In December of 2011, Luke Shook, a personal trainer and owner of Ultimate Body Experience (UBX) in Omaha, Neb., decided to gain 50 pounds in 12 weeks in order to display the detrimental effects that an extremely unhealthy lifestyle can have on the human body. Consuming copious amounts of fast food and depriving his body of exercise, Shook’s weight began ballooning at an alarming rate — gaining between 4 and 5 pounds a week — and he experienced a variety of negative side effects.
“[The experience] was more extreme than I ever thought,” said Shook. “I thought it would be challenging,” but he never expected to run into serious health concerns such as bloody noses, massive headaches, coupled with a lack of energy and motivation and lowered self-esteem. Going from a blood pressure of 120 over 70 to about 170 over 96, Shook’s transformation was eye opening. After gaining 40 pounds in 10 weeks, Shook’s doctor advised him to stop out of concern for his overall wellbeing. “I thought I’d be able to get to [my goal] before my blood pressure and cholesterol got out of hand,” said Shook.
A month later, Shook is now three weeks into hosting and participating in a 12-week workout progression program to do exactly the opposite of his previous three months work — he plans to lose 40 pounds in 12 weeks. Working out four days a week, each week progressively increasing the intensity, so far Shook has lost 18 pounds, and he’s not the biggest loser in the program. “I was really excited to lose [the weight] and start exercising,” said Shook. “I feel a hundred times better.”
Shook stressed that the goal of his experiment wasn’t to relate to his clients, but instead to inform people on the affects of an unhealthy lifestyle. “I was in no way shape or form trying to relate to my clients,” he said. “I don’t want people to think that I understand what people who have been 400 pounds their whole life feel. This is a tool for people to see what these decisions — eating junk food everyday and not exercising — can do with your body.”
The experiment allowed Shook to experience greater outreach to members of the community, and he encouraged other health professionals to do the same. “More than ever now we need to think about how we can reach out to more people, and try to change people’s lives.”
By Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
Wouldn’t it have been easier to just show them “Supersize Me?”