By Emily Murray

They say you should never judge anyone if you don’t know what it’s like to be in their shoes. Well one fitness trainer’s desire to relate more closely to the feelings of his clients led him to realize that the only way to know what they were experiencing was to turn his fit bod to flab and then back again.

Drew Manning intentionally gained and then lost 70 pounds in one year in order to experience the entire process of getting back in shape and how it impacts not only physical but mental health as well. Manning admits that prior to his journey to the other side of things he had a very hard time relating to why his clients lost motivation or were unable to control their food cravings. He was noticing his success with clients was beginning to fail.

Manning immediately started eating junk food that never had appealed to him in the past and began drinking soda and as a result gained 70 pounds. His wife has said that he had never had any desire for these foods before. He wouldn’t allow himself to go to the gym or get any exercise at all in an attempt to pack on the pounds. It didn’t take long to see a physical appearance change but it took an even shorter time for the mental and emotional transition.

Manning reports that he was depressed and his self confidence went on a downward spiral. His overall energy and interest in things also began to diminish. Manning’s wife began noticing his husband was losing interest in playing with and spending time with the couple’s 2-year-old daughter and also with helping out around the house, traits  that were not like him at all.

Many health professionals criticized Manning for his drastic experiment since it was not a good move from a health stand point to put his body through all the stress, however he appeared on Good Morning America to show that his body appears to be back, at least physically, to where it was before he started on his journey. His entire experience is the subject of his book “Fit2Fat2Fit” and he discusses all the changes he experienced during both the weight gain and weight loss.

For Manning the experience proved to him that in order to be successful as a personal trainer, there is far more to consider than just the workout schedule and the food the person consumes – it’s a delicate balance of mental and physical rehabilitation that can get a person to a healthy weight.