I shed 14.5 stone by ditching my junk food habit and my secret weapon was grapes you can buy in any supermarket
Alex Williams, 33, used to splurge £300 a week on junk food and binge on around 29,300 kJ a day, his weight ballooning after an injury stopped him from playing rugby as a teenager. By the time he hit his mid- teens, he was already wearing 46-inch waist trousers and comfort-eating sausage rolls, frozen pizzas and endless takeaways—and his addiction to beige and calorific foods continued into adulthood. He said: 'I could easily polish off eight sausage rolls in a pack which was ridiculous. It was frozen pizzas, KFC, all the terrible stuff, anything and everything I could get my hands on. I could easily obliterate a large Domino’s pizza too. I was doing a lot of secret eating as well. It got to a point where I would go to McDonald’s and then go home and then eat dinner with my family. I was spending up to £300 ($400) a week on sh** food.' Alex Williams in 2019 (left); and now, having lost half of his body weight.
Turning point and the bold shift to steak, salmon and chicken plus football
The turning point came in 2018 when a friend persuaded him to join a football-based weight loss programme to help him navigate a painful break-up. Embracing the new challenge, Mr Williams, who works for an AI firm, ditched the 7,000-calorie days of fried breakfasts, burgers and biscuits, and began tucking into meals built around steak, salmon and chicken. Alongside the change in diet he plays five football matches a week, and regularly goes to the gym. And after years of hard work, he eventually went from 28st 2lbs (392 pounds) to 13st 9lbs (191lbs), losing more than half his body weight in the process. Standing at 5'9" tall, it meant his BMI dropped from 58—classed as 'super obese'—to 28, which is in the overweight category. Mr Williams also had a sweet tooth, and would gorge on chocolate—but says that a simple diet swap helped him finally curb his sugary cravings—he swapped the nightly bars for frozen grapes. Now weighing in 13st 7lbs (189lbs), having lost half of his body weight, Mr Williams said: 'Frozen grapes are the ultimate cheat code—candy-floss grapes, those frozen. 'They are insane and they keep [your cravings] all at bay.' He says consistency and accountability were key to his success.
Living with the program: accountability, team spirit and the path back to confidence
Mr Williams (pictured left in 2019) proudly shows off the certificate he was awarded for losing half his bodyweight by his Man V Fat fitness group. 'But the main thing is consistency. Losing weight isn't hard, but constantly losing weight is. Once you realise that it's okay to be up one week as long as the trajectory is going down, it gets easier.' 'I was always so lethargic; I didn't want to do anything. There are people there who are friends for life now. The accountability from Man v Fat makes you think. It's the team mentality behind it. When you're doing it for yourself you're doing it for yourself. When you have a rubbish week it doesn't just affect you anymore, it affects the men on your team too, they hold you accountable.' 'I feel amazing, I feel like a completely different person. It's given me a completely different outlook.' Mr Williams (left, in 2019) was consuming 7,000 calories a day, but now feels 'like a different person' and his BMI dropped from 58 to 28. 'I was always big but rugby player big, when I hit ages 14/15 I was shopping for school trousers with mum I was a 46 inch waist,' he said.
