'Fit to Fat to Fit': ‘Most Extreme Weight Loss Experiment Ever’ Expected on Reality TV

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Jan 21, 2016 07:12 AM EST

Losing weight seems to be the hardest thing to do for most people. However, in the new reality TV series on A&E Network, trainers will purposely gain a few pounds so they can demonstrate on the show how to lose it, together with their clients.

Health News reported that the show will be called "Fit to Fat to Fit", which is dubbed by the network as the "most extreme weight loss experiment ever."

The show's host, Drew Manning, purposely packed 75 pounds in 2012 so he could understand the pain and struggle his clients are going through. He felt that there was a gap between him and them, thus, the reason for his experiment. The fitness trainer admitted that the experience was so hard, calling it as the toughest test of his life that would change him forever.

"Getting fit again was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it made me a better man," Manning said in the show's opening credits.

Manning's own experiment has inspired producers to create a show with the same concept. They invited 10 fitness trainers who decided to go through the same journey Manning did as they abandon their diet programs and workout routines to gain more pounds. The trainers, who will work together with their clients to get back in shape, will be under the supervision of medical experts in a span of four months.

One of the show's fitness trainers who will join the experiment is Boston native, Fallon Mercedes. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue her ambition to be a fitness trainer and now she will join nine others in "Fit to Fat to Fit."

The 30-year-old fitness guru has always been fit and active all her life. She was a gymnast before becoming a basketball player and a cheerleader at the South High Community School. She was also a member of the University of Massachusetts dance team, while working on a communications and broadcast journalism degree, Telegram reported.

She will be working with her client, who is six-foot-three inches tall and weighed in at 455 pounds. Mercedes admits that she never had a client as big as this one before. Both of them will work really hard to reach their fitness goal.

 "Not only did I have to train myself to lose weight, but I had to train him," the fitness trainer said. "It was quite the task. ... Training is way more than just physical. He had a lot of psychological things going on that brought him to that place."

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