Man intentionally eats high-carb junk food to gain weight before trying to lose it again

Screen Shot 2011-10-19 At 11.45.09 Am

Left: Before. Right: Now.

For the last 23 weeks, personal trainer Drew Manning has been eating "sugary cereal, soda, chips, white bread, white pasta, pizza, cakes, cookies, muffins, etc." in order to gain weight.

He's gained 70 pounds so far. In a few weeks, he plans to get back in shape by exercising and avoiding junk food. He promises to share his fitness regime.

Here is his typical daily diet, then and now:

The “Before I Discovered How Many Types of Cap’n Crunch There Really Are” Menu

1st Breakfast

Spinach shake (500 calories)

2nd Breakfast

Low-carb protein bar (200 calories)

Almonds – (200 calories)

1/2 banana – (50 calories)

1st Lunch

Grilled chicken w/ low sugar marinade and steamed veggies (600 calories)

2nd Lunch

Spinach shake - 1/2 before, 1/2 after workout (500 calories)

1st Dinner

Fajitas without the tortilla and veggies – (600 calories)

2nd Dinner

Protein shake with water (250 calories)

The “After I Single Handedly Kept 3 Fast Food Restaurants Open” Menu

Breakfast

Cereal (600 calories)

Juice (100 calories)

Snack

Granola Bars (200 calories)

Soda (150 calories)

Lunch

2 peanut butter and nutella sandwiches on white bread (800 calories)

Snack

Chips (200 calories)

A “few” cookies (250 calories)

Dinner

Pasta with sauce and ground beef (800 calories)

Soda (150 calories)

Dessert/Late Night Snack

“Small” bowl of cereal -(300 calories)

or Cake (400 calories)

Fit2Fat2Fit

(Via Free the Animal)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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joeposts

I did a similar thing, but reversed the process – started out fat, got thin, then got fat again. I would share the secret, but it’s really just sloth, gluttony and ST:TNG marathons.
bcsizemo

Achievement! Bear mode unlocked!

-actually I think he passed bear mode twenty pounds or so ago.
boo

Although I don’t find the “before” picture particularly attractive, the “after” is, as he expects, pretty awful.

I just hope he hasn’t done any long term damage to his heart: once the fat packs in around a primary organ, you don’t lose it by exercising.

I also notice that he doesn’t flash his “pearly whites” in the second photo: terminal tooth rot from all the sugar? That’s not easily fixed either.

Frankly, the “before” menu is not a normal human diet either.
- joeposts
  
  You mean spinach doesn’t naturally come in ‘shake’ form?
  
  I’m with kcmpls – If I were a woman or 35% gayer I’d go for chubby, hairier Drew. He probably has a better sense of humour than skinny, waxed Drew, plus he takes me out for burgers and beer, rather than liquid vegetable slurry and 5 kilometre jogs.
  - marilove
    
    Word. I’m a woman and I prefer bigger, furry guys to perfectly muscled, tanned guys, who tend to be boring and far too obsessed with fitness and “nutrition”.
    
    And, seriously, he has the MOST BORING diet on the planet. There’s a difference between being healthy and fit, and being way too obsessed with fitness/health *perfection* — it’s boring. It’s not living. I’d rather be with someone who is fairly fit, maybe a bit chubby — someone who enjoys life and actually enjoys real, delicious food.
    
    Food is not an enemy. You can be healthy and still enjoy delicious foods! There is a middle ground that this guy is completely missing (either eat like total crap, or eat ridiculously boring foods). Reminds me of the dude who ate McDonald’s every day, all day, and claimed fast food Is Evil. Extremes don’t prove anything.
    
    Screw this “must work out every day and eat the same exact meals every day, all consisting of spinach ”shakes” and boring grilled chicken breasts.” So boring. Life isn’t worth living if you can’t enjoy it.
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  Frankly, the “before” menu is not a normal human diet either.
  
  Paraphrasing Ray Kurzweil, a “normal human diet” is one that will let you live a short, brutish existence until you’ve passed on your genes, then you die, aged, if you’re lucky, 30. I would absolutely eat the “before” stuff if it meant being healthy and living longer.
  - marilove
    
    But is living longer doesn’t necessarily mean a better quality of life. This recent post is relevant:
    
    http://boingboing.net/2011/10/19/the-biosphere-2-starvation-diet.html
    
    According to a commenter that references a study on starvation, their sex drive is likely lacking, as people on that diet are basically starving themselves. Sure, they’ll live longer, apparently, but they won’t be having any fun sex. I’d rather live a little less and have a sex drive, but that’s just me!
  - Radka
    
    Bah! Disagree. There are many groups of people who live much longer than most of us on various traditional diets. Nothing resembling the “before” diet of the subject. The whole ‘dying at 30′ is not an accurate representation of our ancestors life-spans. It’s an average taken that includes people killed by force as well as children. Harldy an accurate representation.
- cdh1971
  
  I dunno…except for the bananas – which make my nose itch – the ‘before’ diet looks pretty good to me.
Textuality

I might be missing something, but this will likely prove nothing more than he has the time to work out for hours a day without it interfering with the rest of his life. You know, being a personal trainer and all.

Give him a 12 hour working day in an office (including commute) and then see how well he does at getting the fat off.
- eyebeam
  
  I work 8-10 hours at a desk, 5 days a week. I’ve lost 65 pounds over the last 3 years (20 in the past 3 months), simply by cutting down my portions and getting more active. Not extended workouts, I try to take stairs whenever I can, and go hiking on the weekends. I’m now in better shape than when I was in high school 20 years ago.
bcsizemo

Actually I seen this posted other places and Drew makes a very valid point. Being overweight isn’t just about being fat or wearing bigger clothes. He makes it a point to state how all the little things in his life have changed. How it is harder to tie his shoes, climbing stairs in harder now, how out of shape he feels, the way others look at him. He acknowledges that he will never truly understand what it is like to be fat long term, but as a personal trainer at least he is better to empathise with his trainees.

And he also points out his sex life (girlfriend, not some random hookups) has gotten less frequent as the pounds went on.
- marilove
  
  I’m considered fat (though my “numbers” are perfectly fine) and I have plenty of sex. And it’s not vanilla sex, either, and I have plenty of stamina (been with a few super fit guys that couldn’t keep up!). Lots and lots of fat people have lots and lots of sex.
  
  TMI, I know, but seriously, this “fat people don’t have as much sex/can’t keep up during sex” thing is bullshit. He may be having less sex because he feels different from what he’s used to feeling. Self-conscious in his new body. Not all fat people feel this way, however.
flowergardenslayer

He’s probably one of the lucky people who were born with bodies that easily shed pounds. It’s not any more impressive than having blue eyes, IMHO.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KSGO6I4EY3L6NSLFWHS7ZSNUUQ Twm

What has carbs got do with this? He’s been eating around 1000 calories more per day for 6 months and presumably stopped exercising. And now he’s fat.

The man’s a genius. This is the best free publicity a personal trainer could wish for.
Dennis Abbeduto

Importantly, he also stopped exercising. This experiment would have been more interesting had he only changed one variable at a time, so as to demonstrate which had the greater impact on his fitness.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8834925 Chauncey Scott

He’s going to shed lbs easier than a person of similar weight, bc his body composition is different. He has muscles that were big that are now dormant compared to muscles that were never developed. Plus he used to eat “right” in a personal trainer sense, so it won’t be that hard for his “lifestyle change” back to eating that way. VS someone who’s never drank a spinach shake, or called sauteed chicken and veggies a fajita.
- ClogginBoydCrowder
  
  Without the veggies!
nosehat

Who eats just half a banana?
- marilove
  
  People who are so obsessed with caloric intake that it borders on an eating disorder.
  - xzzy
    
    Downside being, scrutinizing calorie intake is necessary for some people to manage their weight.
    
    There are people out there who can go to the gym every single day, and still put on weight if they don’t measure portions.
    - marilove
      
      There’s being reasonable about caloric intake and being completely obsessed to the point of it being an eating disorder. Half a banana?! Really? Sorry, but I bet this guy is not very fun to be around if he’s so obsessed with caloric intake that he can’t eat en entire freakin’ banana.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Half a banana?!
        
        Sometimes you want a little something to keep your blood sugar up, but not enough bulk in your stomach to cause reflux when you’re exercising. I frequently eat a half piece of fruit an hour before teaching yoga class.
      - marilove
        
        I get that, but this is part of his daily diet, that he writes down and plans out, because his caloric intake is so restrictive, he can’t even eat a full banana. Way, way too obsessive and different from why you might eat half a pice of fruit.
      - cdh1971
        
        I interpreted his ‘before’ menu to simply be an example of a random day – maybe 1/2 an apple (or whatever) one day, and 1/2 a banana the next and so forth.
        
        The 1/2 fruit might be what he found to give him energy but not fill him up like Antinous says, so when he plans his menu he specifies 1/2 a fruit. But you might be right tho…
- boo
  
  Small women like me! :}
  - marilove
    
    One of the smallest women I know eats more than I can in a single sitting (seriously, I don’t know where she stores it, though I just assume she has a very high metabolism), and I’m probably twice her size, so….
    - bcsizemo
      
      So obviously you either has a chemical issue, or you are simply consuming more calorically dense food than she is. Or she does a lot of exercise you don’t know about.
      
      It really is calories in vs. calories out.
      - marilove
        
        She’s one of my closest friends and I know her very well. She exercises but not THAT much. She just has a very high metabolism (I edited the comment after you replied!). People with the caloric intake out vs in argument seem to forget that metabolism also matters. It’s really not as simple as “eat less, exercise more!”. I promise. Genetics. Medication. Metabolism. Etc. It all matters and it can all make losing weight difficult.
        
        I was mostly commenting on the assumption I was gathering from that comment that small women eat half bananas because a full banana is just “oh no too much!” for small women in one sitting. I actually can’t eat that much in one sitting, and I’m considered fat. I get full easily.
      - Radka
        
        Definitely. I think if someone wants to loose weight they need to work on increasing their metabolism. I seem to remember an article in (I think) the NY Times about people’s body temperature being lower nowadays than in the past… We’ve turned into a nation of slow metabolism. I’m probably a lot like your friend in my size and eating and when I measure my morning temperature, I’m like a furnace!
      - http://twitter.com/BlackoutSappy Nathan Alan
        
        no, it’s about macro nutrients in vs. out, you will have more muscle mass and less fat if you eat a diet of 90% protein vs a diet of 90% sugar and fat. easy dude
      - Alistair Tweed
        
        “It really is calories in vs. calories out.”
        No, it really isn’t.
        If that were true, you could eat 1000 calories of sugar or fat or protein and they would all have the same effect. They don’t.
Glippiglop

With all that muscle under his fat, losing the weight shouldn’t be that difficult for him. I’m sure that someone who was equally fat but very unfit (i.e. low muscle mass) would have a much harder time.
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

The cropping of the photo on the left at the top makes it look like the top of his head probably blooms into a Teletubby-like antenna out of the photo-frame.

As for his “fat guy” diet, try going on a cruise ship if you want to really impress us with gluttony.

No alcohol? No aerosolized cheese product? No oreos? No ice cream? NO CHIPS?!Meh. Amateur.

Edit – oh wait, I missed his snack. 200 calories of chips and/or 250 calories of cookies. What an oinker!
http://twitter.com/jordanyerman jordan yerman

How is it a fajita without the tortilla and vegetables?
- public bizmail
  
  “How is it a fajita without the tortilla and vegetables”
  
  By being authentic.
  
  “Fajita” was originally a South Texas invention for marinating really tough beef cuts like the diaphragm. After three days of marination the formerly unchewable beef was served with tortillas, fried onions, and whatever suited the cook. The tortilla was just a serving method; knife-and-fork was fine. Vegetables were definitely optional.
  
  I remember, back in the day, my then-brother-in-law doubling over in laughter when someone asked him about a “chicken fajita.” It was all about marinated tough cuts of beef.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Wow… so it’s apparently ok to judge someone’s charater based on their appearance if they’re fit?

What’s with the double standard? People will defend someone for being somewhat overweight or out of shape, but this guy is automatically a douche because he was in incredibly good shape? He’s a personal trainer! His job is to know how to be in incredibly good shape! Yeah, fuck that guy for being good at his job – indeed, his life must be terrible.
- joeposts
  
  “so it’s apparently ok to judge someone’s charater based on their appearance if they’re fit?”
  
  What bugs me about the pics – and it’s fairly minor – is this.
  
  LEFT PHOTO: Thin, smiling, unnaturally hairless, unnaturally tan. Flexing his muscles, leaning forward.
  
  RIGHT PHOTO: Fat, frowning, naturally hairy, naturally pale. Head back, gut out.
  
  It’s a classic bullshit before-and-after advertising gimmicry and he wants all of us to say “Before! Before! Oh Gawd Before!” because he knows we all like hairless, tanned, smiling guy. Not hairy, frowny, fatty.
  
  Jesus, GIVE FATTY A CHANCE. Let him smile, at least?
  
  I guess we shouldn’t judge people on appearances. Unless they are poorly photoshopped female fashion models. Then it’s ok to laugh because that is a bb tradition.
http://twitter.com/joefulgham Joe Fulgham

What he’s eating (sugary vs. high-protein) has little to do with his weight gain. The difference is in the total calories he’s eating now (3950 calories) vs total calories before (3000) and the loss of calories expended from exercise. With the body he had I would estimate he used to put in a hardcore ~1000 calorie workout every day, bringing his previous net calories down to about 2000, a fine “maintenance” range for an male of his age.

So he’s taking in an extra ~1950 calories/day, which is about half a pound of fat. Half a pound a day gained over 23 weeks would work out to be 80.5 lbs gained, so my estimates aren’t that far off.

For weight loss/gain, *what* you eat is nowhere near as important as how many calories you eat vs. what you expend. He could have continued to eat his previous “healthy” diet but increased its total calories to 3950 and stopped his exercising and he’d have gained just as much weight.

For an example of weight loss eating junk food I submit the Twinkie Diet: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

That man lost 27 lbs in 10 weeks eating nothing but junk food. He exercised and kept his total calories down though.

Calories in vs. calories out, people. That’s 99% of weight loss. Everything else people espouse for weight loss just helps you keep those calories down. For example, fat keeps you from getting hungry so eating your calories in lower-carb/higher-fat foods makes it easier to eat less. That’s the real secret of Atkins and similar diets.
BarBarSeven

This is fascinating, but isn’t it just the Web 2.0 version of a comic book/magazine “Lose weight fast!” ad?
http://twitter.com/MarySueTwiteth Mary Sue

Fajitas without the tortilla and veggies
So… steak? Or chicken?

I don’t think ‘Before’ Drew is attractive.

And to get that kind of muscles means you’re spending more time worrying about your food intake and exercise regime than you would about spending time with me. So, you know, that’s also not attractive.

Seriously, though, the two movie stars I have the BIGGEST crushes on are Nick Frost and Tyler Labine. Give me a big ol’ good ol’ boy any day.
http://twitter.com/chuckmonkey2010 Chuck

did he also quit exercising too? it seems to me that even on 4000 calories a day, if he did regular aerobics and weight-training he would not have gained as much weight.
Mister44

Good lord – anyone ever heard of a happy medium? I would kill myself if I had to eat either diet.
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

“Man intentionally eats high-carb junk food to gain weight before trying to lose it again”:

Jesus God, don’t we have anything better to do, anymore?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XUNTE7TKB6C52MMPHK2FFQ6N7M Brooke
  
  I was just reading a story about Sudanese refugee camps. I wonder what they think of this guy.
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

“Man intentionally eats high-carb junk food to gain his nipples back.”

(Look at the photo and see for yourself.)
Lobster

The man eats like a hobbit. Is 2nd Breakfast Elevensies, or would that be 1st Lunch?
- http://twitter.com/jordanyerman jordan yerman
  
  Yeah, I was kind of waiting for Viggo Mortensen to throw him an apple.
kristen55

This isn’t really going to prove anything. Most of the ‘before and after’ pics in diet ads are people who were thin, got fat after some lifestyle change, and then easily lost it again. It’s completely different for an average Joe with a slower metabolism to go from being shaped like your average ST fan to being a six-pack-packin’ hardbody. His evolution back to fit won’t really be proving anything. I’d be more impressed if he took an average Joe and helped him get fit with a diet he could actually live with for the rest of his life, and I think most people would agree that wouldn’t include spinach shakes.

BTW – two? Did I read that right? TWO PB & Nutella sandwiches for lunch? Who the hell does that?!
noah django

I was under the impression from my friend Merry that humans didn’t know about second breakfast.
George Tirebiter

Also, doesn’t the ease with which you ditch fat partially depend on how long you’ve been carrying it around? he hasn’t had it for decades.
Mooph

Wow. There are a number of pricks in this thread carrying around that jock hatred they should have gotten over long ago.

I too question the validity of what this is meant to prove given the lack of a control and all. However, this animosity that a few people are displaying in this thread is downright juvenile and smacks of repressed (oh hell, maybe overt) issues of self worth.
http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch

Wait, how did he grow that hair back he permanently removed?
http://twitter.com/maxpinton Max Pinton

Something that always bugs me about before and after photos is that they’re so easy to manipulate. He’s obviously sucking it in and pumping it up on the left and letting it all hang out on the right. Obviously he’s gained weight but the contrast isn’t as extreme as it looks. Makes for impressive photos though.
Halloween_Jack

A couple of comments about this. First, although I don’t doubt that he’s put on some weight, a lot of the change could have come simply from some of the standard techniques of the before-and-after fitness photo genre, only done in reverse. Some of it’s pretty obvious: the “before” picture looks like it was taken with a Polaroid camera, whereas the “after” one is done by a professional photographer; the person is pumped up, sucking in their gut, seems to have liberally slathered on the bronzing gel; etc. I can’t find the link now, but a guy who’s done his share of these photos for fitness and diet programs showed how a bit of a pot belly can be exaggerated in the before photo by relaxing your stomach muscles and pushing your belly out. The effect doesn’t seem as marked here–the before photo also seems done by an amateur–but it’s still there.

Second, all the people who are obsessing over the demi-banana need to understand the importance of portion control in a lot of diet systems. A lot of people, myself definitely included, have a real problem with that slippery slope–if you are supposed to have only one slice of pizza, you start making that slice bigger until you’re rationalizing that it’s only one piece if you don’t cut the whole pie in the first place. So, if you’re only supposed to have half a banana, you give it to your girlfriend or give it to the dog or express mail it to your mom so she can make banana bread with it or mulch it or buy smaller bananas (and weigh them out at the grocery store).
TonyWooster

Maybe he just doesn’t like bananas that much, and is doing it for the potassium? My S.O. likes bananas, but finds a whole one just too-much-banana. People are different, get over the banana!
http://grumer.org/ Avram Grumer

Hey, could we cut back on comments about how awful one or the other of the bodies look?

I mean, it’s fine to talk about the quality of the photography, or how he appears to be leaning forward in the left photo and maybe leaning back in the right. But think twice before you pronounce some particular level of body fat, hair, or musculature to be the ideal outside of which a person doesn’t qualify for basic human dignity.
Megan Uhelski

Hey, the second diet sounds like what I eat every day–lots of carbs, not much protein–and I struggle to maintain 110 lbs. I’m so underweight that WiiFit made me set a goal to GAIN weight. He must have a terrible metabolism. Also, how did he transition to the crappy diet so quickly? Most of the stuff that’s bad for you tastes terrible (because it’s mainly chemical ‘flavors’ anyway) in comparison to fresh, healthy foods. I can’t even look at kid’s cereals any more because they are nothing but fluff, artifical flavors, and poop-staining dyes.
Cowicide

Exercise more – Eat less

-end of transmission
- marilove
  
  Seriously? We’re still doing this? It’s NOT THAT SIMPLE.
  
  Metabolism.
  
  Genetics.
  
  Medications one takes.
  
  Certain diseases/disorders.
  
  It can all make a difference when it comes to weight-loss.
  
  Even when I exercised a lot (gym membership, and no car, so I walked a LOT), and didn’t eat much (I was poor), I was still 5’3″ and 160 lbs. I was considered fat, even though I was perfectly healthy (I was chubby, and not ripped). My metabolism just isn’t that fast, and the majority of the women in my family are short and stocky. I have huge freakin’ calves and thighs, which got bigger, not smaller, the more I exercised.
  - Cowicide
    
    Seriously? We’re still doing this? It’s NOT THAT SIMPLE. Metabolism. Genetics. Medications one takes. Certain diseases/disorders. It can all make a difference when it comes to weight-loss.
    
    You make very good points and I’m sorry I made that obtuse, over-broad statement. I was wrong to say that.
    
    I was more referring to fad diet programs than anything else, but I didn’t make that clear at all. For the majority of people, I do think the “exercise more / eat less” mantra is golden. But, you’re right, it certainly doesn’t apply to everyone.
    
    I have huge freakin’ calves and thighs, which got bigger, not smaller, the more I exercised.
    
    Sounds like you should try swimming every day you can, if that’s possible for you.
- Cdat88
  
  Correction. Exercise more, eat better. Less food will not make a difference if the food you are eating is junk. High on protein, cut the grains and sugar. Lose weight, feel better, more energy. Go paleo.
WillieNelsonMandela

The guy in the fit pic looks like a douche. Why do I say that? Because I’m a lazy slob who hasn’t been able to do three pushups since high school, so it makes me feel better to call him names.

And his diet is beyond boring. Give me a meat-and-gravy-lovin’ gal who isn’t afraid to have a triple-bypass by the time she’s 50. Now, that’s what life is all about!
holyalmost

I don’t see any fast food listed on the ‘bad’ diet. So I don’t get how he could claim he is keeping any of said establishments open.

I also hate it when people use Cap’n Crunch as the de-facto terrible cereal in an obesity argument. Special K is a cereal touted as a weight loss tool and I have a fun experiment. Get a box of the Cap’n and a box of Special K and compare the two. With crunch, yeah, you get more sugar but you get some fiber. With Special K you get no fiber, more salt but less sugar. So if you’re eating crunch you don’t risk getting as hungry later. Also, the pointy nuggets force you to eat it mindfully. Special K is not that great a weight loss tool and Cap’n crunch is not all that bad in moderation.

This smacks of a marketing campaign built on stereotypes and I wouldn’t expect any real useful information to come of it.

Also, the fit2fat2fit.com home page comes up blank.
- bcsizemo
  
  I’m pretty sure who ever is hosting his site has fairly low bandwidth. I saw it off Yahoo a couple of days ago and it had a bandwidth exceeded message up at the time.
  
  When BB gets a hold of things, similar incidents usually occur.
http://twitter.com/atxglutenblog ATXGlutenBlog

This is a pretty good slap in the face to all the “losing weight is so hard” complainers. Go to any Asian country and you will see less fat people in a month then you do in 5 minutes in the USA. EAT LESS. There simply isn’t enough social pressure to maintain an attractive and slim physique in the USA.
- bcsizemo
  
  I’ll agree with that up to a point.
  
  My wife and I started on a weight lose thing at the beginning of the year. We tracked everything we ate, and tried to eat better. I was stunned to see where a lot of my calories where coming from, and not just things like soda or sweet tea.
  
  A fast food meal with fries? The fries have almost if not more calories than the sandwich. Replace that with a cup of yogurt and you’ve saved yourself a couple hundred calories, fruit even more. Salad if you can not drench it in high fat dressing. It really opens your eyes when you see exactly where your calories come from.
- marilove
  
  “There simply isn’t enough social pressure to maintain an attractive and slim physique in the USA.”
  
  So, when I was 5’3″, 160 lbs., and far from slim, but still very healthy (exercised, ate fairly well if not perfectly), I was not attractive, because I wasn’t slim? One doesn’t have to be attractive to be slim. Or slim to be healthy. There are MANY people who are “skinny fat” — they are skinny, but not at all healthy. My mom is one of those people. I’m probably a million times healthier than she is, but because she’s tiny, I’d be the one judged as unhealthy due to my weight, while her notoriously bad eating habits (hardly eats anything, and when she does, it’s sugar-filled) and bad smoking habit and addiction to drugs would be ignored. Just because she’s skinny and I’m fat.
- WillieNelsonMandela
  
  It’s genetics. The reason I ate two Big-Macs and a chocolate shake for lunch is because I apparently have “the fat gene.” The fact that I hate vegetables and exercise has nothing to do with it. Not my fault. ;)
  - Radka
    
    Actually, you may just have different gut flora. Obese mice do :)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora
    I would have posted a link directly to the mouse study but holy is the article ever interesting!
- http://www.facebook.com/thewilliamg William George
  
  Actually, when you go to Asia, what you don’t see are all of the fat people hiding out in their houses because of body shame. I’ve been here a decade now. Trust me, they have plenty of fatties here.
  
  Granted, the weight problem isn’t nearly as bad as it is back home. But what you politely call “social pressure” is ostracism and shaming. It’s not a positive.
  - TheMudshark
    
    Actually, when you go to Asia, what you don’t see are all of the fat
    people hiding out in their houses because of body shame. I’ve been here a
    decade now. Trust me, they have plenty of fatties here.
    
    So I guess 30-40 years ago all the fat people in the US used to hide out in their houses too?
    While I can´t claim to have spend a decade in Asia I have been there plenty of times, in public and in private homes. Either what you write is hyperbole or all those Asian fatties are damn good at hiding.
- http://twitter.com/enablingfitness Stephanie Hendy
  
  Actually, it has more to do with the fact that other countries don’t have much horrible food in their grocery stores.
  The US is the only place in the world where it’s cheaper to get a Supersized McDonald’s meal than it is to get groceries to make a vegetable stir-fry.
  The US has long been using its control over food to gain control over its citizens, and people that like who they see in the mirror is not profitable.
  
  Sumo wrestlers were pretty fat, last I checked. Not all Asians are thin. Just like not all Americans are ignorant. It is impossible to generalize for an entire population.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Sumo wrestlers were pretty fat, last I checked. Not all Asians are thin.
    
    Not all Sumo wrestlers are Asian.
- Radka
  
  Eating less will cause your body to go into starvation mode to hold on to as much possible fat for the lean times a coming. Which may work for some time but god forbid you ever fall off the wagon. Ever hear of yo-yo diets? Calorie restriction slows down your metabolism. You’ll turn yourself into a hibernating bear :) I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Asian but people eat a shit load of rice. Yes, high glycemic index white carby rice. Americans have been taught to stay away from animal fats (that the Europeans eat more of) and have a bunch of ‘low-fat’ alternatives which IMO mess with your system.
Mujokan

He’s hustling, trying to make a buck in his chosen career. Fair enough. It’s not a very healthy thing to do, but that’s his choice.

Having great control over one’s reward system doesn’t make someone a jerk. It’s childish to insult him based on his appearance.
Guest

As for the sexual appeal, I’d have to say that neither photo does much for me. But since each are the same man, I kinda want to pick his brain about what he knows about metabolism. What he probably knows is very appealing, and isn’t sex mostly mental? It’s really about the man, not necessarily the body he’s in… but I’m getting older now. (For the record, my husband is in terrific shape…the dirty bastard! For better or worst…and that’s really the Worst!)

I tend toward inflammation and borderline diabetes, and exercise is one of the ways I know that helps me control weight gain (as she notes her nearly empty afternoon cup of Irish coffee just outside her peripheral vision – d’oh!).

It will be interesting to watch this thread throughout the day. I haven’t seen this much passion about food since ‘The Candy Heirarchy’, Oct. 22nd of last year. The BBers likes what they likes, and have strong, usually humorous, opinions on the subject of food.

Oh, and I eat half a banana. Better ratio of banana to cereal. Before noon my honey will pick up the other half and eat it.

Do your worst, Petersen!
Shart Tsung

This guy sucks at eating junk food. The dude gained probably most of that weight from the soda. He didn’t eat anything but carbs, who the hell does that?

I could show this guy how to eat, and not f***ing GRANOLA BARS!

Bacon
Peanut Butter (eat it all the time, not on a sandwich though, noob)
Butter
Fresh Bread from good bakery
DONUTS (what a noob, this guy didn’t even eat donuts!)
Iced Coffee w/ Cream & Sugar
Beers, oh so many beers.
FRENCH FRIES
ONION RINGS
MOZZARELLA STICKS
CHOCOLATE (REESE’S, TWIX, KITKAT, MILKYWAY, the list is infinite)
Nachos
Chimichangas
GARLIC BREAD!!!! This moron ate spaghetti & sauce without the best part
Tempura
Pierogies
Hot Dogs
Ribs
PIE! NOT CAKE, YOU DAMN NOOOB FATTY!
Cheeseburgers
Potato Salad
Omelets (stuffed with meat and cheeses)
Stromboli
Meatball Sandwich
Chicken Pot Pie
Cheesecake!!!!!
Chicken Parm sandwich
Cheesesteaks
Tons of Cheese (All types, cheese is so good)
Energy Drinks (only soda-like thing you need)

He basically ate granola bars like a tool and a bunch of dumb shit and gained all that weight from pounding an inhuman amount of soda. Smart fat people already know that soda is a waste of time. Noob fatty, you lose!

He was wrong from his first meal, fat people eat grilled muffins with butter for breakfast and big cups of iced coffee with cream and sugar, otherwise they just have the coffee with some eggs, cheese, and bacon.
- GawainLavers
  
  Seriously, I think I could beat this guy’s daily “junk food diet” calories in a single sitting.
- cdh1971
  
  Yes – this. If you’re eating to get fat, why not enjoy it and become a gourmand?
AceTracer

Someone should inform this man of epigenetics. His binging will affect the lifespan of his grandchildren by 6-30 years.
Bevatron Repairman

Half a banana. Look at it! Just look at it!*

* with one eye closed.
bargainoutlet

Just because you have a job working 10 hours a day in a cubicle doesn’t give you a license to become obese. Maybe you don’t have the energy to go to the gym after a long day’s work (understood) but that’s only 25% of the equation. Your diet is the other 75%. If you weren’t over eating you wouldn’t be gaining weight regardless of your non existent exercise regimen.

So maybe you’ve decided that you’re not going to include any physical activities into your lifestyle. Are you content being overweight? If the answer is no then you in particular (forget about the gym rats) should become more “obsessed” with what you eat and how much you’re eating. Why…because half your day is spent sitting in a chair and that is just as abnormal as living at the gym.

When you begin to notice your weight consistently increasing over time it’s not bad luck or bad genes but bad habits. Sure you can use the excuse that this guy is a personal trainer and he spends all his time in a gym and you don’t have the time or energy left to exercise. Fine but improving your diet and paying attention to the portions and frequency of your food intake (if you are over weight) doesn’t take any extra time on your part, just some control.

Everybody’s first reaction is always that fit people are obsessed, vein, and boring. Yes when you go to the extremes this is probably true but the other extreme is not any better and frankly looks much worse. Enjoy life, enjoy what you eat but use some common sense and a bit of moderation especially if you have a sedentary life style. You might also consider doing something physical on the weekends if you can’t curb your eating habits easily.
LintMan

Sadly, his “After” diet seems more healthy than my everyday diet. anddwon above has a much better idea of what an unhealthy diet is.
internetcontrarian

So I work out and spend a couple hours in the gym but I’m still pretty fat (working on that, but for the moment and the sake of the question) and watch my calories closely (to help with the fat thing). Am I a vain, shallow jock asshole that is obsessed with food and unfit to bang or am I fat and interesting and you’d like to have a beer and cheeseburger with me?

Also up for consideration: I love sports and watch a lot of them BUT I also work in a pretty geeky industry and read a fair amount of sf/fantasy/wonky nonfiction.

Which stereotype am I? Just want to make sure I know who to sit with at lunch.

Supplementary question: At what point will I cross the line from one to the other? Is there a mathematical formula you can give me?
- http://twitter.com/enablingfitness Stephanie Hendy
  
  Why can’t you be the sedentary geek that likes to exercise too?
  I know a lot of fitness-enthused geeks that are all ranges of sizes and temperaments.
  
  As for your supplementary question:
  
  if we let *you* be x and the derivative of x is x’
  
  then when x’ = happy, x = happy^2 congruent to line does not exist
- http://twitter.com/RoryGinger Rory Ambrose
  
  This is the best post on this thread thank you internetcontrarian.
  
  See I’m strongly with you on this, so when I’m discussing the continuity of Green Lantern comics with my training partner, who is inviting me to a roleplay night hes planning involving Cthulhu and Mecha, WHO DO I SIT WITH AT LUNCH?
  
  Are you guys seriously gonna tell me that being the slightest bit driven about exercise and diet is to be ashamed of?
  
  I look good I know I do, I’m a big guy with a lot of tattoos, but in my head I’m still that skinny kid that would sit on his own reading D&D books outside rather than even risk the school dinner hall.
Guest

This sounds interesting. As a large man who has lost and gained back, in total at different times about 200lbs, it is annoying to see so many people state what is “appropiate” or “too much.” I never have solicted advice from anyone. I rarely mention what is or isn’t on my diet specifically. Someone will occassionally put me in a position where I have to say No and seem rude. Like when someone insists I try something. Before the words cross my lips… “I can’t, I’m trying to eat better….” I can feel their brain loading up. If I say I am eating “more” something they give the full rundown of why that is bad. If I say “less” I get the reverse. I eventually learned to reamin vague but the implication that I was “denying” myself was met consistently with “You know denying yourself isn’t healthy either mentally, you’ve got to eat some of everything to be satisfied” etc etc. I could have told people I was avoiding eating poop and I would have been met with people telling me how poop never hurt anyone and I just need to excercise!

I like seeing before and after photos, they are inspiring, even if they can “easily” lose it. I thought he sounded genuine in his video. He says he doesn’t know what it’s like to have cravings or relate directly to his clients. I’m amazed at the negativity.

If you go through his blog posts you can see he eats Wendys. He also has profile photos that show just how big he’s gotten. Looks much fatter from the side.
gus mueller

judging by what he eats under both regimes, dude clearly has no particular interest in food.
- marilove
  
  Right? That’s why I said above that he doesn’t sound very adventurous at all. His diet is boring on both ends of the extreme!
  
  And that’s probably why he doesn’t understand cravings or what it’s like to be overweight, because he doesn’t really enjoy food in the way a lot of people do, so a restrictive diet is very easy and natural for him. Which is fine, for him, but I think most people actually like food, even the fit ones.
Phillip Ramirez

this wont show anythig other then a healthy person who over eats but has a healthy metabolism can go back to eating healthy. how about stop working out for a year and eat like that and then try to understand how hard it is to kick start that metabolism. BTW he is a trainer which means he gets paid to work out all day. if i had 8 hours i was paid to work out i am sure id be allot fitter
Guest

This guy stopped his routine and undid a lifetime of healthy living. He did this for 6 months. This isn’t a flash in the pan “look at me” kinda thing. I’ve been reading his blog posts and it’s really interesting. To go from spinach shakes and working out to mountain dew and fried chicken, and to like it and crave the latter must be insane. Attention seeking or not it took dedication, which IMO raises it above “look at me.”
http://twitter.com/cicadamania Cicada Mania

His hair is no longer pointy like a Sleestak! That’s reason enough to stop eating all those carbs.
http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

Wow you people are downright cruel.

I know some perfectly charming and intelligent gay muscular men who are a hell of a lot of fun. Who cares if they watch what they eat and exercise every day? Does that mean that they automatically have no personality or worse? Does it automatically make them boring?

And really, going after him because he doesn’t know how to live? What kind of b.s. is that? Just because some of you apparently derive a significant percentage of the pleasure in your lives from food doesn’t mean everyone does.
Matthew Speth

Geeze, why are people complaining about him going to extremes in his diet? The only extreme thing he has done is to go from being very healthy to being very unhealthy. His new lifestyle is hardly, extreme, though. Average American is more like it.
Bray_beast

This just in…. crazy people be eating crazy.
eyebeam

I’ve been fat, and I’ve been thin… getting thinner and fitter now. I enjoy being thinner much more – no chafing, back pain, sweaty felsh folds… and with my recent accident leaving me on crutches for several months, I’m very glad I didn’t have to haul around 50-60 extra pounds.

I’ve made love to big women, small women, thin women, fit women, fat women… and while I do enjoy the curvy woman, and even a little chub to hold on to ( I do recall a certain zaftig woman who taught yoga and could perform amazing feats of flexibility…) I much more enjoy having a partner who isn’t always complaining about her knees and her back, out of breath after walking a short distance, who doesn’t have to put on scads of powder to avoid painful rashes, or develop a foul odor in the summer, or has to actually lift and separate portions of flesh to maintain basic hygiene…
Festus

Me: Wow, how did he hide his nipples in the “before” shot?

My wife: Whoa, he grew hair on his chest for the after shot–and lost his tan.
sokar9

Sure is projection bias in here. “Clearly anyone who watches what they eat is obsessed and boring because I’ve never done that, man what a weirdo.”
http://www.facebook.com/Hamlet.Au Wagner James Au

This is really the weirdest illustration of the time-tested adage, “Virtue lies in the middle.”
Jack Majewski

Okay, so, to be clear, the title is bunkum. He ate more calories and stopped exercising. It has nothing to do with ‘high-carb junk food.’ He ate more and did less. It’s not whatever bugbear du jour some marketer’s trying to turn a dollar off of.
awjt

Sounds like an elaborate backwards rationalization to me…
jessejamz

Sounds like he was eating Paleo before. . .
http://undulantfever.blogspot.com/ Bruce Arthurs

Looks to me like he stopped tanning during the weight-gain period. This may be why it’s hard to see his nipples in the first photo. His overall tan matches his nipples, whereas they stand out against the untanned skin in the second photo.
pjcamp

Second Breakfast! He’s a hobbit!
hobomike

shit, he could have dispensed with all the junk food and gotten all his calories from bourbon! Try to recover from that!
http://twitter.com/unfamousjames James Harrison

I always thought this would be an epic way to win the grand prize on The Biggest Loser.
Ted Brennan

There are a few things I wonder about- I assume he did not just change his diet but stopped exercising. Which from the idea of a controlled experiment means he changed more than one variable. The other question is- on his previous diet did he eat when he wanted to did he control his caloric intake. If he was controlling calories before and now is not- that again effects the experimental nature i.e. it might then not be the nature of the food but the number of calories. Also is he in any way attempting to overeat now to intentionally gain weight, which again changes the perimeters. If I am intentionally overeating that can have an effect reverse of intentional starvation.

This is all besides the intentionally pale aspect of his body in one picture vs the oiled and tanned in the other. As well as the smile vs. not.

So what we have is an ad campaign not science. I like the science, give me science, with repeated studies, experiments etc. Oh wait, that doesn’t sell as well… And it is so much easier to be half-assed know it all judgmental when one doesn’t have science to get in the way.
aluchko

So there’s a couple things I’ve been seeing in this thread that are bugging me.

a) All the people saying before him isn’t attractive, he isn’t trying to look attractive, he’s trying to show off the degree of fitness.

Even as a hetero male I realize that guys flexing isn’t attractive. If he was just standing straight up and relaxed the opinion would probably be a lot different.

b) Everyone harping on about the calorie difference is missing a critical point. Not only do those unhealthy foods pack the calories a lot tighter, but they tend not to fill you up so you get hungry again sooner (glycemic index and things like that).

Finally the main lesson is that people assign way too much to genetics and body type, most people who are in really good shape are that way because they work for it and are smart about it. If they just ate whatever the hell they felt like they’d get fat just like him.
http://twitter.com/enablingfitness Stephanie Hendy

I agree with the above comments that it’s hard to accurately gauge *what* specifically caused him to put on all that weight – one variable needs to be changed for it to be measured.

I also agree that he is more concerned about an ad campaign that he is about people becoming healthier. This is obvious in his condescending tone:

“People that are overweight have to overcome both physical and emotional barriers when it comes to losing weight. I hope to have a better understanding of this through my experience over the next year.

Also, I hope to better gain an understanding of how hard it really is to be overweight. I know it’s only going to be for 6 months, but at least it’ll give me a small window of the physical and emotional issues that come with being overweight.”

6 months is NOT a lifetime. 6 months is not getting bullied in high school until you almost committed suicide. 6 months is not learning to navigate your way through relationships and worrying if someone broke up with you because your weight bothered them more than they thought it would. Every time I see an ex with skinnier partners, it makes me die a little inside. You actually WANT to hear it being drawn to your personality because all you think of is your body (I don’t think that way *as much* anymore, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t still cross my mind sometimes). Personality seems so much easier to change!

Also, he’s failing to leave out the fact that some people, no matter how much they exercise or change their eating habits don’t lose weight. I’ve been active for the past 5 years, so much so that I too became a personal trainer. I didn’t do it to motivate people to lose weight; I did it because I couldn’t believe that exercise left me feeling this amazing and I did it to help with chronic disease management.

But I also shoot myself in the foot by being honest with people. Everyone is obsessed with the scale and the “results”. There are so many fat FIT people that look mostly the same as the fat unfit people. The judgment is the same. What’s worse is that a lot of the beanpole types that eat the way he does (to put on weight) but have the genetics where it doesn’t show up are usually the ones to have heart-attacks before the age of 40. They got cocky and think “well I’m thin no matter what I eat, so my body must be amazing!” so they don’t put in any effort.

It’s okay. Let this guy think he’s enlightened to the lives of overweight people and let him extort more overweight people into believing that if they give him money, they too will be successful in their weight loss goals. It might help some. It always helps some. Waking up every day feeling happy with who you are, *regardless* of how you look however is much more difficult to teach. I’m hoping that as an overweight personal trainer (with a chronic disease to manage) is helping to “tip the scales” a bit more in the direction of true health and wellness and not just the next shocking ad campaign. I love chocolate. I love beer. I love salad. I love fruit. I love riding my bike. I love my life.
Matthew Speth

I’ve now come to the conclusion that he has no right to tell people what to do. Eating vegetables and finding time to exercise in a busy schedule is obsessive and bleeds the fun out of life. Pfft, no weight lifting, spinach eating jerk is going to tell ME what’s what.
http://twitter.com/KilianMuster ɹǝʇsnɯ uɐıןıʞ

Or: Man grows man boobs and at the same time grows hair on his chest. Now the question is does he have more testosterone or less, and which is caused by which?
jackie31337

This explains how they get those dramatic before/after pictures for weight loss ads: they just get someone who’s in great shape to gain a bunch of weight, and call that the “before” picture. It also explains the “results not typical” disclaimer: most people can’t reverse the flow of time to take off weight. ;)
http://twitter.com/GainWeight123 Duane Economos

Good job on the diet exercise coordination. Way to be.
smirker

Everyone in here talking about controlled experiments is kinda missing the point. I think that he’s doing something positive by walking a mile in the shoes of a group of people he doesn’t understand. He’s going to have to work hard to take that weight off, and I hope his success will encourage some people who have been struggling themselves.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

Isn’t it possible to sympathize with somebody without trying to experience their specific situation? Do you need to cut off your limb to sympathize with an amputee? Based on the Tonight Show ad and “Donate” button on his site, it seems more like publicity and less like true sympathy for the chronically overweight.
Shart Tsung

He didn’t walk in a fat person’s shoes though. He made light of their situation and ate a bunch of boring food to then later lose it all and make it look easy. That’s pretty douchey. He clearly does not have a love for food, so no, he still doesn’t understand his clients. He’s not a foodie, he’s into spray tanner and 6 hours gym workouts, which is fine, but nothing like what he’s trying to portray. Lazy attempt at being fat.

I’ll pass on his products & his story. I have been fat and thin, currently fat, and dealing. Didn’t need this dude’s commentary on my health, and his joke of a “junk” diet just shows that he will never understand the people he’s trying to reach.
http://twitter.com/henryshock Henry Shock

I shall say this only once so pay attention. Eat sane amounts of healthy or healthyish food and enjoy it. Indulge yourself every now and then. Take regular moderate exercise unless you prefer a lie-in that day. If you feel healthy, you’re almost certainly healthy. If you don’t, tweak your settings a little until you do. If that doesn’t work, consult a medical professional. You’re very welcome. Mine’s a pint.
Alen Agaronov

Even if he loses all the weight – as I’m sure he will – he has scarred himself for life. When you gain this much weight this quickly – your body creates fat cells, tony of them. When you lose weight, you can only shrink them – but there’s no way to destroy them. It’ll be just that much easier to gain weight for him, and his body will never be the same.
Mooph

Nah. I work the tongue muscles every Tuesday and Thursday. They’re accustomed to a vigorous clucking. :)
http://twitter.com/celesteh Les Hutchins

I think I’d rather be overweight than eat anything called a “spinach shake.” Let alone, twice a day.
shel.ande

I think it is extremely ridiculous that this trainer is committing himself to become more understanding of others situations, and all people can seem to talk about is “how it’ll be easier for him, or it’s his job”. In no way does he have to put his body through this, but he is obviously trying to make it far easier to understand his clients needs and disabilities. Before you knock him try thinking of the dedication it takes for someone.. Then re think why you feel so obligated to critique him.
http://twitter.com/BlackoutSappy Nathan Alan

Seriously with all honest. This is nothing more than Advertising HYPE. Bodybuilders do the bulk cut contest bulk cut contest anywhere from 1-5 times per year ON STAGE.
Point. 2 He did not eat what fat or obese or morbid obese people eat, generally their menu’s look more like 4 mc doubles the large soda no ice, then for dinner, easy, a large digornia pizza to yourself, which doesn’t quite hit the spot. So you buy a 1,800 calorie bag of chips, and since chips have a enzyme in them that inhibits (feeling full in the brain) you keep eating with ease. Only when you have gotten tired from the hand to mouth exercise have they stopped eating. Activity sure that will burn calories, depending what your body is holding the most of, at first carbs, only after these stores are depleted do they go after the fat.
Bottom line, nice try, I can do it 10 x better and more accurate Coming from 55%bf at 6’2 down to 198lb at 7% bf.

My secret, I worked out every other day, always trained in intervals, never ate more that 2000 calories, 50-70-% of calories came form high bv proteins Whey, Egg, Chicken Breasts etc.
I worked out maybe 15 times in 52 weeks, kept strict to my diet and gave myself 2 cheat meals per week. Every story deserves from the opposite side (fact checked) and I just so happen to be a well educated and A.C.E National Certified Persona Trainer. Nice try though
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Right… because judging him based on his diet (which is also an integral part of his profession) is a lot better than judging him based on his appearance.

Seriously, WTF? There’s no reason to think that this guy is anything but a perfectly normal person and people are calling him out on his character?
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Again, I think you’re completely ignoring that this is the guy’s job. At the worst this is advertising and at the best he’s gaining an understanding of his client base and the process of actually losing that much weight.

All people stronger than you aren’t going to beat you up and steal your milk money and become womanizers. It’s kind of saddening that you’d jump to such quick conclusions about someone you know absolutely nothing about.

Overall I’m getting the feeling from this thread that people aren’t comfortable enough with their own physical condition to react appropriately to someone who lives differently than they do.
marilove

Many people above made very good points about the fact that he’s trying to prove something by using extremes. Extremes don’t prove anything.

Also, you can tell a lot about a person from what they enjoy eating. His diet indicates to me that he’s not a very adventurous man.
boo

As a quite happy long distance biker and runner and walker over sixty years old, I am quite happy with my physical condition.

And in case you think I am cranky due to lack of sex, my husband and I are Very Happy, Thank you!

(Younger people want any tips?)
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Again, you’re just furthering the lack of reading comprehension perpetrated by this entire thread. That menu is his “typical” daily diet, so he likely eats different food on different days.

Additionally, if he’s happy then who are you to pin him as boring because of what he eats? He’s not making you eat it.

Spend 5 seconds reading a paragraph before jumping to conclusions about a person based on their diet and photo alone. He’s not really trying to prove anything aside from inspiring people to take better care of themselves and gain a better understanding of the process – he literally says this himself. Using extremes is an excellent way to gain attention to achieve his main goal of inspiration.

“My goal is to inspire people to get fit, teach them how to do it and give them hope that it IS possible to get fit and stay fit. I want to share my comprehensive fitness knowledge with my followers so that they can know how to lose weight successfully, even though for many it’s going to be a struggle. People that are overweight have to overcome both physical and emotional barriers when it comes to losing weight. I hope to have a better understanding of this through my experience over the next year.

I hope to better gain an understanding of how hard it really is to be overweight. I know it’s only going to be for 6 months, but at least it’ll give me a small window of the physical and emotional issues that come with being overweight.”

It’s no wonder the US (and the first world in general) is suffering from growing weight issues – we criticize anyone who’s not “average” as some sort of obsessive-compulsive freak.
marilove

I read it. I don’t think he’s necessarily a douche (don’t know him, don’t care), but he is likely a pretty boring guy who thinks constantly about fitness and health and caloric intake. It’s more than likely his ENTIRE LIFE. It’s his job, too. Not someone that sounds all that fun to me. I’d rather be with the dude on the right, who will have a beer with me and not obsess with caloric intake and fitness so much that it’s his entire life. Because you bet it’s his entire life. And maybe he finds that sort of stuff fulfilling, but the truth is, most people don’t. Including me.
marilove

Additionally, as others have pointed out, he’s not giving a real good idea of what it’s like to be overweight for the majority of people. He’s lived a life of 100% fitness. He is only doing it for six months. He will lose the weight super easily, for a number of reasons (he hasn’t been carrying the extra weight the majority of his life, and he is already used to having a super-restrictive diet).

Also, as a woman, his “journey” has nothing at all in common with me and other women

And finally, his “typical diet” might be slightly different on different days, but that’s still a TYPICAL diet, which means it very likely doesn’t deviate that much. He probably eats lots of chicken breasts and has 2 spinach shakes every single day. His diet is very, very restrictive, not even close to normal even for normal people who are pretty fit, and boring as hell. I mean, seriously, half a banana? That’s what gets me. If he’s that restrictive about half a damn banana, then, yes, his diet is super restrictive and NOT a healthy way to look at fitness. It’s too obsessive. It may work for him, but it’s not going to work for the normal person.

Again, he’s doing two extremes, no middle ground, and it really doesn’t tell us jack shit.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Again… making assumptions and judging someone on their own personal lifestyle choices? That’s completely childish. People can be happy without being just like you, you know.

Conversely, I could call the guy on the right boring based on his appearance because he sits on his ass watching TV all day and eats tons of processed food, but that’d make me an asshole – wouldn’t it?
marilove

Notice I said several times: ”It’s fine for him. He might find this fulfilling.” But for the majority of people, this isn’t the best way to look at fitness. It’s far too restrictive. Most people have no desire to live like that, or just simply can’t, because they don’t have the damn time, or the resources, or even the desire to be this obsessed with fitness. It’s just not realistic. None of it is. Both sides of his “experiment” are extreme and has very little to do with how real overweight people live their lives.

And, yes, I do find people who are this obsessed with fitness to be boring. It’s just not my bag. It’s probably his girlfriend’s bag. He’s getting laid. No need to defend him.
Trenton Gamblin

In response to marilove’s comments, let me provide some personal perspective.

I used to be the guy on the right. Well, sans the beard. Then my doctor told me about these things called “hypertension” and “pre-diabetes.” Sounded like science fiction to me, but I got the point when he told me “Get off your ass or your parents will be burying you.”

I now (2.5 years later) look like the guy on the left, perhaps a bit more built and less tan. While I don’t have quite as restrictive of a diet as he (spinach = nasty), I still eat very clean calories and yes, I keep a nutrition log where I record my caloric intakes at different times of the day. Despite the discipline I’ve developed, I’ve actually become a much more fun guy, more outgoing and more well-rounded (no pun intended) as a person.

I go to the gym 3 times a week for 30 minutes each session. That’s right – 90 minutes a week; probably less time than you spend doing your hair. Despite being more disciplined than the average person, I’m still considered the comedian at work, I’m the star pupil at night (going back to school for biochemistry; not for profession, but out of interest), and my wife describes it as the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

I guess my point is; when you judge this guy for his discipline, it reflects badly on you. You’ve clearly given up, which I completely understand, but don’t let that sorrow turn into hatred for those of us who haven’t. When you do that, you deprive yourself of a lot of joy just to become your own enabler. It’s also hell on the blood pressure.

Yes, he’s doing this for attention. He’s a personal trainer. You know what we call attention-getting activities in the business world? Advertising!
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

I agree. His job is “personal trainer” meaning that he can work out hours per day if he chooses. What about people with sedentary jobs and 2-hour commutes each way? They have a very rough time doing hours of exercises and eating a diet like this. There are far better ways to inspire people to lose weight and take care of themselves than to be a showoff like this.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

I’m passing judgement on people for being judgmental, yes – because they’re actually being judgmental, it’s right there in writing.

They’re forming opinions on someone’s lifestyle based on their appearance and diet alone. I’m forming opinions based on what people are saying and how they are saying it. There’s a big difference.
marilove

Dude, it’s fine if you judge us on what we’ve written. We put ourselves out there. But so did this guy! And, guess what, his words are also available for us to read, and I’m judging him just as much on that (which includes the diet he put out for the public to see) as I am on his overly-muscled look, which he also put out there with the purpose of being judged. Why else would there be a before and after picture?! To be judged, that’s why.
boo

As a small woman now clinically defined as “overweight, but not yet obese” because my spine is collapsing and I lost two inches in six months, I am curious as to how heavy and happy you really are. :}

Ripped is not quite as good as healthy: living on spinach shakes ain’t a life!
bcsizemo

Well I’m 32 male, 215 lbs, just above a 30% BMI and take about 12 mins to jog a mile.

Happy, in general I am. When I look in the mirror, not so much. I don’t really want to be where this guy is, but I’d like to be in shape. I’d like to feel stronger than I am.

I am sorry to hear about your spine issue, I hope there is something that can be done to help or stop it.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

Hey, that’s fine. I just think judging someone’s personality based on their appearance is childish. If that’s who you are that’s who you are – I’m not going to continue to argue with you about it.
marilove

I never judged based solely on his appearance, though it’s part of it . You can tell he’s high maintenance (too (fake?) tanned, shaves his chest (ew), clearly spends far too much time int he gym for my tastes). I also took into consideration everything else he put out there, which includes HIS words and HIS diet (all in his own words), all of which I find pretty boring. Notice I never said I thought he was a douche. In fact, he might be a perfectly nice guy and I’d totally shake his hand if we were ever to meet. Doesn’t mean I still don’t find his lifestyle boring, and therefore have no desire to bang him. What’s so wrong with that? His lifestyle bores me. It’s far too predictable and restrictive and he’s clearly way too high maintenance for me (he shaves his chest!).
AceTracer

I don’t want to be friends with the douche that picks their friends based on physical appearance.
marilove

“You’ve clearly given up”? Really? You don’t know anything about me. I have a fantastic, fulfilling life, thanks! I’m glad you do, too.

And I wasn’t hating on him. I even said that a few times! I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy. But it’s clear our lifestyles DO NOT mesh and I would not be interested in dating or banging him. That doesn’t equate to “hating”. He shaves his chest! And clearly uses fake tanner! Gag. Not someone I’d even give a second look. The second guy I probably would, because I like chubby, furry dudes, and I bet he smells nice, and not like self-tanner.

Also, my blood pressure actually tends to be on the low end, even as a “fattie”. But thanks for the fake concern.

Additionally, it takes me about 30 seconds to do my hair: I brush it. :P I kind of hate mornings. Most men take longer to get ready than I do…
GawainLavers

Good job! I excused my weight on metabolism, etc. for two decades, and pretty much threw away the prime of my life as a result. Losing weight and getting in shape allowed me to have a lot more fun, get rid of my old defense mechanisms, and frankly do a lot more things.

And I discovered scotch: hard liquor is carb-neutral!
eyebeam

That’s just it. Instead of commenting on his project, you commented on whether you would want to have sex with/date him. Thread-jacked the conversation to make it about YOU and what YOU want.
TheMudshark

I have to say of all the commenters in this thread you seem the most unpleasant, intolerant and bitter person to me, while at the same time harping on about how much you enjoy life, how many dudes you bang and how much fun you are to be with in general.
pigeon

Marilove, when you actually know how many hours this guys works out a day, what his hobbies are, whether he “enjoys food like the rest of us” or whether he enjoys sex while fit then cast your opinion. At the moment, I can attest to being able to exercise regularly but not excessively, work a 9 – 5, have downtime and eat a reasonable and healthy diet. I’m a kickboxer and the stakes are a bit higher for me than your opinion. It is possible. What you’re inadvertantly pointing out is that you don’t want to exercise efficiently, haven’t realised how poor your nutritional understanding is, and defend your generally excuse ridden lifestyle with accusatory “he wont eat the whole banana!” rhetoric. You’ll be eaten first when the Zombie apocalypse hits us.
Radka

As far as I understand, one of the best ways to increase your metabolism is eating enough (non-chemically altered, natural, etc) food and building muscle mass. So while jogging is great for your heart, you might want to be doing some push up type stuff to get the reflection you’d like. Not that you said you weren’t, but maybe you’re not and it’s helpful advice? :)