My Personal Trainer is Fat?

A Personal Trainer in Austraila is purposely gaining weight in order to better understand what his overweight clients go through in their quest to lose weight and get fit. The 32-year-old former underwear model has ballooned from about 180 pounds to 233 since last month. He has given himself until the end of March to get to his goal of 265 pounds, a weight he intends to keep for a few months. Once there he will start training to take the weight off, most likely sometime in July, and plans to take a few of his clients with him so they can lose the weight together.

What prompted this rather drastic action was his inability to understand why some of his clients skip classes and have such a hard time getting to the gym. He figured that in order to better understand where they were coming from he would become them. So after loading up on doughnuts, fried chocolate bars, pizza, and pasta with creamy sauces his clothes no longer fit, he is noticebly fatter, his blood pressure has risen slightly and he reports being more lethargic and having a hard time motivating himself to do anything.

He is also getting a lot of criticism saying that what he is doing is dangerous and that he is merely seeking attention. I am not convinced about how dangerous this really is. Obviously your body will go through negative health consequences but it is so short term that there is nothing that couldn't be reversed and he has no risk of becoming diabetic over that length of time. Perhaps he is seeking attention but I also think you can't really understand where another person is coming from unless you walk in their shoes, even if it is for just a little while.

Personal trainers should be role models for their clients but I feel there is insight to be gained by understanding how life is different in the skin of someone who is overweight. It is easy to tell clients to exercise but if you have 60 pounds of fat on you, exercise isn't as easy as it would be if you didn't have that excess weight. I also think that people respond better to someone who they feel understands them. There can be a major disconnect between people who have been fit and healthy their whole lives and those who have developed unhealthy habits over time. It may not be the eaxct same situation (obviously it doesn't address the emotional reasons people overeat etc)but knowing that the person who is telling you to do 10 more pushups has been there may be helpful or at the very least give them one less excuse.

I admire his dedication, I don't think I would ever be willing to gain 85 pounds just to see what it is like. I wish he had a blog, it would be interesting to hear how his weight loss goes and what insights he may gain from going through this.