If you’re like us, you spend a number of hours each week trudging to the gym in a fetal attempt to have Dwayne Johnson’s arms, Matthew McConaughey’s abs, and Neil Patrick Harris‘ tiny waist. (Hi Neil!) Or, if you’re like a certain fitness trainer who just grew so tired with his Adonis body, you forfeit your gym membership, begin a diet of bacon and cream sauce, and bloat yourself into a pudgy version of yourself so you can identify with fat people.
Paul “PJ'” James is that guy. And we hate him. Not because of the social experiment he’s manipulating his body for, but because he had the body we could never achieve and gave it up. BY CHOICE!
The former model and current trainer made it his New Year’s resolution to pack on the pounds so he could better relate to his clientele. The Daily Mail reports:
‘I was finding it difficult to relate to my overweight gym members so I have decided to crank up my weight to experience life as an overweight person,’ said the 32-year-old, who trains at a gym in Melbourne.
After an inaugural meal of four doner kebabs, the Australian trainer has stopped his daily routine of exercise and is fattening himself up on a carbohydrate-heavy diet which includes pasta, cream sauces and chocolate.
The former teetotaler now drinks a couple of beers every night to help gain weight.
He hopes to hit 20st by the end of March.
He then aims to spend the following three months at the same weight, to show overweight people that it can be done.
Finally, he plans to resume exercise so that he will be back to his former trim self by October.
‘I have always been telling my clients who have come through the gym’s doors that weight loss shouldn’t be difficult, but it has reached the point where I can’t relate and by doing this it should make me a better personal trainer,’ he said.
Well aren’t you just a martyr.
How about we take this to the next level?
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TylerOakley
Not healthy, at all.
mykalmorgan
Not just unhealthy, ridiculous also.
If I had an education (I hope he’s certified/trained) that taught me how to have that kind of body, paid to spend time at a gym, and an unhealthy ego, I’d like to hope I could do that too.
Were I one of his clients, I would kind of be offended by his “experiment.”
Asshole.
Alan down in Florida
I’m not so sure why he is unable to be empathetic with his clents’ weight difficulties without going to this extreme but, as someone currently working on losing 100+ pounds for the third time in my life, I applaud him for trying to be better at his job. Still this is not something a gay man would do.
Stop! Or My Daddy Will Shoot!
@TylerOakley: PJ should take his cues from you and YouTube hisself in a colorful array of sweater-vests. That’d be a much better use of his time.
Another fun post ruined by the sour-grapes Queerty commenter patrol. Yeesh.
Tom in COS
This makes me want to stab him.
Repeatedly.
In the throat.
Dubwise
I have to say…I find him kinda hot either way.
kevin (not that one)
This reminds me of when I was younger and purposely gained weight to identify with the bear cult.
After a while, I said to myself: “Kevin, you’re not a bear – you’re just FAT!”
I’m still trying to lose the pounds. Probably should use that gym membership I’m paying for.
Sebbe
While I am neither the picture on the left (gross) or the right (who has that much time?), I am thinking of making my personal trainer read this.
Harrison
I don’t think he could ever really identify with people who have weight issues. Look at him, his fat self is just a pot-bellied, less tone version of his former self. He still has visible hip bones, no love habdles etc. And he could lose it just as quickly as he gained it.
Tom, you have my persmission to stab him.
Sebbe
@kevin (not that one) – I’m not laughing at you, but you made me smile! LOL
Tom in COS
@Harrison: Thanks!
MT
First of all, am I the only one who thinks this guy is totally condescending in a wired way for doing this? He’s in for a pretty rude awakening when he decides to lose it again. I used to be rail thin and decided I wanted to a grow a body. My doctor told me to work out and start eating everything in sight. I did that for about 6 years and had good results until I started going too far and started getting fat. When I decided to try to cut back my eating it was a miserable experience.
I always thought people who ate too much just had no self control. I found out that I was dead wrong. My smug skinny ass found out just how hard it is to control your eating when you are used to it. It took me 4 months to lose 25 pounds and get my six pack back. That trainer there is going to be mighty miserable for a while and maybe he’ll be a little less smug about being hot when he is done.
Sebbe
Well plus remember this guys job is in the gym. Most of his clients are likely working elsewhere and have a limited amount of time to devote to their physique.
mykalmorgan
@Stop! Or My Daddy Will Shoot!: Dude. If you have some personal vendetta against “TylerOakley,” fine, but try to tone down the hostility on the response to a simple, factual 4-word response.
Ugh, I’ve wasted too many brain cells on this already.
kevin (that one)
i think he’s hotter now. all that cut rippling muscle always strikes me as so feminine. It’s like a woman who spends TOO much time on her hair make-up etc. Where’s the REAL person underneath? Plus I love the feel of a guy’s belly banging up against me when he’s……well you know.
TylerOakley
@Stop! Or My Daddy Will Shoot!: I agree, sweatervests are the way to go.
hardmannyc
This guy is obviously someone who has given up and is getting fat and is trying to justify it. Because everyone knows that you pay a gym trainer as much for the inspiration as for the training. In other words, one of the things we pay them for is TO LOOK GOOD.
There are trainers at my gym who are have beautiful bodies and those who don’t. Guess who get the most clients.
hardmannyc
Also, excuse me, but he’s in SYDNEY. The men in Sydney are among the most fit in the world. DNA anyone? If he were in Topeka or Milwaukee or Glasgow, yeah, maybe. Maybe.
Felverick
Why are the comments on this so ridiculous?
He isn’t being condescending, he is trying to provide a better service to his clients. It’ll help him garner an approach to help motivate someone to make more healthy life choices. If you can’t relate, how can you have an approach?
@MT
That’s called self control issues. I’m sorry, but eating everything in site is not the way to get fit or healthy. Sure, you may remain lean due to a good metabolism but eventually that’s going to burnout and your left overweight and unhappy.
Harrison
“He then aims to spend the following three months at the same weight, to show overweight people that it can be done.”
No, this IS condescending. The fact is he can’t fully relate to all of his clients. Sure, he probably has some clients who are overweight by the same means he applied, by adopting a sedentary lifestyle & bad eating habits, and the fix is simply time in the gym & a healthy diet. However, he completely ignores other factors like genetics & barriers due to lifestyle/access/income. It will only further his narcissism, & his “if I can do it anyone can” attitude.
Sorry, I have a chip on my shoulder from encountering too many personal trainers/ gym rats with the same attitude.
EdWoody
Also – fetal? Surely you mean futile.
hardmannyc
“It will only further his narcissism, & his “if I can do it anyone can” attitude.”
Why is that narcissism? He’s right: If he can do, other people CAN do it. i don’t see what’s illogical about that.
Spud
I have to laugh at the first line in the post. What’s a “fetal attempt” you mention? Something about curling up in a self-protecting ball on the gym floor? I think you mean “futile attempt,” (or else I am missing something).
John
Nickadoo
I just love how this page is adorned with ads for Jelly Belly.
And yeah, this guy’s an idiot. You can’t simply undo years of physical training and a healthy lifestyle with a few months of unhealthy eating and inactivity… any more than you can undo years of unhealthy lifestyle choices and poor eating habits with a few months of a fitness routine.
Let him try this for 5 or 6 years instead of 5 or 6 months, and then we’ll see how he does.
petted
If he manages to get back to the picture on the right then I’ll hate him until then …
gurlene
For those of you who are thinking about joining a gym at this time of year (jan-april) you might want to take this advice from someone who has lived all over the country:
1. Never argue with a queen that you damn well is in her forties or early fifties (and trying to workout like she is still in her twenties) over an exercise machine. Let “her” report you to the underpaid and bored instructor so he can pass on to the others who work there what an ass “girl” is. Rest assured they will pass word on.
2. Enjoy meeting and talking to the new queen who joins your gym for the first two months or so because as soon as “she” gets her first trace of a bicep/tricep and chest pecs start showing suddenly your civilized greeting of hello will now sound like you want to bed “her” still pudgy ass.
3. Pay no attention to the frowning face of the queen who has the body and face of an international male model (and clearly bought out their entire underwear collection) but gets pissed when you look at her and not the piece she followed into the locker room.
4. Use common sense. If you know you are the one night stand type don’t bed what you know you might have to look at everytime you go to your gym.
5. In five to six months if you are still being ignored in the steam room you might be spending too much time there instead of working out on the gym floor. A good way to break yourself of that is just wear/bring your gym clothes and a hand towel to wipe up the sweat and shower when you get home.
6. If you are a working “girl” and money is in short supply just stand close enough to the paid personal trainer to overhear the secret he is telling his latest sucker who is too stupid to go online to youtube and get expert advice for free on workout tips.
7. Think twice about joining clubs that have only two or three locations. You might be in a gym that is so crowded starting at 3pm till closing you would do better speed walking and pushups in Central Park instead of waiting for a treadmill or spot in the exercise class. More locations often means different equipment and atmoshphere.
8. If you are not allowed to think for 24 hours before signing walk out. That means you are there during their off peak hours for workouts or the off peak cruising hours. Believe nothing you hear. Only what you READ. That person that gave you the tour/first workout works on commission. Another location of the same gym may tell/offer you something better. Check it out.
9. If the instructor does not accompany you through the locker room tour but tells you to go ahead and see it for yourself that means he does not have to explain any inapropriate behavior that no doubt does go on.
10. Last but not least if you are happy with yourself the way you are (healthy, no high blood pressure and have a physical at least once a year) then you are one of the rarest things left in the gay community worldwide.
We (#10) are more likely to have people and things in our lives that make us feel whole. I think it was smart of him to do the weight gain because now he can relate better to those poor low self-esteem clients who don’t realize the only thing many of them are going to end up with is having nothing but their money taken.
You go PJ. Not too many obnoxious farts who work in gyms and are stuck on themselves would have thought that far out of the box.
Andrew W
His face and chest do look better with the weight. I don’t see how this is going to prove anything, though. He clearly has to work to put on weight. His example says nothing to people who have to work to keep it off.
RainaWeather
Even though he’s fat, he still looks fit. His pot belly looks very toned
getreal
I think it is great he is so committed to his job. What he is doing makes absolutely no sense to me but he is doing it to in his mind to improve his vocation. For that reason I find it difficult to criticize.
hardmannyc
” queen that you damn well is in her forties or early fifties (and trying to workout like she is still in her twenties) ”
That’s just weird. Why should people in their 40s or early 50s not be allowed to work out as hard as people in their 20s. I think that’s commendable, and it’s all the more important to work out later in life.
Glenn Ingersoll
@Harrison: It sounds like this trainer is doing “Black Like Me”, only, of course, “Fat Like Me.” Is it condescending? It is condescending! That’s exactly what many black people say about “Black Like Me”! You didn’t believe us? You put on some black face for the experience? We have to live this every day of our lives. Listen to us. We’re not lying to you.
Was John Griffin wrong to run his little personal experiment? Did he learn nothing from it? Have those who’ve read his book learned nothing from it?
Mr. Enemabag Jones
“Why should people in their 40s or early 50s not be allowed to work out as hard as people in their 20s.”
Because they end up looking like Vince McMahon
http://tinyurl.com/bgk5kk
Which is just pathetic. Then on top of that, they strut around like they’re god’s gift to men and get pissy when us younger guys aren’t interested. Then of course we have to listen to the lecture about how it’s ageist to not date old men, while ignoring the irony in the fact that they themselves only hit on young guys.
In other words, old people should sit at home, do crosswords, wait for the Meals-on-Wheels people and watch The Golden Girls. There, I said it.
TANK
LMAO!@mr. jones
prizzle
its equally unnatural and unhealthy to fetishize working out as it is to eat processed foods in order to relate to your fellow human beings.
sad that he doesnt get that…
just walk people….that and running to get someplace is all it takes…listen to nature not dvds.
Eminent Victorian
@EdWoody: Man, 21 comments before someone pointed this out! Heh. Andbut also: I don’t have a problem with what this guy has chosen to do. Good for him. Weirdly, I think he’s still kind of hot.
Steven
He ‘aims’ to get rid of it all? Good luck to him, he may find iot harder than he thought it would be, and come out this odd experiment wiser.
Nipple piercings. Urgh. Bit dangerous to have in a gym setting, surely?
hardmannyc
Mr. Enemabag Jones: I realize you only wanted to sound like a total asshole to get someone to respond. There, I did. Now go back to your meds.
Rob Moore
@MT: I don’t think he is condescending at all. I give him props for trying to put himself in his clients shoes. When I was younger I weighed 150. The problem is I am 6’4″. If I turned sideways I was like Gumby. My cousin had struggled with her weight her entire life. I didn’t understand it until I discovered the magic of age on metabolic rates. I understand her problem much better, now. It is such a challenge to lose weight then staying on guard forever more not to slip up and gain it back. In a way, it helped me to stop being so smug.
Jack
@Dubwise:
Thank you
Jack
@Mr. Enemabag Jones:
see your future on Silver Daddies.com
lololol
eb
i think its a good thing. honestly, i never was hard on overweight people until i became overweight myself and lost it. it was WAY easier than everyone said, it just took dedication, and hard work, and a continued dedication to healthy living and lifestyle. i think its admirable what he is doing, its his profession, it makes sense. i was never fat, becoming fat and losing weight actually helped me open up conversations with overweight friends and family i would have never been able to have. i can share advice, and dish out useful hard love facts and motivation. i wouldnt have learned what i learned without having gone through it and put the research to the test. i mean i wouldnt do it on purpose, but im not in the fitness industry, so to me it makes sense for him…