Move over Morgan Spurlock and Tim Ferriss. There’s a new guy on the block tinkering with his diet and health in the public arena. Unlike Tim who showed people who to get healthy through self-experimentation or Morgan who showed people how unhealthy the standard American diet is through self-experimentation, Drew Manning is doing both.

This year has already been unconventional for personal trainer Drew Manning, and it’s about to get even more intense. In May 2011, Drew launched his website Fit2Fat2Fit and embarked on a yearlong journey. Drew is going to plump up his chiseled physique by eating the standard American diet for six months. Then, he plans on getting back to his original size by May 2012. Readers of his blog can follow his progress via his weekly photos and updates.

“After those 6 months, I will be teaching people how to get back in shape by allowing everyone to follow my specific meal plans and workout plans on this site.”

Drew is just a few weeks away from transitioning from a weight gain to plan to a weight loss plan. Let’s see how he’s doing so far:

I have to admit, when I first saw these photos, I was shocked. I thought that I had been fooled by a photoshop prankster. But then I came across Drew’s videos. In this video, he talks about what it feels like to gain 60 lbs in a few months:

He’s not only for real, but he’s also sincere in his message. I just had to contact Drew to ask him what this experiment was about in his own words:

What inspired you to do this project?

 
Drew: I was inspired to do this for two reasons. First, I’ve had people tell me I didn’t know what it was like to be overweight and they were right. I felt in order to be a better teacher (personal trainer), I needed to better understand first. Second, as a personal trainer I felt my influence was limited just to the clients that I taught which were very small numbers. I wanted to think of a way I could influence thousands or even more to live healthier and I came up with this crazy idea. So far it’s working.

What is your professional background?

 
Drew: I do personal training part time and I haven’t disclosed what I do full time just yet. That will be a surprise that I will save for the beginning of my fat 2 fit journey, which starts in 5 weeks.

Are you working with a doctor? What does your doctor think about this?

 
Drew: I work with a few doctors and they don’t like this. I got labs done back in week 11 which weren’t too good, especially my blood pressure. The doctors are very worried about my blood pressure for obvious reasons. I got a more extensive labs done last week and I’ll know the results this week sometime. So I’ll continue working with a doctor throughout.

What are you hoping to show at the end of your experiment?

 
Drew: My hope is that people will be more aware of just how unhealthy the typical American diet really is, which is the foods that I’m mostly eating during this journey. Yes, I do eat fast food 1-2 times per week, but mainly I focus on everyday foods like sugary cereals, juices, white breads, white pastas, granola bars, sodas, chips, crackers, etc. I also hope that others will be inspired to live healthier through this crazy journey. I also hope to gain a better understanding of how hard it really is for people that are overweight and to give them hope and knowledge of how to get back to fit, which is why I’m asking EVERYONE to follow me on my journey back to fit!

Follow Drew’s journey on twitter, on facebook, and on his website.