West Lothian Love Island star Anton Danyluk was on Good Morning Britain promoting his Body Shame documentary that is set to premiere tonight on BBC Scotland at 10.30pm
The Blackridge born lad had an open and candid conversation on the couch where he opened up about how his mixed race heritage and overweight physique created a scenario where he was an easy target for bullies in school.
Anton said that being overweight meant that he was borderline depressed and that he had given up football and would often stay off school out of fear of having to get changed around other kids.
READ MORE: Edinburgh husband heartbroken as new wife dies beside him in bed as he starts US life
The reality TV star says that it was thanks to his mum and a love affair with training and the gym that he was able to turn his life and physique around.
But now he fears that his own Instagram presence may have been adding to the growing problem of male insecurity around their bodies.
“I come from a foreign background where my dad is Italian and my mum is Burmese. There was always good food in our house, we did not eat unhealthy food, we just ate a lot of food,” Anton told the GMB hosts.
“So by the time I went into high school it was fair to say I was overweight, and I think being a mixed race kid in Scotland and being overweight, it meant I was an easy target for kids to pick on me.
“At the time I did not realise mentally it was making me borderline depressed. I was quite good at football when I was younger but then I did not want to play it anymore because I didn't want to take my top off in the changing rooms with the other kids.
“What happened is I stopped playing football, became less active and put on more weight and then I was in this vicious circle.”
On how he escaped the negative feelings and began turning the tide on his mental health, he said: “I have to give credit to my mum on this one, she seen I was in this rut and she started dragging me to the gym at 5.30 in the morning before school and she even lied for me to the gym as you had to be 16 at the time.
“She got me into the gym and I started to notice that I felt a lot better in myself training. As I started to feel better it made me want to go more and then my body changed. And rather than be in this vicious cycle, I was in a positive cycle.”
“What I think now is a perceived idea of what the perfect male body is, which is a perfect six pack abs. That is what people see as this perfect image.
“I think this puts pressure on teenage boys to look that way. They need to take things into perspective as I have been training for 12 years and I live and breathe this lifestyle.
“I eat six meals a day and these people are looking up to me and thinking why do I not look like that? And it is just a time game sometimes. They’ve just not been doing it long enough.”
Anton says that he wants to inspire people to lead healthier lifestyles but that he has now become concerned about raising other people’s insecurities.
“By doing this documentary what I started to realise was that by posting these photos, I could make these younger boys feel insecure with their own body image because they feel like they should be looking like me.
“But what was also interesting is when I spoke to a woman called Julie Cameron who was the founder of a mental health organisation. She said you have to realise that when people are posting negativity on your photo, your followers are seeing that and they are thinking if they are posting that about Anton’s photos, what are they saying about me?
“What I do now is I put more context around my posts. If I do post a photo with my top off now I actually post saying I’ve been training for this amount of time and if you are willing to do that then great.
“But you do not have to look like this. I also post more about how there is no perfect male body image. The perfect male body image is your own.
“People should always focus on bettering themselves but you should never compare yourselves to others. I can feel like a hypocrite talking about this as I still deal with my own body image issues every single day.
“The pressure of being on social media or being in the public eye, there was one scene in the documentary where we had finished filming and doing piece to camera, luckily a few 16 year old boys were walking down the street and the first thing they said is ‘that's Anton from Love Island - show us your abs.’
“Straight away that is what they link it to - so you always have that pressure to look a certain way. Getting on Love Island and when I got into the gym it changed my life and I want to help others do the same. And now I have a platform I could never dream of.”
Anton argues that the problem around unrealistic male body image is much bigger than just reality TV. He says if you watch adverts for aftershaves or go into clothes stores then you are met with six pack abs.
“It is more than just reality TV or social media. We are constantly bombarded with this perfect male body image which is a muscular ripped six pack physique.”
Anton Danyluk on Body Shame is on BBC Scotland on Thursday, May 18 at 10.30pm and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
READ NEXT:
Frustrated blind Edinburgh woman says wrecked pavements make city 'unsafe'
Man jailed after sexually assaulting Edinburgh woman while on work trip
Car overturns on busy Edinburgh road as emergency services rush to scene
Inspiring Edinburgh runner's life changed forever after a sudden brain haemorrhage
Edinburgh police swoop on city park as mob of youths cause mayhem
