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Fit2Fat2Fit: A Trainer Goes From Abs to Flab To Better Understand His Clients

June 18, 2012 @ 6:18 pm (Updated: 6:23 am - 6/19/12 )

By Rachel Belle

drew

Listen to Fit2Fat2Fat: A Personal Trainer Gets Fat To Relate To Clients

With six pack abs and bulging biceps, Drew Manning looked the part of a personal trainer all while living an almost obsessively healthy lifestyle. But he noticed that created a disconnect between him and his overweight clients, who struggled to get in shape.

"I was judgmental, because for me it seems so easy. You just go to the gym and you work out and you eat healthy. But my clients were right, I didn't understand what it was like and I needed a better understanding for myself."

So he embarked on a year long experiment he called Fit2Fat2Fit. Drew would spend six months stuffing his face and exercising his right to sit on the couch and watch TV. Then he would spend the next 6 months taking off the weight. His diet went from spinach protein shakes, lean meats and lots of veggies to giant bowls of Cap'n Crunch, Mountain Dew, chips, cookies and macaroni and cheese. He completely stopped working out and within six months Drew gained 75 pounds. His six-pack abs were replaced with a big, round belly, his energy level went way down and his relationship with his wife started to suffer.

"When I started to eat this way, I did become lazier, I started snoring, I wasn't as helpful around the house, with the kids and doing chores. That did become frustration to her. Of course, the physical attraction. It wasn't so much that she was unattracted to me because I was overweight, but because of how I looked at myself and my confidence level."

Drew says he was surprised how much the weight gain affected him mentally. One of his saddest moments was when his experiment affected his 2-year-old daughter.

"To see her cry because I couldn't play with her for more than a couple minutes, honestly, it was really heartbreaking, even though I was doing this for myself. It just made me realize that there are probably people out there who can't play with their kids and it's been that way for years. So for me, that was probably my lowest point. Even though she won't remember it, I'll always remember that."

After six months of channel-surfing and carb-loading, the lifelong health nut struggled to put down the bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and was forced to think about his clients who had a hard time sticking to his strict, prescribed meal plans.

"I totally understand that now and it really isn't a psychological thing and not so much a lack of will power or a physical thing. I understand it's hard. It really is."

Getting back on the treadmill wasn't much easier.

"It was way harder than I thought it was gonna be. Honestly, to go back into the gym as now the overweight guy instead of the fit guy was very very humbling. I was very nervous to go back, to feel the judgment of people looking at my belly, and to see me struggle doing pushups on my knees. It was way harder, not just from a physical standpoint, but also from a mental and emotional standpoint."

Drew is now back to his old muscular Adonis self, and he says he's a much better trainer for it. He wrote a book called Fit2Fat2Fit, where he details his meal and exercise plans so others can trade in delicious macaroni and cheese and flabby bellies for spinach protein shakes and six pack abs.

More Rachel Belle

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Comments (31)


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  • maplefish wrote...
    Ohhh C'mon
    June 18, 2012 10:18 pm
    This just did this same thing a year or so back. Granted, everyone on the planet knows it takes work to get in shape, but this is stupid! You just profiled this guy for the same fit-to-fat-to-fit scam less than a year ago...? Rachael, is this your boyfriend or your brother or do you own part of the gym???
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  • maplefish wrote...
    They-You
    June 18, 2012 10:19 pm
    Just did this a year ago....
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  • CH wrote...
    Left out the best part . . . .
    June 19, 2012 3:16 am
    2hr work out in bed every night. You should see his wife worn out. Someone is ringing bells.
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  • DesertRez wrote...
    It's amazing
    June 19, 2012 5:28 am
    how many fatties their are now. Sometimes when I go to the grocerie store I feel like an outcast because I am fit. Maybe it's because nobody does real work anymore?
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  • Fixit wrote...
    It is amazing
    June 19, 2012 5:42 am
    because if you work at a tech company you frequently are asked to work so many hours to keep your job that you don't have time to workout. Or, if you do, you're exhausted because you haven't had more than 2-4 hours of sleep a day for weeks on end. Some people are able to make working out their second job, others aren't or don't know how. Instead of chastising them for being out of shape maybe try and find a way to motivate them not to be.
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Just returned from the Gulf Coast
    June 19, 2012 5:47 am
    We were looking for some inexpensive beach chairs and an umbrella (because we were going to leave them when we came home) and went to Wal Mart.

    Like a different species there. Fattest people I've ever seen. HUGE. With stomachs hanging down over waste bands, waddling around with carts full of junk food. Complete with fat kids in tow.

    Pretty disgusting.

    A question came to mind. What could these people possibly do for a "living"?

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  • BigGovSux wrote...
    Work???
    June 19, 2012 7:34 am
    Most of the people, waddling around in their pajama pants (nice and stretchy). Or the ones that excede the cellulite to lycra ratio that decent society has instituted, don't work. These are the same people I see pull up and take the primo handicap spots, take 5 minutes to "unwedge" themselves from the car and then another 5 minutes to waddle over to the electric, sit down shopping cart (which are straining to contain their mass) to start driving up and down the cookie and soda aisle only to pay for it all with their Quest EBT cards. Of course that leaves them free to use their limited cash on cigarettes and now liquor... WE are literally enabling these people's unhealthy lifestyle.
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Never dealt with anyone on an EBT (I'll assume that is food stamp)
    June 19, 2012 9:11 am
    Nice they can pick up their liquor without waddling across the street now.

    But I do agree, certain food should not be eligible. Especially soda!

    But down there everything is about fat and sweet.

    Order an iced tea and you get this concoction that is about 50% sugar. Fried catfish and hush puppies, all you can eat. Waffle Houses on just about every street corner, each with a full parking lot.

    Even in decent restaurants, you have to be careful.

    They'd fry a Maine lobster down there.

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  • Gen_Satan wrote...
    Sick and tired of this sterotyping of FS recipients
    June 19, 2012 9:37 am
    You lame brain morons, don't have a clue. While part of your statement is true, the vast majority of us are not overweight. I am a logger by trade, with 4 children, a mortgage, and have food stamps. Times are hard but not all of us look like we need a forklift to get out of bed in the morning. 6'2" and at 265 I'm as solid as a tank and work for a living.
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  • Sean wrote...
    Gen. Satan,
    June 19, 2012 10:37 am
    please don't be offended, but you have to admit that there's LOTS of food fraud and inappropriate eating habits being fimded by all of us taxpayers, including you. Best of luck to you sir -- just understand that with so much waste going on, and so many problems to fix, this hits a nerve with a lot of people.
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    We were stereotyping like crazy, weren't we?
    June 19, 2012 11:40 am
    And I have no idea if those people I wrote about get assistance.

    I was trying to figure out what someone who looked like that could do for a "living". It wasn't just Wal Mart, although they did have the highest concentration, they were EVERYWHERE, enormous people.

    Never seen anything like it.

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  • SeattleJack wrote...
    What would you be willing to bet
    June 19, 2012 5:53 am
    that every person on this board raking this guy over the coals is fat, unfit, and jealous?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    Nope, not buying this
    June 19, 2012 6:07 am
    you can not go zing zang like that in a year. This guy just got press for his career/book.
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    If it is your full time job, I think it could be done
    June 19, 2012 6:20 am
    .
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  • CH wrote...
    The guy in the middle is his brother? . . . .
    June 19, 2012 6:31 am
    hurry and buy his book. LOL Inexpensive beach chairs and an umbrella. Keep the sales slip and return them when you leave. If you want to go on the cheap, go on the cheap.
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  • 333 wrote...
    SeattleJack
    June 19, 2012 7:28 am
    you are correct sir.
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  • SeattleNative wrote...
    @William Lawn: 'What could these people possibly do for a "living"?'
    June 19, 2012 7:56 am
    They ride the Obama Welfare Wagon "for a living".

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7W8hpDxnY&feature=related

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    So they got that fat in 3.5 years?
    June 19, 2012 8:58 am
    Mississippi Wal Marts were full of buff studs and tight ladies just until Obama got elected? Then in 3.5 years they gained 200 pounds, went on welfare and haven't worked since?

    Thaanks, Native, once again you proved it.

    You are an idiot.

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