The other day, I followed a link in a post here that went to MSNBC. While there, I saw a link to a story about a personal trainer who gained 70 pounds in order to learn what it is like to be overweight. His goal is to be able to have more understanding of what his clients are going through in their weight loss journey.

The guy has been deliberately gaining weight for six months. He even posted pictures on his web site, and it is like seeing our progress pictures here in reverse. He stared out with a six pack ab, and it is gone. When I looked at his photos, I was actually surprised to see how fast the abs were gone.

In November, he plans to start dieting and working out to lose all of the weight again.

It was interesting, but I was just saddened about what he did to his body deliberately. I hope it works out for him. As a publicity stunt, it has brought him media attention.

I am also amazed (although I shouldn't be) at how fast he gained weight. He went into this thinking he would gain around 50 pounds in six months. He has gained more than 70 pounds, and it hasn't been six months yet.

His website is fit2fat2fit.com.

Would you hire a trainer who has gone to this length to empathize with you? Other thoughts?

Holy cow! I sure hope he succeeds!

I read the article on him the other day on MSN and I was shocked. I understand how he wants to understand what people are going through. But, I think that's taking it a bit far.

I saw it too, but can't help but wonder if it's still in a way telling us how easy both gaining and losing really is, and how we could all do this if we really tried. Most of us with weight problems all of our lives, do not have a "normal" persons metabolism, and a lot of times there is a hormonal reason behind our weight issues. Some of us have Diabetes or insulin resistance. We are all different of course. I just feel this is going to turn into a "see how easy it is, now everybody lose weight" kind of lecture for us. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just have a hard time believing that any normal person with a normal metabolism can really relate to our issues. Just my opinion though, and I hope I'm wrong and a lot of positive things come out of it.

Yes. I plan to follow him. I'm sick of trainers and doctors who don't have a clue what it's like to be fat.