A man who loved to gorge on roast dinners and would eat at least two a week has lost a whopping six stone - by joining a special football team. Brandan Woodhouse, 25, tipped the scales at more than 19st and decided he wanted to be healthy by the time he hit 30, so he took action.
He joined a Man V Fat football team, where the squad is awarded extra goals based on the amount of weight each member has lost - and soon the pounds started falling off. In no time, Brandan, a civil servant from Melksham, Wiltshire, was down to a svelte 13 stone - and he said it only took him six months to lose the weight, not the five years he had thought.
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Brandan said: "It was stepping on those scales and seeing 19st1 that inspired me, it was the heaviest I'd been.
"I was out of breath walking downstairs - life was harder and I thought I had to change this, and I thought I was young enough to make a difference. I didn't want to go into my 30s being overweight.
"I got too comfortable and was a bit lazy - I didn't do enough exercise.
"I had shift patterns and would eat late and eat rubbish as well, I've not always been heavy but I can't remember when I wasn't big, it was my teenage years.
"I was eating a lot of pizza, chips, chocolate, the easy takeaway option, quite large portions as well with silly amounts of meat and hardly any veg on my plate.
"My favourite was quite a large roast dinner, I'd probably have at least two a week. Lamb was probably my favourite. I'd have beef and lamb each week.
"Now I quite enjoy a salad, and also things like soup. Chicken and bacon salad is pretty good, and there's a Mediterranean one I have too. I love a tomato soup, homemade. It's really quite nice.
"It was all just simple changes, like eating healthier and eating less, also I've been doing swimming and cycling as the main types of exercise, and I started the Man V Fat football team which has been a big motivator for me."
Brandan said that he would play with the team each week, and the squad were awarded goals for the weight they lost - meaning they'd have to fight twice as hard if they didn't lose enough.
He continued: "The way it works, you lose points for the whole team if you don't lose weight.
"It's football focussed, but they also look at the weight loss. You go there, get weighed, then you have a game of football and what you lose off the pitch affects the outcome of the game - you might score six goals on the pitch, but if you haven't lost enough weight you might still lose.
"You get goals for how many people lose the weight.
"I had teammates and I didn't want to let them down."
Brandan's initial goal was to get down to 12.5stone (80kg), by the time he was 30 - but to his surprise, he managed to lose most of it in just six months.
He added: "I lost six stone since March, I'm quite pleased for myself really - I'm feeling better, a lot of people have said I look a bit younger as well.
"I don't struggle with breath anymore, not at all really. I can do a lot more physical exercise - I'm fitter than I've ever been really, it's made my job and everyday life a lot easier as well.
"I've always been known as the big man or weight referred comments - a lot of people are now calling me Mr Skinny and things like that, it makes me feel good that people notice the change in me.
"I think it would be a lot harder to lose the weight as you get older, with my job I need to be somewhat fit and I just wasn't in a good state at all.
"To be fair it makes football a lot easier, being able to run quicker - I've found I've come a bit more competitive for it, I can run around longer and I'm hungrier for the ball, I'm better than I used to be.
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