A home-based healthy living and competitive weight loss programme for men, which has seen local residents lose up to 25 per cent of their body weight, has had its funding renewed for a further year by South Gloucestershire council.

The weightloss programme named MAN v FAT Challenge men join a local team, weigh in remotely online, scoring points for weight loss whilst receiving support from a dedicated coach. 

Participants take on other teams in weekly challenges, and earn bonus points for the best entries, losing weight and improving their health, and achieving bonuses for weight loss milestones.

In South Gloucestershire, over 150 men have signed up for the challenge, losing 530 pounds of excess weight between them, to date. 

Gary Hunt from Kingswood has lost four stone on the challenge and says losing 25% of his body weight has helped him keep focus encouraged him to keep going with his exercise.

He said: “The challenges have made me look at the food I eat, to try new ways of cooking and to look at the portion sizes, which has also helped the whole family,” he says.

"All of the other aids have introduced me to new ways of relaxing and exercising which has also helped in my weight loss and mindset.”

Weekly challenges are based on the core areas of nutrition, exercise and building healthy habits, with weekly progress reports and regular newsletters to inspire participants. 
MAN v FAT, which has already been helping overweight men lose weight by playing football together, has so far helped men lose more than 400,000lbs. 

The Challenge was initially created as a response to men not being able to play football during lockdown. During the first lockdown last year, 100 men lost 1000kg of weight through the online Challenge.
Ben Middleton, MAN v FAT Challenge Lead added: “Male obesity is still something of a taboo topic even though 2 out of 3 UK males are overweight or obese,” explains 

“MAN v FAT Challenge provides the support we all need. We have shown that the programme can build healthy habits for life without you feeling that you’re missing out on anything.”

For more information email challenge@manvfat.com or visit www.manvfatchallenge.co.uk