I saw this on TV a few days ago-this guy had an awesome body-no fat at all, and great definition. He was working as a personal trainer-and decided he needed to know what his clients were facing…so he gorged himself on fattty and sweet foods-and gained 90 pounds!
He now ha a 40" waist, and his formerly rock-hard abs are now under mounds of blubber.
Not surprisingly, he is finding it hard to shed the excess weight.
How long wil it take for him to regain his former physique?
I saw an article about this guy a while ago. I don’t know how much muscle mass he lost when he stopped exercising (probably a lot) but it may mean that he in fact gained a lot more than 90 pounds of fat. If he lost 30 pounds of muscle at the same time, he really gained 120 pounds of fat.
If he puts himself on a reasonable calorie-restricted diet and starts exercising again, he could probably burn through 120 pounds of fat in a year and a half. It’s not easy, though.
Losing weight at 1-2 pounds a week is recommended for permanent, steady, healthy weight loss. I assume the gentleman will be body building at the same time, building up his muscles, which will help burn off the fat.
I’m thinking it will take at least a year, if he does it the healthy way. How long did it take him to gain it?
This guy is playing people for a chump.
This is actually an old bodybuilding technique, I bet he’s done it in the past.
You see if you work out and try not to put on fat, you will probably gain about 10-15 of pure muscle a year. It’s very hard to gain anymore than 15 pounds of “pure” muscle a year, by working out.
Note the use of “pure”
Steriods obviously are one way around this “limit” so to speak.
This “Stunt” he’s pulling is another technique.
What you can do (and look at older bodybuilding books from before the 70s when steriods became real mainstream), it advises you to eat as much as possible. This will allow you to put on more muscle faster. However the HUGE downside is not only will you put on muscle but everything else will be fat
So let’s say by working out hard, maintaining calories you will put on 10 pounds of pure muscle in a year.
This way you’ll force your body into putting on, instead of 10 pounds, you can force it to put on an extra 25%. So you’d gain 12.5 pounds of muscle.
I recall reading the books and it tells you of this technique then says in big letters “IF YOU HAVE A HARD TIME LOSING WEIGHT, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS.”
Now that’s the gimmick to his stunt. This is an old technique, it works and he’s done it before, and he has little trouble taking off weight.
So when he’s finished, here’s the drumroll…TA-DAH…
He’ll be even MORE BUFF, because that technique will allow him to add more muscle.
This technique will work for you too, but you’re gonna have to work your butt off to get the weight back off and for what and extra one or two pounds of muscle. To a bodybuilder an extra pound of muscle can be the difference between a first and second place finish at a competition. That translates in dollars. To most people, you’ll most likely not be able to take the weight off and the results will be worthless.
I’ve tried this and it does work, IF and this is a big IF, you can get the fat weight back off.
Did he actually stop working out? You can pack a surprising amount of muscle under a fat body. I’ve been working out a ton this year and I haven’t lost, to the naked eye, as much fat as previous diets just because the muscle underneath has grown. However, if you put a picture of me before working out next to me now, you can see the differences in how it’s carried. To a random person on the street I still just look like a fat person. Physical fitness and obesity aren’t directly correlated.
If he never stopped working out, it’s basically a stunt; it’ll be far easier for him to lose the weight. Not only does he have the advantage of knowing how to work out, he still has the muscles under the fat to support him. It’s not like a 300lb person walking into a gym the first time; he already has a degree of physical fitness that they don’t, not to mention a boosted metabolism from supporting the muscle.
Also, this guy is naturally someone who has the capacity to maintain a very low body fat percentage. Putting him next to someone who is naturally apt to gain weight doesn’t count for much; we’re simply not on even ground. Yes, willpower is important, but gorging an extremely physically fit person temporarily isn’t really a good experiment about how easy it is to lose weight. It’s just a good way to gain publicity.
Put it this way: let’s say a professional football player stopped being active and sat on his ass playing video games for a few months. He gains 30 lbs and doesn’t exercise. Do you think it would mean anything that he could get back up, lose 30 lbs and compete professionally, but a random 30 lbs overweight video gamer can’t do that?
I agree that some people may have it harder than others, but it’s incorrect to say the video gamer can’t do the same thing. He can do it. It may take him longer and he may need more willpower, but he can lose the 30 lbs.
You also said that he had the natural ability to have a low body fat. What makes you think that? I feel it’s more a factor of his lifestyle. If he’s a personal trainer he likely spends hours working out and watches what he eats. When I was in college I was at 6% fat without making a specific effort. But it wasn’t because of a natural ability. I was involved with intermural sports, worked out, walked to class and store, and didn’t have a lot of money to buy food. Once I was out of college and became better paid and more sedentary, I drifted up to 30% without even realizing it.
Another thing that has been alluded to, but not directly stated.
A 400# person has to have muscles under the fat to move that 400# around. While they’re not going to be out winning any marathons or other athletic events, they’ll still have more muscle mass than many people who are hitting the gym hard every day.
It would be an interesting experiment for 185# me to start wearing a 165# body suit to bring my total weight into the 350# arena. Then decrease the weight of the suit as my body bulked up to compensate for the extra weight. Just to find out where the point of equilibrium is.
Well, rather than start wearing it one morning, work my way up fairly quickly as if I were rapidly gaining weight.
Are there two people in the world doing this at the moment, or was he the Australian guy?
All he has to do is go to a department store. Maybe to a nice restaurant and tip well.
What’s the exchange rate like these days?
Markxxx is right. If this guy is a true bodybuilder, i.e. goes on stage and looks really scary and has like 6% bodyfat, then gaining a load of weight during the offseason is completely normal. You can put on a lot more muscle while gaining weight then while losing it. Losing the weight will be no problem for someone built like Arnold Schwarzenegger at his peak.
However, if this guy is more of a personal trainer ‘athletic’ build, then he’ll have a long road ahead of him. A person built like a soccer player will have a harder time losing that amount of weight.