A Brooklyn-based personal trainer spent three months systematically wrecking his perfectly toned physique, just so he could accompany his client on her weight loss journey. The duo were featured on the third episode of a new A&E show titled Fit to Fat to Fit.
Having struggled with a food addiction only a few years back, going on this new unhealthy regime was a huge challenge for 35-year-old Adonis Hill. But he did it anyway by stopping exercise and gorging on donuts at breakfast, hot dogs and pizza at lunch, McDonald’s at dinner, and Oreos in between. He stopped gaining weight in the third month, so he added a gallon of soda a day to his diet, a move that sent him to the ER with high blood pressure.
Doctors warned Hill that he was doing serious damage to his body, but he had already put on 69 pounds by then, thanks to the 8,000-odd calories he was consuming per day. He was finally ready to take up the Fit to Fat to Fit challenge along with his client Alissa Kane, an overweight teacher. Together they quit junk food, but stayed on a high-fat, high-protein, low-carb diet in order to burn fat. They spent an hour lifting weights and an hour on cardio about five to six days a week. After four months, Hill managed to lose 57 pounds, while Kane lost 58.
Photo: A&E Networks
The dedicated trainer said that he found the challenge extremely difficult because of the issues he had had with food earlier in his life. His business had collapsed when he was 27, and he fell into a deep depression, relying on food for comfort. But he eventually pulled himself together, went on long walks, started running, and lost 100 pounds by age 29. He then took up weightlifting and became a personal trainer. So the challenge brought back a few nasty memories for Hill.
“I was putting in a lot of work in the gym but eating right was hard this time because I was coming off an old addiction,” he said. “I had to wean myself off unhealthy food.”
Photo: A&E Networks
Before he went on to do the challenge, Hill was living a clean, healthy lifestyle – he would start his day before 5 am with a coffee, oatmeal and egg breakfast, and train people between 5.30am and 10pm. He would eat chicken and fish with rice and vegetables for lunch, a protein shake as an afternoon snack, and a dinner consisting mainly of meat. But he did allow himself small cheats of potato chips and cookies every day. His own work out regime included an hour of lifting weights followed by 20 minutes of cardio.
But Hill gave up all that just to be able to better empathize with Alissa as she struggled to lose weight. And now that the challenge is over, he is back to his old personal trainer lifestyle of eating right and working out, which for him, is almost spiritual. “It’s so much deeper than lifting weights,” he said. “It’s where I get my sanity from.”
Photo: A&E Networks
Hill’s next challenge will be to walk from New York City to California in 210 days, in a bid to promote walking as a healthy exercise. He also wants to “increase access to safe and convenient places to walk and wheelchair roll.” His goal is to raise $75,000 through GoFundMe to cover the costs of the 2,797-mile walk. He plans to use the money to cover expenses like documenting the journey and hosting walking events in various cities along the way.
This isn’t the first time a personal trainer voluntarily puts on massive weight only to lose it again. Back in 2011, Drew Manning also put on 70 pounds just to experience being overweight and better understand his clients.
