Geez, some people will go a long way for their craft. A 32-year old personal trainer and underwear model from Australia is purposely gaining weight to empathize with his overweight clientele.
And Paul “PJ” James is not screwing around. He plans to pack on a total of 85 pounds! His “goal” weight is 265. To do it, PJ stopped exercising and started eating deep-fried candy bars and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.When he hits 265, he’ll do an about-face and start working back towards his original weight of 180. I wonder if he’ll model ponchos and parachute pants in the meantime.
PJ has been a personal trainer for 5 years and never understood why his overweight clients lacked motivation, so to better understand their emotions. He decided to walk, or waddle, a mile in their shoes and get fat. His fellow trainers think he’s crazy. I’m inclined to agree.
Medical professionals call it a publicity stunt with serious risk. One expert said PJ might experience spikes in blood pressure and blood sugar. Instead, he urged a less drastic approach, such as telling obese clients to monitor food intake and set reasonable goals.
PJ is undeterred. He says he’s tried traditional strategies in the past, but by fattening up he hopes to get into the mind of an overweight person and figure out what stops them from reaching their goals; ABC News reports.
I’m not sure intentionally getting fat is the same as slowly gaining weight over time and dealing with all the emotional hardship that goes with it. Sorry PJ, your idea is half-cocked at best.
Doesn’t matter if you have been fit previously or not getting back into the gym and doing HARD work and consistently attending and keeping one’s food in order is not easy. If you spent even 5 min with PJ you would know he is an incredibly empathetic and mindful human being and a sensational personal trainer. NOBODY should think it was easy for him mentally or physically to drop the kilos. He could have easily given up half way back. Fact is pushing an extra 10 or 20 kgs around is painful. PJ puts in more effort to emotionally support and mentally change his clients lives than any life coach, psychologist or personal trainer i’ve ever heard of. Do your research boys and girls before you bad mouth others….
Doesn’t matter if you have been fit previously or not getting back into the gym and doing HARD work and consistently attending and keeping one’s food in order is not easy. If you spent even 5 min with PJ you would know he is an incredibly empathetic and mindful human being and a sensational personal trainer. NOBODY should think it was easy for him mentally or physically to drop the kilos. He could have easily given up half way back. Fact is pushing an extra 10 or 20 kgs around is painful. PJ puts in more effort to emotionally support and mentally change his clients lives than any life coach, psychologist or personal trainer i’ve ever heard of. Do your research boys and girls before you bad mouth others….
His goal should be to become obese, he also needs to stay physically idle for 5-7 years until his muscle mass starts to break down and turn to fat. When he gets to that point he might be more believeable. Covering muscle with fat wont prove anything. Get yourself to where you are truely out of shape and you will see why it is so hard for people to lose weight.
I cant say i agree with his method, but we have to give him some type of credit. i work at a gym and i see many trainers not really caring about their clients. Textin, talking on the phone or not even paying any attention to their clients….and those trainers are still getting paid big dollars….
maybe it is a publicity stunt…maybe not. Some of you have great points. But in the end he is atleast trying something different.
now im not a trainner, i sign people up for the gym. And i have so many clients that want to cancel because their trainner does not motive them enough or neglects them.
so if this works for him, more power to him
good luck…
hey there “Gerald “Gerry” Pugliese”, i think you should lay off. I have been morbidly obese since age 4.5 and am now 35. I have struggled my whole life and if some guy who knows how to motivate himself and be healthy, is willing to suffer and sacrifice his body to try and understand me and my struggle better, so as to help me motivate, well God bless him. I admire Paul for what he is doing. He will suffer on this Journey, and just might gain a useful insight.
You, and all those who share your ignorant opinion can just shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, and God bless you too.
Melinda, you hit the nail on the head. He might manage to achieve the body of a fat person, but if he’s never really struggled with weight, all he’s going to manage to come up with at the end is that he really doesn’t get how some people can struggle to lose weight because having done this all he’s proved is how easy it is to lose weight because he’ll be super-motivated to do it, especially with all the publicity this is gathering for him. If anything – this whole stunt is only going to divorce him even further from walking in his clients shoes.
Yeah. He’ll totally get obese/overweight people. I mean, look how valid and unrelated to stereotypes his attempts to gain weight are : huge binges of very high-Caloric junk foods.
This totally won’t just reinforce his stereotypes and beliefs in a way that teaches him nothing while making him more hypercritical of people with weight struggles than he apparently already is.
I’ll be surprised if he reaches his goal weight. I don’t think gaining 85 pounds will be as easy for him as folks think.
Oh, but what do I know? Folks will go to all sorts of extremes for a buck.
While, I would not put on 80 lbs, I will say that people look at me and assume I was always thin. When I tell them my story about how I lost weight, it gives me validity in their eyes. I am not sure if they listen to what I said, however. I think this will definitely help him understand the difficulties and how a person who is overweight sees him or herself. This will definitely help him empathize and get into the mindset for more people. However, there is much more to being fat that getting fat purposely. He should also interview people.
for a real self-respecting man (male), any percentage higher than 10 is obese…
I think DaleK meant he’s been at both ends of the weight spectrum. ??
I agree with ayse76. Some people just seem to be predisposed to factors that make them overweight, or have trouble losing weight, or gain weight back after they’ve lost weight. PJ is probably going to lose the weight quickly because he isn’t predisposed to being overweight. I don’t think seeing this happen would be motivating to people who really struggle with their weight – I think it would be frustrating.
Okay, 18% body fat is not obese. Obese is categorized as 30% upward body fat.
I’m with Melinda. That’s exactly what I meant to say but didn’t because I was/am too flabbergasted by the complete idiocy of this stunt. LOL I can’t even type straight. I gotta go the gym and beat someone up now!
He might wanna actually try TALKING to his “clients”.
This just really makes me mad in so many ways.
Honestly, to me, this is typical of the attitude I find in far too many fitness trainers. Half of them hate their lazy fat stupid know nothing clients.
What good would talking to stupid, lazy, unmotivated, fat people do? What could they possibly know?
Yup. I’d punch him too. Where’s he Australia? I was planning a vaca to NZ, maybe I’ll stop by!
Maybe he is at least he is *trying* to *get it* – to understand. Not that this route will get him anywhere – though I’m sure he’ll say it did.
There is so much wrong with this.
I’ve been obese. I’ve been 18% bf.
You can’t just eat your way into an overweight person’s head. That’s utterly ridiculous.
I suspect he’s getting paid to do an Acai Berry weight loss before after photo shoot.
To purposefully gain weight? That trainer’s a brave man. You will never find me trying to get fatter. It’s way too hard for me to lose weight. (And why is it so easy to gain, though? Not fair! LOL)
Another good point FJ. I was heavier when I was younger & all the info I have read from experts says that you can never get rid of the fat cells that are there.. they shrink but it makes it easier to gain weight again. I know that from experience. I work very hard to stay fit & be healthy & I just would not want to go back “there”. I rather set a good example by presenting what eating healthy & exercising can do for a person. I don’t think getting heavy is setting a good example whether it is “to relate” to his clients” or whether it is a publicity stunt which makes it way worse.
I read about this guy on another blog and I think he’s nuts. First off, if you’re starting off being obese, you will have a totally different approach to fitness than someone who has always been in shape and is purposefully gaining weight just for the hell of it. Once you understand the mechanics of how to lose weight and get in shape, it’s relatively easy to whip yourself into shape, even if you let yourself gain a little bit here and there. I can attest to this…I used to be a good 90 lbs heavier than I am now and I learned about how to eat properly and exercise and I lost the weight. Then I got myself into a bit of a rut and started eating more and working out less and I gained back roughly 25 lbs. So I just went back to my good way of eating and exercising and I dropped the weight again. It’ll probably be no different for this guy…he’ll drop the weight fairly quickly just by resuming his old routine. I don’t see how this will help to motivate anyone that is starting off with no exercise or nutritional background.
That fool… does he realize that once your body produces fat cells, you cannot REMOVE them from your body? You can only deplete them.
The only way to get RID of fat cells that your body has produced in the past would be through surgery, so now, he will have to workout harder to maintain his weight of 180lbs… if and when he DOES manage to get there.
This has to be just a lame PR stunt.
My 2 cents.
Let’s remember that there’s nothing inherently wrong with deep fried food, or doughnuts or any of the other foods that are routinely demonized by pseudo-intellectual health fanatics.
They are very high in calories, however, and as such should be enjoyed in moderation.
The trainer could just as easily get fat by over-eating chicken, brown rice, oatmeal, and egg whites. Well, maybe not as easily due to the sheer volume of the food but there’s nothing inherently special about so called “clean” foods that will prevent or keep you from getting fat if you eat too much of them.
It’s just calories in, calories out. That’s not a very fashionable position to take these days but it is true.
i dont believe that getting fat is going to help any better than truly listening to PJ’s clients- i get unmotivated when i dont see results right away- i’m not sure about any other cultures but here in america, we bank a lot on instant gratification- usually it comes in the form of a powdered donut filled w/ raspberry jelly- as opposed to feeling great about working hard toward a goal- i think that is easy to understand- how to beat it is another story and i for one have no answer. at the moment- i too am unmotivated because i cannot lose 8lbs by the time i finish this blog-
But think of this in reverse. Maybe his clients will simply appreciate his feedback more because he was fat – period. Do you think they’ll really analyze the situation that much? I’m not sure. Maybe, maybe not.
Kami, I totally agree with you! This is crazy! Plus, how is getting fat going to help him understand his client better & motivate them better. Everyone has different reasons for gaining weight whether they be emotional (there are all kinds of emotional reasons) or they are just lazy & don’t want to do what it takes. Just putting on weight himself is not going to answer that. He already has built in motivation because he knows what it takes to lose weight. As a trainer, he needs to talk with his clients & get to the underlying reasons for their specific reason for being overweight & go from there. We are all individuals & there is no one right answer for all.
CRAZINESS!
I’ll say it again. He will NEVER know what it’s like to be an “obese” person. Sure he will be heavy, sure he will get pinched and teased, but only temporarily. He is not eating out of emotion, he is not eating out of stress, he is not eating entire tubs of ice cream because he feels like he HAS to, he is eating out of reaching a goal, just like a dieter would. He will not lose the feeling of what it’s like to not be satisfied with the amount of food you are consuming. This is just pure retarded and shows how much he DOESN’T understand his clients.
Honestly if I met him, I’d slap him square in the face.
I’ve lost 175 pounds, and I know what it’s like to be obese… and I struggle daily with maintaining and trying not to eat out of emotion or old habits. He’ll never get it.
I don’t know anything about this PJ person. But whether his intentions are good or not, he will get publicity for his deliberate obesity.
One of the worse things that might happen to PJ is that during his crash diet to getting heavy real quick, he might develop such a taste for fatty foods and deep fried candy bars that it will be difficult for him to stop eating these foods when he wants to get thin again. As every obese person knows, there is nothing like the taste of fat!
I’m not sure I would trust a trainer who would compromise his health to understand me better. Would a psychiatrist attempt suicide to relate to his/her suicidal patients? Seems counter-productive and in the end, what will they have learned?
He should tell people to monitor food intake, etc.? Doesn’t any personal trainer worth his salt do that? For the most part, people don’t do that, for whatever reason. Not saying this is a good idea, but maybe it will be helpful for someone.
He’s doing it for the publicity, and it’s probably a smart move. I bet he gets quite a few new clients. But to believe that this will make him more able to sympathize with his overweight clients is naive at best. I think of this along the lines of someone who has been thin all their lives, goes through a traumatic event, and then gains weight over a fairly short period of time. This is not the same as someone who is genetically predisposed to being overweight and has been most of their lives. I do not believe in blaming genetics for obesity–I’ve been there and overcome it–but genetics do play a role, and the longer a person has been overweight, the tougher it is to lose it.
It sounds like PJ is more motivated to get fat than his clients are to get lean. I agree, this won’t help him understand what it’s like to be unmotivated. He’s super-determined to gain weight and will be super-determined to lose it once he reaches his goal.
John Sifferman
Fitness Professional
I don’t think this will help him understand his clients and why they are not motivated. He will be very motivated to lose the weight when the time comes, I imagine he will lose the weight fairly quickly and easily.
Ahhh..but people keep doing stories on him – even I linked to his story a few weeks back. He’s getting publicity and he’ll get more clients. Bottom line.