{"id":753813,"date":"2026-08-29T18:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753813\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T18:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:48:16","slug":"i-thought-diet-clubs-werent-for-men-now-ive-lost-4-5-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753813\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I thought diet clubs weren’t for men – now I’ve lost 4.5 stone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research published by Anglia Ruskin University this week, external<\/a> found many men have had similar struggles with traditional weight-loss programmes because of their female-first perception.<\/p>\n

Professor of nutritional physiology Justin Roberts says men who manage to stick to diets often speak about having a support system in place.<\/p>\n

“One of them was this idea of having a buddy\u2026 there’s a bit of social competitiveness there,” he explains.<\/p>\n

That is one of the reasons Hall says he has been able to commit to his weekly football sessions, which have helped him lose about 4.5 stone (28.5kg).<\/p>\n

“I think that when you get a group of guys together, we naturally get competitive,” the dad-of-three says.<\/p>\n

“It just makes it that much more engaging and that much more exciting and something that you just want to be part of.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his journey, he adds: “I think I’m sure I can say that my son doesn’t call me lazy any more.”<\/p>\n

Man v Fat began in 2014 and now has clubs across the UK, including 19 football and two rugby clubs in the East of England alone.<\/p>\n

The organisation says that across the region, more than 5,000 men have lost a combined total of about 5,590 stone (35.5 tonnes) in weight \u2013 about the same as three London buses.<\/p>\n

The club in the East with the biggest weight loss is Peterborough, where members have shed 745 stone (4,730kg).<\/p>\n

Having a mentor also helps men to stay accountable, says Roberts, “someone who’s already done the programme that they can kind of look up to”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Research published by Anglia Ruskin University this week, external found many men have had similar struggles with traditional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-753813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}