Personal trainers are people who will stop at nothing to help their clients reach their goals.
One trainer took that support to a whole new level. He proceeded to gain 70 pounds just so he and a client could lose weight together. Now that’s what we call dedication!
Adonis Hill is a 35-year-old personal trainer from Brooklyn, New York. He appeared on the television show From Fit to Fat with a client named Alyssa. Alyssa was having a difficult time losing her weight, so Hill took the extreme measure of gaining 70 pounds to motivate her.
He stopped working out, stopped eating a healthy diet, and basically just let himself go. He began eating up to 7,000 calories per day in order to put on the weight. He went from having a strict, regimented diet to one where he ate every unhealthy thing he could find. Instead of egg whites and oatmeal for breakfast, for instance, Hill would eat pancakes, waffles, cereal, and other high-calorie foods.
It took about three months for him to pack on the pounds. He had actually planned to gain the weight over four months but had to stop early because Hill’s doctor warned him that his blood pressure had gotten dangerously high.
Choosing to gain this much weight would be difficult for anyone, but it was an especially difficult choice for Hill. Before becoming a personal trainer, he weighed more than 300 pounds and was extremely depressed after his business failed. A friend encouraged him to get out of his apartment and go for a walk to get him out of his funk.
That walk eventually turned into a jog, which eventually turned into workouts at the gym. After a year of regular workouts and eating right, he went from an overweight, unhappy person to someone in great shape. Hill’s biggest concern about gaining the weight for the show wasn’t actually losing it again; it was the emotional toll it was going to take on him.
He remembered being addicted to food and how unhappy he was when he was overweight. Hill worried that gaining this weight again would bring back a lot of unhappy memories, but he did it because he knew it would help his client.
When it was time to lose the weight, Hill was actually surprised at how difficult it was. In fact, he said losing the weight the second time was actually more difficult than losing it the first time. But still he and Alyssa pushed on, eager to meet their weight loss goals.
It took four months, but both were able to meet these goals. Hill lost 57 pounds and Alyssa lost 58. Both of them look outstanding!
Now Hill wants to set new goals for himself. He plans to walk across America in order to raise awareness about obesity and for safe, walkable spaces. His walk will take him from New York City all the way to California. He plans to walk 2,797 miles in 210 days. It’s an ambitious goal, but Hill is confident he can do it.
Clearly he’s a man who accomplishes whatever he sets out to do!
