A guy who saw his weight approach to 22st 7lb (173kg) after investing more than £200 a week on takeaways throughout the coronavirus lockdowns has actually seen an amazing 8st 5lb (53kg) weight loss in a year after signing up with a fat-busting football league.
Ashley Smith, 23, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, states he has actually constantly been on the “larger side” however the pandemic saw his weight “spiral out of control” after upping his takeaway intake, which saw him often buying 2 a day.
But having identified an advert for a MALE v FAT football league, Smith chose to sign up with and has actually considering that seen seen his weight drop to 14st 2lb (90kg), with his clothing size avoiding XXXL to L.
Smith states he ended up being addicted to takeaways throughout the pandemic, investing approximately £40 every day on a 5,000 calorie diet plan of fried chicken, hamburgers and carbonated beverages – two times the NHS advised everyday calorie consumption for males.
Read more: Mum who weighed 28st sheds half her body weight after overhauling diet
“My binge eating had gone mad,” he explains. “I had at least one takeaway a day, sometimes two.
“I was staying up all night watching Netflix and I would wake up at 2pm and get straight on the McDonalds!
“I don’t think I realised just how unhealthy I’d become.”
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With his weight creeping up and feeling embarrassed about the way he looked, Smith also says he started to avoid socialising with his friends and family.
“I was too embarrassed to go out in public,” he states.
“I wouldn’t FaceTime any friends and didn’t want anyone to see or hear from me looking the way I did.
“Seeing just how out of control my weight got was quite disheartening,” he continues. “I kept to myself, because I didn’t want to explain to anyone that it had got that bad.”
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The bed salesperson’s activity levels took a struck throughout lockdown too.
“Lots of people were going for walks, but I wasn’t doing that,” he says. “I stayed in all day.
“I hated going for walks because I would be sweating like a pig.”
He includes: “I only ever wore black and my clothes were always baggy, because I wanted to hide in them.”
The turning point came in April 2021, when Smith came across an advert for a local branch of a football league exclusively for overweight men who want to slim down.
At 6ft 2in and then weighing 22st 7lb (173kg), with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40.4, compared to the NHS healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9, Smith was clinically obese and knew he needed to take drastic change, so he decided to give it a go.
Despite concerns he would be the “youngest and heaviest”, Smith in fact discovered a helpful neighborhood of males who were all eager to assist him reach his weight loss objectives.
The matches, which run every Friday, begin with a weigh-in and for each staff member who has actually lost some weight, 0.5 objectives are contributed to the last rating, this assists to supply gamers with an excellent reward to stay with their diet plan strategies.
Determined to assist his group win, Smith started calorie counting and slashed his everyday consumption to around 1,500.
He likewise eliminated takeaways throughout the week – enabling himself a cheat meal or beverage at the weekend – and went with a much healthier diet plan, including his five-a-day fruit and low-calorie prepared meals.
Read more: Woman drops six stone in six months after ditching bad food habits
Now weighing 14st 2lb (90kg), with a BMI of 25.4, Smith has actually seen unbelievable lead to his very first year and is on track to reach his objective weight of 13st 12lb (88kg).
“Initially I went from goal to goal to goal,” he explains. “Right now I want to get my BMI into the healthy range and I don’t have far to go.
“I’m nearly there and I feel great. I feel very proud of my journey so far.”
Now Smith wishes to motivate anybody wanting to slim down to do so in a “physically and mentally positive way”, like he has actually.
“Joining MAN v FAT has added a good decade to my life,” he says.
“The atmosphere when you go there is so positive.
“You’re all working towards the same goal, so it’s a physically and mentally positive way to lose weight and make friends in the process.”
Losing weight has likewise had a favorable influence on Smith’s self-confidence.
“When friends take pictures of me now I feel comfortable with it, for the the first time in a long while,” he states.
“I feel a lot more positive about satisfying individuals and, ideally, now that I have this spring in my action I will fulfill somebody romantically,” he includes.
MALE v FAT is introducing a 4th club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in July. For more details go to Man vfatfootball.org.
Additional reporting PA Real Life.
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