not without lace-up/velcro ankle braces, a few prayers and a cell phone in case something happens.
So, yea, don't think that everyone is made equal or capable of being their best 24/7.
I sympathize with you, mostly because you believe that you can't do it, that it's harder for you, and that exercise has much at all to do with your weight. It's all your diet. It's very difficult for most people to really believe and get accustomed to how little food you actually should eat, and that you should stay completely away from pasta, grains, bread, etc. - that are such staples of our western diet. You can lose weight and become much healthier if you just shed what you believe about how much you should eat. You should spend a significant amount of time hungry when you are losing, you should go to bed hungry (vicodin will help you sleep, you are lucky, many of us lie awake), etc. - because your body does not WANT to lose weight, it will fight you. It's just willpower. I have done this and have the ultra healthy labs to back it up. Exercise is nothing in this equation, you should exercise and play sports for fun, but don't count on it to really burn much of anything.
I'm not on Vicodin--that was just for the duration of the pain. I don't take any medications. Further, that goes to show you're not reading my statement properly nor are you analyzing my condition properly. Playing sports would be even more dangerous. My body requires slow, careful exercise to avoid injury.
As to what "you should" do being in every statement, it's NOT just "willpower." It's your body's individual metabolism (look at the statement right below this one.) It's also economics. This month, I am losing my apartment because I can no longer pay rent... tell me how someone living in their vehicle is supposed to continue to eat healthy when they have no kitchen, refrigerator, cupboards or money for bags of perishables that will wilt in the hot West Coast sun.
In short, if you're going to buy my my food for me and guide me through every exercise, only THEN do YOU have ANY RIGHT WHATSOEVER to say how I should live my life.
I was not put on this planet to be the picture of perfection, nor to make anyone else feel better for the ten seconds of their life that they look at me while passing me on the street.
Incidentally, if all that sounds a bit harsh... it's supposed to. Even health experts, trained and with years of experience, can endanger the lives of their clients/patients by deciding FOR them what should and shouldn't be done prior to examining their history and without listening to the person they're treating. For people on the internet who have no knowledge of my lifestyle, habits, medical conditions, etc. to automatically assume they know how to "fix" me is sad misguidance at the least and arrogance at the most.
Tera--even nutritionists do not understand nutrition; they are guessing (go read up about how we wound up with transfat in our diets). Even doctors have no idea what makes one person lose weight easily and the next person gain weight on precisely the same regimen or medication. For you to patronizingly (don't pretend that you are being "encouraging"--you are talking down) tell someone that it is his "attitude" that is getting in the way is like telling a person who is clinically depressed to "just make up your mind to be happy--like me!"
People who make a habit out of telling others that they can do things if they just set their minds to it generally are trying to cover up the fact that they have some advantage that others do not--it could be genetic (a quick metabolism), it could be physiological (strong joints), it could be socio-economic (you live in a neighborhood with easy access to farmer's markets or health food--or you have enough money to buy health food), or it could be geographical (you live somewhere that you can walk to the store or to do errands without being run over), it could be temporary (youth).
Look--I'll try to put this simply. If we still lived in a time when there was no birth control or drugs to treat common STDs, then we probably would have trouble with people having families that are too large or health problems from STDs. It might seem logical to think that if one wanted to know how to have a smaller family or how to keep STDs from spreading, that one would look at people with small families and few or no STDs. Sadly, however, the people who would fit those categories best would be frigid, asexual, homosexual, or so traumatized by sex that they don't want to have any.
These people would tell those with normal sexual urges that they just need to make up their minds to control themselves, that they needed to stop being self-indulgent, and that grinding sex organs together just isn't all that attractive anyway (or that they should change their sexuality). They would say this patronizingly and smugly. However, they would still be frigid, asexual, homosexual, or so traumatized by sex that they don't want any--i.e. atypical.
What is more helpful is to understand that weight gain is natural for some people, and inevitable in some cases (if one has a hormonal irregularity, has too little money to purchase food that won't cause weight gain, or has physical injuries that limit one's movement so that one would have to be malnourished in order to not put on weight). We have birth control pills--and perhaps soon we will have food (Miracle Noodles are great, but too pricey) that will deliver nutrients and fiber without many calories and which will be cheap. Or, perhaps we will figure out what it is about our present food chain (steroids in meat, BPA in packaging, corn in virtually everything including animal food, etc.) that is leading to so much weight gain among the populace and eliminate that from the food chain.
But, no, I don't think anybody needs yet another brain-dead pep talk from some random individual on the Internet who has appointed him or herself an "obesity expert." Have a great day.
IDIOT!
Of course he will lose the weight, its just a publicity stunt.
I eat what I want, when I want and I do not gain weight unless I double my intake. Two of my friends eat a rice cake, drink water, run 2 miles, avoid sweets, avoid alcohol and gain weight.
When I was in college, I had a roommate get angry at me one evening and call me a "fat cow." So to make HER feel better about how I looked, I went home that summer and started running, cut my meals in half and lost nearly 30 pounds in less than three months. The effort cost me, though; I ended up with fatigue, shin splints and anemia. (But hey, I looked good, right? And that's all that matters!)
Only... when I returned for the Fall semester, she looked at me (in my brand-new and smaller clothes, with my clearer complexion and new haircut), sneered at me in disbelief and open disgust, and asked point-blank, "Did you gain WEIGHT!?!"
Lesson learned: YOU CAN NEVER MAKE OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY. And you will never "look good" enough for other people, either, so it's best to save yourself the personal agony about being perfect.
Bump, everyones body and metabolism is different. If your body is in balance with what you eat, you will not gain weight. Its that simple.
Standup, sounds like you had a real bitch of a roommate. I would have requested a new one.
@bumpandrun...you're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, are you?
Inverse, you're not getting Bump's point. Bump can eat anything and stay lean but has noticed that friends can starve and never lose an ounce. I'm in the friends' shoes--I can do 5 hour ever-other-day workouts, get a martial arts belt (red, one shy of black)--and still gain weight (although I'm muscular as all get out). My brother ate like a stevedore and could never put on an ounce. More is about metabolism than anyone seems willing to admit, and yet I don't see studies on that--only on new and creative ways to get us to starve (and probably gain, in my case--I gained 17 lbs on Slimfast, following it steadfastly).
Truly, there is no point in judging--the brutality that the overweight deal with is ridiculous, but you don't see people ravaging smokers and drinkers...
I know what bump is talking about. I worked with a woman that had the ability to eat everything she wanted, and only worked out 3 or 4 times a week. Her mom and two of her sisters were the same way, tall, rail thin, and hungry. I swear at her kids' birthday parties, half of the food was for the four of them. Her mom had 6 kids, and still managed to be only a size 4. My co-worker had 3 babies, all almost 10 lbs, and by the time she came back to work, she was back into her size 2s, or 0s.
Meanwhile, the same time I worked with her, I worked out like a fiend, hiked, ate mostly salads, stayed away from anything high in fat or sugar, drank only water, and if I looked at a piece of cake, I would put on 5 lbs. I tried changing up my routine, changing what I ate and when I ate it, etc, and nothing. I struggled horrendously to stay under 130 lbs, at 5'2". It is disheartening, to say the least, when you struggle to keep your weight under control, and then you see someone put in little-to-no effort, eat everything they want, and they look great.
If you read this message and you are the personal trainer who gained the weight I feel very sorry you put yourself through this!!! I used to be beautiful happy and healthy after my son died in 2001 I have had cancer and now suffering from heart decease even though I have gained so much weight I dont even look or feel the same I too am lazy and tired I dont enjoy life as once I did though I am greatful to
be alive and having survived Cancer I am lost when it comes to loving myself after losing my son I lost me I want to have a goal to start I keep telling myself every day tommorrow and it never comes the story goes deeper but we dont have enough time to discuss it on this line but please I am telling you dont lose yourself you have children mine are grown and fed up with me and I am fed up with me as well. I look forward to hearing the end results after the weight loss. God Bless you and good Luck!!!
My ex wife sees your 70, and raises it another twenty.
Stupid way to demonstrate empathy!
What would be an "acceptable way" in your jaded little world?
I don't think you can compare being overweight for a few months to being overweight for half your life or being overweight your entire life, as well as the health problems you accumulate in all those years of having been overweight. Yes, he may be feeling more lethargic, but he doesn't have heart issues, high blood pressure, or other issues that afflict those who have spent most of their life being overweight because it takes time. Also, unlike most people, he has the advantage of having the entire day to work out and get back into shape, I mean, this is what he does for a living! Try getting a full-time worker who has kids and other obligations to dedicate 3 hours or more a day to exercising. It's just not possible. I know he has good intentions, but it's just not comparable.
yes, and aside from his knowledge, motivation and time to commit to getting back in shape - it will be much easier for him to achieve it due to muscle memory and other factors.
many actors have done this for movie roles and made quick recoveries.
Too many people use the "I simply have no time to work out" excuse. I have a full-time job; I have a husband and two kids; I am taking classes to complete my master's degree; I have not only my own homework to handle, I have the homework of two children to help out with. And this is on top of cooking, laundry, cleaning, errands, and the other myriad things I do each day. And yet I still find time in the evenings to work out. It doesn't take three hours a day--I spend about forty minutes on each of four weekdays and around one hour on each day of the weekend exercising. If I can find time, anyone can.
So what do you expect? Do you want him to spend 10 years overweight just so he can empathize with "pro-longed" laziness instead of just laziness in general? Stop making these excuses and maybe you wouldn't be 100 lbs overweight and complaining about how nobody understands you.
Wow! All I seem to read are excuses why he's dumb and how it is different for fat people. Maybe the reason why some of you are fat is because you make too many excuses in general about your weight and why its harder, impossible, not plausible, etc for you to lose weight. If you're fat and happy, fine. If you're not, do something about it. It is completely possible if you reduce your calories, drink enough water and if you can, exercise more.
If one were to read information about Drew Manning, he has a wife, two daughters age 2 years and 5 months, holds a full time job as a Neuromonitoring Technician, performs household chores of cooking, cleaning, shopping, is a Little League Coach, and is a part time Physical Trainer. He does not have the "entire day to work out and get back into shape." He is a "full time worker who has kids and other obligations." Whether an individual has had weight gain a short period of time, or a lengthy period of time, weight gain is weight gain; and weight loss is weight loss. Normally difficult at best. I pray he is able to make a full transformation to a healthy person again. For some of us, he is a much needed inspiration to do our best to follow his example.
No doubt this trainer is sincere and really wants to help people. But gaining and then losing all that weight is not going to put him in the same circumstances as the obese people who come to him for help. They have a totally different set of life values. He doesn't need to empathize with his clients to help them. Telling them that he did it is not going to motivate them. They have to find their own motivation, and then learn from him how to exercise and eat right.
True, overweight people need to find their own motivation.
However I joined LA Fitness a month ago and their trainers tried to get me into paying for a their services.
My questions to the trainers was "Have you ever been obese?"
They hadn't, so how in the world are they supposed to have any clue about losing weight.
Here's the rub on this. A healthy person can add fat and remove it without too much effort. It's not the same circumstances as someone that has had the weight a long time. Most overweight people get that way by their metabolism slowing down first, then little by little they are eating more than they are burning. By the trainer putting on the weight without losing his metabolism, it will be easy to lose. If the trainer really wanted to know how difficult it is for overweight people to lose weight, stop all physical activity for a year then pack the pounds on. Then see how quickly you bounce back.
He (probably) got the idea from Paul James, an Australian personal trainer who did the same exact thing (except he gained 90 lbs) last year.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2ALxYvbS8
Either way its nice to see dedicated trainers who really care about the struggles of their clients. It can't hurt....unless he doesn't loose the weight.
He merely went on the "American Diet" for FOUR months.
Says he`ll continue for 2 more months then put away the sugar and processed carbs.
Will probably take a bit longer to lose but 80% of being in shape is done in the kitchen.
I would be interested in seeing a daily log/blog or whatever is being used these days to see how much the weight loss is dependant on food vs excercise. The problem I see will be that he will resort to extreme exercise routines to lose the fat the quickest and not follow the routines beginners would follow. Lets watch and see.
Now that's commitment!
Its easy to think he will shed them quickly when his job is working out... but power to him!
Nice. How about a couple pics? Like before and after? Duh!
go to his website fit2fat2fit.com, plenty of pics there. Shame on MSNBC for not having ANY!
Well it's an interesting idea. I consider myself overweight; however, I've never been more than 30 lbs overweight (right now I'd say I'm about 17 lbs overweight). So, when I complain about that excess weight, alot of people say "what are YOU complaining about?" - my husband included. He's gained about 70-75 lbs since we got married, and has lost over 30 this year, but seems to be stuck at 243. This guy may find it's alot easier to gain than to lose.
Also, I have a REAL problem with the term "food addiction." People, we're NOT addicted to Food! We HAVE to eat in order to survive, and our bodies are hard-wired to want the highest calorie foods out there, simply because up until 100 years ago, most of us weren't sure IF we would eat every day. Now, food is so plentiful that things have flipped. In almost any other country in the world, obesity is a "rich man's disease," and the poor are rail-thin and starving. But here it's the other way around, with more obesity amongst the poor - why is that? Some have said that eating healthier is more expensive, and yes I certainly spend more money at the store when I'm trying to diet or eat "healthier." Curious, isn't it?
Food addiction is real. Refined carbs are what makes people fat and brain scans show the same areas in the brain that become active for drug addicts getting their "fix" become active for carb eaters getting their carb on. Lose the bad carbs (sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes) and replace them with meat (fattier is better, leaner meats will leave you lacking energy and hungry sooner) and veggies (preferably green ones) and you can drop weight easy. After an adjustment period of a couple of months you will find out how addicting those carbs were by the lack of addiction you now have if you give it a chance. Google paleo diet to see what you should eat.
Holbrookhill
Nice. How about a couple pics? Like before and after? Duh!
go to the webiste http://www.fit2fat2fit.com/