Snack addict sheds nine stone after seeing photo of himself

A snack addict has told how he ditched his love of crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks and shed over nine stone.

Charity worker Matt Peverall has revealed how he swapped high calorie snacks for healthy chicken salads and saw the weight fall off.

The 35 year old switched his unhealthy choices for three meals a day and lean meat from MuscleFood.com and saw his 23 and a half stone frame slim down to just over 14 stone.

Before changing his eating habits, Matt would gorge on fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate at the end of every day and throughout the day eat takeaway meals and enjoy sugary energy drinks.

Now the dad of two from County Durham has switched his unhealthy choices for lean chicken breasts and works out at the gym almost every day.

Matt’s weight caused ill health and two trips to hospital but it wasn’t until he saw a photo of himself that he knew he had to take action.

Matt said: “A photo was taken of me at a work conference and all I could see was the rolls of fat on my neck above the collar of my shirt.

“That was the last straw – I’d had a prolonged period of ill health and found myself getting out of puff walking up the stairs. To add to that, my daughter was then beginning to walk – I wanted to be able to do everything with her and not be the fat dad in the playground.

“The next morning I got up and started to make a change. I switched my large energy drink and takeaway bacon sandwich for a breakfast of poached eggs and a protein shake.

“The meal deal, sausage rolls and cakes I ate at lunch were replaced with chicken salad and I ate rice cakes and protein bars in the evening rather than chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks.

“I’d used MuscleFood when I’d lost weight a few years ago before I got married so put an order in straight away. As soon as it arrived my eating habits changed.

“Being so large, the weight dropped off really quickly. In my first week I lost half a stone. At first I just cut calories but then taught myself about nutrition and learnt that the calories you put in your body are just as important as those you burn.

“At the start of my journey I felt too overweight to go to the gym so started doing assisted push ups at home. Now I run three times a week and go to the gym almost every morning at 5am. I’m the first one there – I even have my own key to open up so I can get started early.”

Matt has recently trained to become a retained firefighter, passing the fitness test without any problems.

He continued: “I’m now becoming the person I always wanted to be. If someone had told me 18 months ago I’d be a firefighter, I’d have said that would never happen, but I’m now the best and fittest version of myself.

“I feel better than I’ve ever felt and have lots more energy. I’m strong, can run around with the children, in fact I feel like I can take on the world and it’s all down to losing weight and getting in shape.”

Ashleigh Tosh from MuscleFood.com said: “The journey Matt has been on is an inspiration. Losing weight and getting fit isn’t easy – it takes discipline and hardwork but ultimately it will leave you feeling better physically and mentally.”