This Personal Trainer Gained and Lost 70 Pounds Just to Show a Client It Can Be Done

Adonis Hill is a certified personal trainer from Brooklyn, NY, who has a big appetite for learning, sharing and growing. But a couple of years ago, he had an appetite for comfort food which led to some unwanted weight gain. He told Buzzfeed Health, "my dreams and everything I hoped for were gone".

When he was 27, Hill’s business failed, which caused him to fall into a deep depression. He was in a downward spiral. There was no other way for him to fill the void other than eating, but one day, Hill had an epiphany. With his business now gone, he decided to get his weight in check.

He started walking for a bit, until he got the courage to start running. By the time he was 29, he had shed 100 pounds. He got so physically fit that he eventually earned his personal training certification. So Hill knows as well as anyone how hard it is to lose the extra pounds. But why would he, or anyone else for that matter, want to intentionally get fat again?

One day, Hill met up with a new client, Alissa Kane. She was an overweight teacher who was trying to shed the extra pounds. But she didn’t have a lot of confidence in her ability to get fit. You know how it goes. You can put on the weight in a few months, but losing only 5 pounds can take months. So Hill decided his client shouldn’t have to do it alone...

Hill felt that he needed to show Kane that losing the extra pounds wasn't as hard as it seemed. He decided to put back on a ton of weight just so that his client wouldn't have to go on her weight-loss journey all by herself. And thanks to his 8,000-calorie-a-day diet, this wasn't hard to achieve. He started off the day with a few uber-fattening doughnuts. 

He ate pizza and hot dogs for lunch. Then he snacked on some Oreos, which kept him going until he ate dinner at — wait for it — McDonald's. He kept doing this for three months. In the final month, Hill’s weight gain stalled until he started chugging a gallon of soda a day. But sadly, he wound up in the hospital for high blood pressure, as he was destroying his body.

He was heading down a perilous path, and he was well aware of it. The doctors advised him to do something before it was too late. If he kept going down this path, he would end up doing some serious damage to himself. But he had already gained 69 pounds, and he was on a mission. Quitting now wasn't an option for Hill.

Everything he had worked so hard for in the past was gone. So, in less than no time, he had put on a whopping 70 pounds to help one woman reach her weight loss goals. But this wouldn't just motivate her. Hill's weight loss project could potentially inspire thousands to follow in his footsteps...

Still, Hill admitted that losing the weight was a lot more difficult than he realized. This wasn’t the first time he'd done it, but that didn't mean it was any easier, and he was struggling a lot.

He went to the gym and worked out like crazy. But eating right again was tougher than he realized. He had to go back to eating clean, but it was a total pain in the ass. This time, though, he wasn't doing it only for himself...

"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... I had to wean myself off unhealthy food," he told Buzzfeed Health.

Hill and Kane spent four months exercising and motivating one another to lose weight. It was the only way he knew to get her to stick to her fitness goals and feel incredible. But what he did was a huge sacrifice, and he didn’t mind doing it one bit. After all, he had a bigger purpose for doing this.

Hill’s weight gain/weight loss challenge was documented by the A&E show “Fit to Fat to Fit.” He ate 8,000 calories per day, but he ended up substituting junk food with a high-fat, high protein, low-carb diet to help his body burn some extra fat. Still, Hill wasn’t the only who lost weight.

After several months, Hill lost 57 pounds and Kane lost 58 pounds. But the diet was way more difficult on him than it was on her, especially when it came to breakfast.

Hill had to wake up before 5 a.m. on most days to make himself an oatmeal-and-egg breakfast. It might not sound too appetizing for some, but at least he could look forward to a heartier meal at noon.

For lunch, Hill ate chicken and fish with rice and vegetables. But with so many hours to go until dinner, he drank a protein shake to keep his hunger cravings at bay. But dinner was a different story.

There were days when Hill had to take people out for sessions during the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. So he couldn’t always squeeze in a meaty dinner. But he still tried, and he wasn’t afraid to cheat either, whenever he was craving some comfort food. 

Despite his strict exercise regimen and healthy diet, Hill allowed himself to cheat a bit by snacking on cookies and chips. But he knew that the best way to keep the bulge away was to do the following...

Hill spent most of his time at the gym lifting weights for an hour, and about 20 minutes of cardio workout. But this wasn’t a temporary thing. It became a part of who he was and still is. And this doesn’t just help him physically.

For Hill, exercise is a lot more than just hitting the gym and lifting weights. It was a way of life, and it didn’t just keep him looking fit either. It’s kept him from falling back into the emotional rut he was in at 27. But then, in 2016, he decided to get even more ambitious.

Hill planned to walk from New York all the way to California in order to promote exercise and support spaces with more access for people to walk. But he needed a little extra cash to pull it off, so he turned to the only people who could help him.

Hill set up a GoFundMe account to raise $25,000, which was the estimated cost for his 210-day 2,797-mile trip. He had banked on the generosity of people. But that was a wrong move.

Hill began his walk in Delaware and managed to make it all the way to Ohio. But he didn’t raise enough money. “I was very surprised by the amount of people not willing to help me on my route and because of the lack of help I was forced to stop my walk.” But he wasn’t done just yet.

Losing weight can be a lonely effort, which is why the personal trainer gained and lost 70 pounds. It wasn’t easy, but he was able to send a very powerful message that could potentially help a lot of people who are struggling with it. And hey, if this trainer was able to first lose 100 pounds on his own, get totally ripped, then put on 70 pounds, and lose it all over again, then it's proof that anyone can do it.

The personal trainer gained and lost 70 pounds, but he didn’t lose his drive while doing this little experiment. An update on his GoFundMe page assures everyone who's been following this story that he will be back once he has enough funds. And we’re definitely rooting for him.