The concept is interesting, maybe it will help his clients (I used to hate working out with a trainer who would tell me she knows what its like to be fat because she had put on 13 lbs once when she was sick for a while). It could work if the client likes the idea of losing weight with someone (but will he be doing this often? Not to mention the health problems he may incur from high fat and greasy diet).

Fried chocolate bars sound good right about now though,lol.

I think it's a great idea, and will help him more fully understand what overweight people go through, and thus help his clients in a deeper way.

It's cool so long as he didn't damage his health permanently in the process.

I don't know... it doesn't sound very healthy to me to become overweight on purpose, even if he is trying to help others. But, that's just me.

I am not completely sold on it but probably something good will come out of it.

I'm undecided. I applaud his desire to understand his clients, but am not sure if risking his health is worth it.

However, I do think it would be enlightening if trainers would have to go through a complete workout or two while wearing 80lbs of body weights.

I recently had a discussion with a trainer who was making a 100lbs overweight new-to-fitness woman do hardcore plyometric training. She couldn't understand what the woman found so difficult about it and inferred that she was being difficult and lazy. I've run into this type of thing often.

Um...good for him for wanting to understand his clients, but I'm going to have to go with uncool on this one. Why make yourself unhealthy when you're healthy to begin with? Especially with those food choices.

In theory, it's an interesting concept. I just don't know how empathetic he's going to be, since he gained weight on purpose. Once you know how to lose weight, it's not usually that difficult to do it again. Actors do it all the time...not that it's a healthy thing to do. I think it could lead to yo-yoing, which isn't great either. It will be really interesting to see how he adapts to working out with the extra weight. He'll probably come up with some very interesting workout programs for his clients.

That's really intense. That's what I call passion for what you do.

I bet the dude will blog about it and then hope to get a book deal out of it.

He'll never have the same experience as his clients, who have slower metabolisms and are genetic predisposed to be heavier. Or clients who tend to overeat. What he is forcing himself to do, is what some people do naturally, and have been doing all their lives. So, there isn't much of a comparison.
I agree however that he might come up with interesting exercises for overweight people. Being at bad shape plus carrying extra lbs kills a lot of the motivation to work out.

wow, great idea! It won't clue him into everything the morbidly obese deal with, but its the closest he'll ever come. Bravo to him for wanting to better understand his clients. I disagree that gaining the weight will somehow leave him damaged. People live at that weight and bigger every day without risk of suddenly croaking. Fact is based on muscle memory alone he'll snap right back into shape once he picks up his healthy habits again.

Weird.

I'm on the fence about it, really. Props for wanting to understand his clients, but he's only understanding the physical limitations - the beer gut, the love handles, the jiggle, and the exhaustion that comes with being overweight like that. He's not getting the emotional aspect of it nearly as much, and by that I mean the constant overeating and the years and years of being at an unhealthy weight. Plus, packing on the pounds reminds me a lot of Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me, and his health stats went plummeting to the awful after only 30 days on McDonald's. He might be able to lose the weight and bounce back, but such an effect on the body might still be detrimental.

Interesting.. but kind of unhealthy right? hmm

I just hope he doesn't get hooked on the donuts and fried foods... losing the weight and kicking those delicious greasy foods is harder than putting weight on in the first place.

Wrong on so many levels!Can't imagine unfit and unhealthy trainer trying to motivate me to get in shape and stay in shape!Do your research,read special literature,attend classes,make personal connections with your clients instead of ruining your heath.

I'm on the fence, as well. My trainer gained some weight (as did some of the other trainers in my gym) because they were doing a "body challenge" program and the idea was that they would be examples and people could actually see the results, but she didn't gain as much as this person did, nor was she eating deep fried everything. She just put a little bit more junk in the trunk, so to speak.

So I have to say, I find this cool in that when he goes to lose weight he'll be working alongside his clients, but at the same time, if he wants to claim that he'll completely understand what they're going through, that's an entirely different matter. I would be pissed if a trainer told me that because they gained weight from eating all the 'bad' foods in excess, they understood what it felt like to be overweight, when for me I have to be eating *perfectly* and exercising constantly in order to lose even a little weight (and I'm not at a healthy weight yet).

I can empathize with the idea of being able to understand the weight loss journey of your clients but I don't understand putting your own health and well being at risk at all.

It will certainly get him a lot of attention and clients = $$$.

Hope he succeeds in helping himself and his clients lose it.

Personally, I think he's just looking for free publicity, and I wouldn't want a trainer who knowingly put himself in an unhealthy position, whatever the reason. It just seems silly to me.

I think it's a nifty idea but really? I can't see intentionally harming my body to that degree for the sake of experimentation.

Also - I think that the study is a bit skewed. He'll lose the weight again and probably rather easily since he already knows what to do and has the motivation to do it. Nevertheless I'd be interested in seeing what he "finds".

yeah, not cool -- because he's operating under the assumption that every overweight/obese person out there is a huge glutton who does nothing but sit around all day and shove food into their pie holes. i'd hazard a guess that most people gain their weight gradually, over years of eating slightly more than their bodies need to stay at a lower weight.

i know plenty of big people who have lousy habits, and plenty of big people who can blow past me on hiking trails or in the pool. i think it's shameful to use sweeping generalizations like this and assume that all overweight and obese people gorge themselves. (and P.S., i'm saying this as a thin person.)

i feel like all this little experiment is going to do is make this guy (who, and i'm going waaaay out on a limb here, is probably a jerk) think that all fat people ate the way he did to get where they are. then, he's going to go back to his normal habits and, voila! get thin again, because that's what is the standard for his body. (not to mention the fact that after eating like that, his metabolism is going to be crazy revved up.) and then he's going to expect that his clients can do the same as easily as he did.

plus, as others said, this dude is totally going for publicity. empathize my @$$.

This is clearly a gimmick and it's stupid. And it may very well backfire. I don't want to buy the services of an overweight out-of-shape trainer...if you can't even get yourself in shape what the heck can you do for me???

I think it's a great idea! This way he'll actually know how his clients feel, and I think that compassion will go a long way. I don't think he's going to damage his health in any way, a lot of people gain weight and lose it and it's fine!

it is not cool to put your health in jeopardy. i get what he's trying to do, but it's not good for his body.

I think that it's interesting. I have gained weight -- but because I went from not eating more than 1 meal a day and cheerleading/other activities. To eating regular meals, some definite bad choices, and my weight skyrocketed. About 50 lbs in 2 years. It's gross, but whatever. I am trying to lose it now. Anyway, I think that because I have been on both ends of the spectrum I understand people's predicaments a little more. I didn't do it on purpose, but I believe he will gain some insight. Sometimes your body changes, you feel deprived, and all of the sudden food is shoved into your mouth left and right -- you can gain a serious amount of weight in a short amount of time. I hope he starts to understand clients a bit more, so maybe he can change his approach and make those who are overweight and struggling with motivation have success.

well, he's sure getting a lot of attention from it. he might damage himself permanently if he isn't careful, though. anything from stretch marks to strain on his heart could happen, not to mention he might still crave all the fatty foods he's eating and never go completely back to his old lifestyle.

i'm not sure that it's the smartest thing to do. think about what it does to your body - to your health and your heart. just so that you can 'understand' what your clients are going through. it's just too extreme to me. i think that yes you won't be in their shoes but you have knowledge and understanding and that should in reality help you relate more.

i have already heard of it and my innicial reaction was wow how cool... but then i remembered all the health issues involved and i changed my mind, this is ridiculuos, he's losing his health and losing the weight won't return it back.

I think everyone made some really insightful comments on this. I personally gained 35 pounds in 4 years in college because I stopped playing sports, and ate a little too much junk, not because I was a "glutton," and he won't really ever be able to understand *how* his clients got to where they are, just how it feels. For that reason, I like Sass's idea of working out wearing weights. I used to be a competitive distance runner, and trust me, running with 35 extra pounds makes it seem 35 times harder.

My main worry is he won't get out of the mind-set that his clients also "chose" to pig-out. Sure, every cookie or cream sauce is a choice, but there are many reasons why obese people make these choices, and most likely they were either overweight since childhood, or the weight crept on like 10-20 pounds here or there, averaging out to be 10 pounds a year. My mom is obese, and she got that way due to medications to treat mental illness, and the weight gain happened over a period of 10 years.

Allytta- "he's losing his health and losing the weight won't return it back."

I'm not saying he isn't doing more harm than it's worth to his body, but when people lose weight, their risk factors for certain obesity-related illnesses like diabetes and heart disease do go down. Someone might read your comment and think you believed there were no health benefit to losing weight!

interesting....fit..i'd love to see another article on this in the future.

I think that there is probably a big disconnect between trainers who have been fit and healthy all of their lives and their clients who have not been. When you adopt that lifestyle early and know no other way but to exercise frequently and eat the right foods, I can see why it would be hard to relate to some clients. Although by gaining weight he isn't neccesarily going through the exact same thing his clients are, I think it can give him a new perspective he hasn't had before. To me it seems a lot less condescening than putting a fat suit on and claiming you understand the pain of being overweight. Once that experiemnt is over you get to take the weighted vest or fat suit off, people who are overweight dont have that luxary and they have to work to get the weight off which is exactly what he will have to do as well. It may not be exactly the same but I would also be interested in a follow up to this story to see what his experience was like.

This doesn't make sense, because he has lived a healthy lifestyle for so long he is not going to know what it's like to "feel unmotivated or skip a workout". Why would gaining weight all of a sudden give him that feeling of unmotivation? He will ALWAYS want to work out. He will never know the emotions of being emotionally addicted to food because he TRIED to gain weight. Because this whole thing was by choice the emotions don't come with it.

I agree with what Hellokitty87 said a few posts ago.. let's hope he doesn't get stuck on the fatty foods. I think he's doing it for the reasons he said, to see what it's like for the clients trying to lose weight, which he could get a BIT of a feel for. BUT I also think he is using it as an excuse to step into the temptation that is all the delicious sugary and greasy foods out there. It's tough. Being healthy in our culture is really tough.

Good on him for being so committed. Most of us are willing to take more advice from people who have 'been there done that' and come through it. Thing is, he has a goal to do this and therefore has the mindset, the know how and plan to change. In normal circumstances people fall into problems due to unforeseen reasons and part of changing is coming to terms with that and there own inhibitions. Overcoming diversity is one thing, planning to change and change back? I'm not sure how real that is. I'll give him one thing though, he's got guts!Heh

lol ...said good bye sweet abs

I don't think it is necessary for a trainer to gain weight to be as heavy as his clients, in order to know how hard it is for them to lose weight. ...I think he had a purpose for doing it...He wanted to get known..And gain the public's attention...So he can gain a lot of love from people and make a whole lot more money??