from 'hunk' to chunk

From Herald Sun (Melbourne)

Personal trainer Paul James piles on kilos to help clients

By Matt Johnston | February 03, 2009

• Trainer to stay at 120kg for three months
• He plans to lose the weight with gym clients
• Health experts warn practice is dangerous

Weight on ... Paul 'PJ' James, a personal trainer and former underwear model, shows off his new gut. Picture: Rebecca Michael

AN underwear model and personal trainer from Melbourne is on a bacon and chocolate milk diet to stack on 40kg to better understand obese gym clients.

Paul "PJ" James, a Coburg model who has strutted catwalks in Milan and Tokyo, is halfway to his goal of reaching 120kg. He plans to stay at that weight for three months before shedding the kilos with his Doherty's gym clients in Brunswick.

He has cut out exercise and admits to enjoying the occasional full chicken with skin, stuffing and chips at night to boost his calorie intake.

But a leading obesity and health expert, Prof Boyd Swinburn, said PJ risked damaging his liver and suffering heart problems from the stunt, which will be filmed as a documentary.

PJ, 32, has already gone from 80kg to 100kg since making his New Year resolution to boost his flab.

"I have always found it easy to tell clients what to do to lose weight, but it's hard to tell where a client is coming from and how they are feeling," he said.

"There are health risks, I won't shy away from that. But I'm trying to do it as responsibly as possible, with regular blood pressure and health checks."

He said his body had tried to reject the fat at first, but he had worked hard to make sure he stacked on the kilos, and was now starting to notice people looking at him differently.

"Especially when I'm trying to train clients and they are doing sit-ups and I'm standing there with a massive gut," he said.

"My gut is pretty big. That's where most of the weight seems to be going."

PJ said he would film the experience and that he is an aspiring actor.

He "doubted" he was setting a bad example for young people because no one would want to do what he was doing.

"I'm not regretting it because I know the end result will be beneficial," he said.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying the food, I'm starting to understand that. I'm not loving it, but at the same time I'm not hating it."

Prof Swinburn, director of the World Health Organisation Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, said stacking on weight quickly was dangerous.

"There's only such a rate that fat cells can absorb and there's a big spillover into where the fat isn't supposed to be, like the liver," he said.

"A much safer way to know what people are going through is putting on one of those fat suits."

This will be worth keeping an eye on to see what measures he takes to lose that weight. No doubt such shameless self-promotion means that he will probably devise and promote his own brand of diet and exercise.

PJ was Blush Photography 'Hottest Hunk' of 2007. Now he's a chunk. Still, he looks like the rest of us now.

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Happy Tuesday.