'I thought diet clubs weren't for men – now I've lost 4.5 stone' – BBC
Having struggled with his weight for most of his adult life, Mark Hall thought he had turned a corner when he joined a local slimming club.
He had assumed he would be surrounded by mostly women, so he was not surprised when he was one of only three men in the group.
What did surprise him, though, was how female-specific the weekly meetings felt. One of his first sessions, he says, focused on the effects of obesity on menstrual cycles.
It only took a couple of months for Hall, from Needingworth, Cambridgeshire, to decide the group was not for him and he returned to a lifelong cycle of losing weight and then putting it back on.
That was until he found his place in a male-focused football-themed weight loss group.
He started going along to Man v Fat Cambridge in 2018, using the weekly football training sessions and matches to benefit his mental health.
But it was not until his 40th birthday was looming in 2024 that he decided to really focus on using the club to help his weight loss.
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"I was going to be fat, bald and 40 and I just felt like it's not a great mix, and one of those things I could change," says Hall, now 42.
"Not long before that, I was at the park with my kids and my eldest was chatting to his mates and said, 'That's my dad over there. My dad's really lazy.' It was such a punch to the gut."
Research published by Anglia Ruskin University this week found many men have had similar struggles with traditional weight-loss programmes because of their female-first perception.
Professor of nutritional physiology Justin Roberts says men who manage to stick to diets often speak about having a support system in place.
"One of them was this idea of having a buddy… there's a bit of social competitiveness there," he explains.
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).
"I think that when you get a group of guys together, we naturally get competitive," the dad-of-three says.
"It just makes it that much more engaging and that much more exciting and something that you just want to be part of."
Reflecting on his journey, he adds: "I think I'm sure I can say that my son doesn't call me lazy any more."
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.
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 – about the same as three London buses.
The club in the East with the biggest weight loss is Peterborough, where members have shed 745 stone (4,730kg).
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".
Gary Prince, from Chelmsford, says he has been dieting for most of his adult life and finally found success when he started working one-to-one with a coach who had been on a weight loss journey himself.
"If someone's got the experience of having been where you've been or can relate to some of the feelings that you've had… it acts as proof that it can be done," the 40-year-old says.
Since starting with his coach in March, Prince says he has lost two stone (12.7kg), changed his relationship with food, and built good exercise habits.
The latest NHS England figures show that 70% of men are either overweight or living with obesity, compared with 62% of women.
The NHS recommends several weight loss plans, including Man v Fat and Slimming World, which claims to be the UK's largest weight management organisation.
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