Two Utah men were featured in last week's series premiere of the new A&E show “Fit to Fat to Fit,” where together they worked to lose weight. The catch? JJ Peterson, a personal trainer from Draper, first had to gain the weight he would later try to lose as he coached his client, Ray Stewart.
"Fit to Fat to Fit" is the brainchild of Drew Manning, a former Utah personal trainer who decided to gain weight and then try to lose it so he could better relate to his clients. In 2012, Manning published a book about his experience gaining and then losing 75 pounds.
“Getting fit again was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Manning said in the show’s premiere.
The show on A&E follows other personal trainers as they gain weight, like Manning did, and then work with a client to lose weight together. Peterson, a healthy 31-year-old, finds throughout the episode that the change in lifestyle affected much more than his physical appearance.
“Is fat an emotion?” Peterson, a personal trainer for the last 13 years, asks at one point in the episode.
Peterson and his wife, Erika, a nutritionist, found that the change in Peterson’s eating habits also affected their marriage.
“I think what’s been most difficult through this whole process is how it has affected my relationship with my wife,” Peterson said. “For years and years and years, we’ve been on the same page, and now it’s, I bring home my cheeseburger, and she’s eating her salad, and we don’t have anything to talk about.”
Meanwhile, Stewart begins the episode with a desire to lose weight because he and his wife are unable to have children and would like to adopt. However, Stewart recognizes that birth parents will have concerns about choosing Stewart and his wife to adopt because of his weight.
“In all honesty, who’s going to pick me to be the adoptive father when it doesn’t look like I’m even in shape enough to go throw a ball with the kid?” Stewart said.
Stewart presented the desire to be a father as his main motivation for losing weight.
“I want to be a dad,” Stewart told Peterson, a father of three. “Growing up, I was in awe of my father. I want to provoke the kind of feelings I have about my dad in my kids. What greater place than your own home to be a hero?”
In the end, Peterson was able to return to his starting weight while Stewart lost 147 pounds. Stewart's wife, Julie, lost 75 pounds as she joined her husband in living a healthier lifestyle. Stewart told ABC News that he is well aware that it will take effort to maintain a healthy weight.
“I’ve got 37 years of bad habits,” he said. “And I’ve got six (to) eight months of good habits.”
Peterson told Yahoo that he walked away with a newfound understanding of the challenges faced by those with weight issues, but after the show, he also has a new hero and friend.
“I would have never thought that Ray would have been my hero after all of this, but he really is,” Peterson said. “He’s one of the strongest people I have ever met in my life. I really, really look up to him. He’s one of my best friends, and I never would have thought I’d gain a best friend from doing this.”
The show's next episode, featuring two new participants, airs tonight on A&E at 10/9 central.
Email: mjones@deseretdigital.com