Lifting weights helped Marc conquer his bipolar disorder and find peak fitness
“When I walked in here, I never dreamt that I'd walk out at 64kg. It's been the best thing I've ever done. U.P. has the best trainers in the world that are the gold standard.
Marc had been an ardent follower of the Ultimate Performance approach for years.
He’d read Nick Mitchell’s books, followed U.P.’s online training plans and knew the methodologies worked for him.
The only hitch in his progress was that he kept yo-yo-ing between being overweight and fit.
In part, he put that down to his bipolar disorder. Marc struggled to break through self-imposed barriers and said he often reverted to alcohol as a coping mechanism.
Chasing results he knew would last, he signed up for a full body transformation with U.P. to work alongside his own personal trainer.
Five months down the line, Marc is down 24kg and has all the knowledge he needs to maintain his eye-catching, lean physique for life.
Discover more about Marc’s transformation here.
You have done some activities with U.P. before. What did you find appealing about these previous services?
So, I think resistance-based training just suited me well.
I really liked the mentality of U.P., which is a little bit on the tougher side of things, making it clear that you need to make some sacrifices to get where you want to get to.
Also, just that holistic approach to nutrition, and making sure you keep on it.
I really enjoyed LiveUP. I liked the nutrition on that; a bit more of an intuitive way of doing things, which I think will be useful for me moving on.
But in general, it's probably the one methodology that's really given me results.
How did you find your training? You came for 12 weeks, but we continued for much longer.
I'm definitely an all-or-nothing person. I have bipolar disorder, so everything about me is, it's up there, or it's down there.
When I came in, I thought I would do 12 weeks with you, but halfway through, I felt I needed more time.
I took a diet break; I trained 100% throughout the whole thing, but I needed that 3-4 weeks diet break. I went away because I had some time off work. I needed mentally just to stop.
Obviously, it set me back a bit because you don't lose fat during that time. I didn't go up, but I didn't lose fat, and when I came back, I had to push it really hard.
I'm glad, in some ways that it ended up being five and a half months. I'm glad I did it, but I wouldn't say it was fully planned.
Has training affected your bipolar disorder?
I had it for probably 10 or 20 years before it was diagnosed. So I had undiagnosed bipolar, which is also associated with bad physical health.
I don't smoke or do drugs, but I've always reverted to alcohol as a way of coping. And if I drink, I eat junk.
But now that I've been diagnosed since 2019 and on the right treatment, things have been considerably different.
The training, particularly the resistance training, has helped me a lot with my mental health. So if I train, I usually eat well. If I train, I'm usually focused on what I need to do. So that's the thing, that's my trigger.
I've got to just keep training, which is good because I enjoy it.
Do you now feel you can maintain your current fitness levels long-term?
I've got a lot of tools now that I can rely on. I think particularly the last five months with you.
So, for example, as you said, "Take a snapshot at certain points, where you are almost taking a snapshot of what you need to do to lose one kilogram a week, or two kilograms a week."
So now I know what I need to do. If, for example, I've gained a bit of weight in three months, I know what I need to do to get back down again.
How has the transformation impacted you, physically and mentally?
I have always wanted to be much more balanced. You can't live with big ups and downs the whole time because it's really exhausting.
So, I've got various things to keep my mental health well, keep my training going well, and eat well. I know what I can do. I know what I can achieve with my body now.
When I walked in here, I never dreamt that I'd walk out at 64kg. I didn't even know that was possible. And to be honest, I don't think I've pushed it too far. I haven't done anything too extreme. I've been healthy throughout.
I have never been in this shape before, and honestly, I don't really want to lose it!
What advice would you give to people in your position trying to better themselves?
If you do things the same way, you will get the same results. You've got to do something different to change that.
If you're stuck in a routine and you've been yo-yo-ing, and you can't seem to break it, you've got to find some help from an expert.
There's only so much you can do online or by reading a book. Even though that really helped me, I got to a point where I needed expert support.
I've definitely come out of this period with a lot more knowledge.
