Personal trainer makes himself obese
 

Did anyone see this article?
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/healt...rpose-2583990/

A personal trainer is spending six months eating unhealthy foods and not exercising in an effort to gain weight. After this period of time, he'll spend six months losing the weight. What are your thoughts on this?

While I admire what he's doing and taking the concept of "walking a mile in someone's shoes" I don't think he'll truly be able to understand. Yes, he physically has an understanding of what it's like to be feel unhealthy, the daily difficulty of tying his shoes, etc. He says he has become addicted to the unhealthy foods, so maybe he will struggle a little. But so many of us spent a lifetime of unhealthy living. It's not easy for us to just flip the switch and suddenly maintain a healthy lifestyle. We work really hard at what we're doing. Do you think it will be that hard for him after only experiencing this lifestyle for six months?

Well, I was slim for most of my life, put on weight a few years ago, and am a first-time dieter. From what I can tell, I am indeed having an easier time of it than most people here. So I think you're right. On the other hand, I've still experienced and learned a lot. He may not get the full picture, and he may come out of it thinking that weight loss is easier than it actually is for most people, but he should still end up learning a fair amount, about the mechanics of dieting if nothing else.

You often hear about actors who put on weight for a specific role. Does anyone know how easy they find it to lose the weight again? It's probably different for them, since their profession pressurises them to keep a very low weight most of the time, especially women, along with crazy working hours and eating habits.

I'm going to give him props for at least trying to understand.

Will he understand every story, and everything that comes with being overweight? No. But, he also admits that himself in the short article.

Even a short period of time being obese will likely give him some idea of the struggle. Even if it's the day to day. And it might help him understand some of his clients more.

maybe.

I'm starting to realize more and more though that overweight has a lot of emotional elements. He's not going to understand that any better is he?

In general, folks who are overweight have some set of circumstances that caused them to get there. Often there are emotional issues. I'm pretty sure that was true in my case at times, at least as an adult.

In my husband's case, he just loves to eat. He is the most stable, secure person I know. And he's active. But over time, the weight added up. He's lost a lot of the excess weight now, but he was in the obese category, at least by BMI standards (but he always had a lot of muscle, along with some fat).

But my real point is that this personal trainer will NOT be an expert on weight management issues simply because he has been heavy. He will face *some* small subset of the issues that heavy people face. That may allow him to relate to people like my husband, but heck, my husband really didn't have much trouble losing the weight either. He just decided he would have to give up dessert and keep an eye on serving sizes and voila.

Most people who are heavy have issues and circumstances and complexities that resulted in their being overweight, rather than making a conscious decision that it would enhance their career to become heavy temporarily. He is obviously not facing those complexities, and in the end he is likely to connect LESS with people who struggle, since he will feel like he's "been there" when he really hasn't.

Probably not. Nor will he understand from the point of view of someone who has hormonal issues, takes medication that makes causes them to want to eat like a monster, gain weight, etc.

I think he's playing with fire. Becoming obese to understand his clientelle better makes about as much sense as a substance abuse counselor deciding to understand his clients better by using heroine, meth or large amounts of alcohol every day for six months.

Not all obese folks are "food addicts" but the types of foods he's talking about eating, do have addictive properties. He's not putting on 100 lbs by way of food considered healthier (and it would be possible, I gained much of my weight on foods many people say "no one ever got fat, eating..." - foods like whole grains, legumes and fruit).

There's been a good deal of research that has found that it can actually be rather difficult for many "naturally lean" folks to put on weight and keep it on.

If this guy is one of those folks, he may find that the weight comes of quite easily, and it's likely that he'll assume it will be as easy for his clients (or at least he won't fully understand that not everyone will have it as easy).

And if he's not one of the genetically lucky, he may find getting the weight off is a lot harder than he anticipated. It's even possible that he will never be able to get it off. His little experiment could backfire in a big way.

And while most obesity-mediated illnesses occur over time, he's still putting himself at risk physically for blood sugar disorders, liver and gallbladder problems, heart attack and stroke...


I think he probably considers himself "bullet-proof" to some degree, thinking that his previous "healthfulness" protects him from the possible effects of (assumed) temporary obesity.

Also, dieting itself has risks, so if he uses a vlcd to get back to his original weight, he'll potentially face those issues as well. A heart-attack or stroke may help him sympathise with his clients better, but geez that's a pretty high price to pay for some empathy.

I think there are better ways to acquire empathy than trying to physically put yourself in someone else's shoes.