Fit To Fat: Gaining Weight, Shedding Pride

Fit Before Fat

This photo was shot just a few months before Steve started his mission to gain weight for Fit To Fat To Fit on A&E. He weighed in at 176 pounds to make weight and compete in the middle weight bodybuilding class in Daytona Beach Championship, where he placed 1st in Masters and 2nd in the open.

But, after a few months of stuffing his face, not exercising and doing as little as possible (yes, including house chores!), bumps of muscle turned into bumps of fat in the shape of love handles, a Buddha belly and, his least favorite, man boobs. However, Steve did a pretty good job hiding his new excess body fat during the weight gain. Big shirts and baggy pants hid most of his new flab, but occasionally we would strip off his top take a progress picture. The next picture sure is a totally different looking Steve – and as he gained each pound, he shed more of his pride and identity that once was centered on fitness.

One The Way to Fat

Steve will share many of his struggles during his episode, and following the show, but one of the hardest struggles was having to lay down his pride. He really didn’t even realize he was proud at all. He always worked hard to not be too vain or proud of his fit lifestyle, but he quickly realized he was more proud of his healthy lifestyle than he once thought.

Were people going to think he had abandoned his fit lifestyle? Were people going to judge him for his unhealthy food selections or matching new belly? We couldn’t tell everyone the details and we sure couldn’t explain everything to every single person we saw. This exposed a pride problem he didn’t even know he had, which made him examine himself more closely.

Then there was the shopping cart full of everything we preach against buying. Pizza, ice cream, cookies, high-calorie frozen dinners piled up in his cart as he passed by people who once looked up to him as a roll model. He was no longer a roll model. He no longer practiced what he preached and he began to feel ashamed.

One of the funniest things that happened was when our yoga instructor pulled him aside to talk to him about his weight gain. Not having a clue what he was doing, she came to him so concerned about his weight and health. She was so relieved to know he hadn’t fallen off the wagon – or worse, she was relieved he wasn’t sick and on some kind of medications causing the sudden gain. She wasn’t the only one who noticed, but most people just didn’t say anything. Instead, they just whispered it to others or kept it to themselves.

Taking It Off – Not the weight, the shirt!

Stripping off his shirt on the beach stripped more pride away. It was humiliating to go to the beach and expose his new body. While he was packing on the pounds, I was training and dieting hard for a fitness video shoot. I like getting a little color before shoots and we normally love going to the beach together – but nothing that says “stay at home” more than feeling fat.

This was actually one of the things that concerned me most about the whole Fit To Fat part of the show. I was so scared he would get so depressed and really be insecure. I have to admit, he took it like a man. He stripped off his shirt, opened his bag of Doritos and sipped on his high-calories Slurpee and OWNED IT – even while sitting close to gym-goers who I am certain saw his new addition.

As he gained more fat, he lost more clothing options. He lost his fashion and style. He really missed dressing nice. Instead, he wore the same 4 ugly shirts pretty much every day. He had a fat work shirt, a red and white t-shirt for dates, a blue golf shirt for whatever and a white golf shirt he wore to church – and a few hand-me-down jeans his formerly overweight clients gave him. Needless to say, he and Tasha had a clothes burning party at our house after they shed the extra baggage.

CLICK HERE to get our Get Pfit handbook – the workbook we give our boot campers to learn how to lose weight, which are the same principles Steve and Tasha used to go from FAT to FIT.

Tonight is the Night!

Tune in tonight and see the first of 10 trainers and 10 clients who were part of this whole experiment. Here is the line up:

WEEK 1)  JJ / RAY

WEEK 2)  STEVE / TASHA

WEEK 3)  ADONIS / ALISSA

WEEK 4)  ALEX/GEOFF

WEEK 5)  COREY / RAELA

WEEK 6)  KATIE / MATEO

WEEK 7)  CARRIE / KENLEE

WEEK 8)  SETH / DAVE

WEEK 9)  FALLON / JD

WEEK 10) TRAMELL / J&J