1 day Ago By [email protected] (Neil Shaw)
A man who lost his dad and went through a relationship break-up within months decided to turn his life around and dropped more than four stone. Phill Walters, 34, from Swansea , has gone from years of struggling with is weight to running 10k races in under an hour. Phill said: "I had struggled with my weight for years and after the loss of my father and a relationship breakdown my weight went further up.
At 34 years-old, I knew it was now or never in terms of losing weight and getting fit and healthy. It was at this juncture that I decided to try lose weight and join MAN v FAT. "Before I was so unaware of how many calories were in foods.
I would start the day by having a bacon and sausage baguette meal deals from cafes or supermarkets, not long after in work I'd binge on a mid-morning big share bag of crisps. For lunch I'd have two supermarket sandwich meal deals as I felt one wasn't enough. I'd also sometimes add in a pasty.
I was still so blind to see all this was so excessive. I would then come home from work and make a pre-tea meal before having actual tea. When I started losing weight and to this day I calorie count and stay in a deficit to lose weight and it shocks me completely how much I use to eat compared to now, you're talking at least daily 3000/4000 calorie difference.
"I actually didn't incorporate new foods as such but more educated myself on how many calories are in current foods that I enjoy. I found out what foods were calorie dense and avoided them and used foods that made more sense to use in my diet to help me stick to my daily calorie goal. "The nutritional side of things was a massive eye opener as to how bad, and how many calories are in what you'd perceive to be a small snack like a pasty or pack of crisps.
These are foods I rarely if ever touch anymore due to the calorie dense nature of the food. "I think the biggest challenge when losing weight is always trying to stick to a strict daily calorie goal and also ensuring most days of the week you're working out. I found personally once I was in a routine it was easy but if I had a few days off for a holiday etc getting back into the routine was the hardest challenge.
"I enjoy the easy going game of football with the element of weight loss attached to it. I would definitely recommend to anyone that enjoys the game and wants to play at a casual level whilst trying to shift a few pounds or even just keep fit. I’ve made new friends playing football weekly, it's a great social side especially if you don't get out much.
And it's motivated me to try all sorts of different exercises in attempt to lose weight for my team such as classes at the local gym. While injured recently, I even start going to aqua aerobics at my local leisure centre to aid recovery and keep on with the weight loss - I even made friends twice my age! They were a lovely crowd. I've taken up running since I started and recently completed my first 10k in 54 minutes.
When I joined MAN v FAT nearly a year ago, I couldn't run for more than three minutes without nearly throwing up and being exhausted. That's just the perfect measuring stick to show how far you can go with the right unit of support and motivation, like you get at the MAN v FAT community.".
