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Man vs Fat Football (Prompted by the walking football chat)


Steve Watts

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I posted on here earlier in the year about Man v Fat Football at Horfield Leisure Centre and decided to go for it in the end.

I got assigned to the Red team, thankfully, and ended up captaining them, settling on the name Borussia Munchinflapjacks!

We're finishing the 18 game season off in a fortnight with a cup final, having already won 2 of the 3 titles on offer.  The reason we have won this is because of the weight loss aspect of the league.  The support offered by my team mates has seen me shed almost 10% of my starting weight since the start of the season. Four of my team mates have already hit their 10% loss and one is closing in on 15%.  This is huge and has seen a massive improvement in our health and our fitness overall.

The incentive to lose weight is by being awarded match goals for losing weight, hitting target %'s and tracking your food.  This saw one team overturn a 7-0 defeat last week into a 10-10 draw.  Their captain has told me that this has inspired them even more this week as they can see the effect it has.

So we won the scales league, undefeated in 14 matches, for these off the pitch scores, finished 2nd in the pitch league for on the pitch scores and won the ultimate combined pitch and scales league for these overall results.

The league is competitive and there are some huge players there, starting the season at well over 160kg.  Some haven't stepped foot on a pitch in over 20 years.  Ages range from 24 to 65, so there really is no barrier.  One of them posted this in a group chat this morning:

"Hey guys, just wanted to share something that made me smile. I went to London for the weekend a little over a month ago and I found the seats on the underground really uncomfortable. Not their fault though, I was too big and the arms on the chair were digging into my legs.

Anyway this weekend I returned to London for the weekend and on my journey back to the coach station I tried the seats again and nothing.

This is one of the first times that there has been a noticeable change to my size and it certainly gave me a spring in my step ?

TL:DR when in doubt always keep an eye out for the little wins."

The positive impact on mental health that getting healthy does is absolutely massive.

Why am I posting this? Well with season 2 around the corner, we are looking to expand the league from 4 to 6 teams.  PM me if you are interested in giving it a go.  It sounds corny, but it really has changed my life for the better.  

If you think "I'm too fat/old/shit/unfit" to play football anymore and have a BMI over 27.5 then think on.  None of those things are a barrier.  They're a reason.

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I did a couple of seasons of Man v Fat in Weston a couple of years ago. I lost over 3.5 stone from it which was great.

Unfortunately I stopped as the league had become too much about winning on the pitch and just wasn't fun any more.

Trouble is, I have now put most of the weight back on so need to start again. Just don't rreally want to have to travel to Horfield for it.

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Good luck to you all, I used to have a BMI of around 35 a number of years back but down to 23 these days. Team sports were a big thing in helping me along too, it's so much more motivational to have scorelines and things to keep you interested.

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54 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

I posted on here earlier in the year about Man v Fat Football at Horfield Leisure Centre and decided to go for it in the end.

I got assigned to the Red team, thankfully, and ended up captaining them, settling on the name Borussia Munchinflapjacks!

We're finishing the 18 game season off in a fortnight with a cup final, having already won 2 of the 3 titles on offer.  The reason we have won this is because of the weight loss aspect of the league.  The support offered by my team mates has seen me shed almost 10% of my starting weight since the start of the season. Four of my team mates have already hit their 10% loss and one is closing in on 15%.  This is huge and has seen a massive improvement in our health and our fitness overall.

The incentive to lose weight is by being awarded match goals for losing weight, hitting target %'s and tracking your food.  This saw one team overturn a 7-0 defeat last week into a 10-10 draw.  Their captain has told me that this has inspired them even more this week as they can see the effect it has.

So we won the scales league, undefeated in 14 matches, for these off the pitch scores, finished 2nd in the pitch league for on the pitch scores and won the ultimate combined pitch and scales league for these overall results.

The league is competitive and there are some huge players there, starting the season at well over 160kg.  Some haven't stepped foot on a pitch in over 20 years.  Ages range from 24 to 65, so there really is no barrier.  One of them posted this in a group chat this morning:

"Hey guys, just wanted to share something that made me smile. I went to London for the weekend a little over a month ago and I found the seats on the underground really uncomfortable. Not their fault though, I was too big and the arms on the chair were digging into my legs.

Anyway this weekend I returned to London for the weekend and on my journey back to the coach station I tried the seats again and nothing.

This is one of the first times that there has been a noticeable change to my size and it certainly gave me a spring in my step ?

TL:DR when in doubt always keep an eye out for the little wins."

The positive impact on mental health that getting healthy does is absolutely massive.

Why am I posting this? Well with season 2 around the corner, we are looking to expand the league from 4 to 6 teams.  PM me if you are interested in giving it a go.  It sounds corny, but it really has changed my life for the better.  

If you think "I'm too fat/old/shit/unfit" to play football anymore and have a BMI over 27.5 then think on.  None of those things are a barrier.  They're a reason.

They did it in south Bristol for a bit until the city under cut them and set up slim to win! Same thing but cheaper and you occasionally get some City coaching too! 

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42 minutes ago, richwwtk said:

I did a couple of seasons of Man v Fat in Weston a couple of years ago. I lost over 3.5 stone from it which was great.

Unfortunately I stopped as the league had become too much about winning on the pitch and just wasn't fun any more.

Trouble is, I have now put most of the weight back on so need to start again. Just don't rreally want to have to travel to Horfield for it.

We do have some people who are only in it for the football. Thankfully none of those are on my team. My lads bought into it from day 1. Weston league has just been restarted, so may be worth having another look.

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37 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

Thanks SW for starting this thread I wasn’t aware of this until you did, it sounds life-changing. If people want more info take a look at this: https://www.manvfatfootball.org

 

If anyone wants to come along to have a look at how it's run etc, feel free to come along one Friday from 7 to have a look. Someone was there scoping it out last week, spoke to the league coach and signed up 

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17 hours ago, wayne allisons tongues said:

In my second season of MVF in Salford.

Started as 111.6kg now am 90.8kg I am 1.5kg off my 20%.

The team thing does make you more determined to lose weight, and not let you team mates down and encourage your team to keep going. 

That's an amazing achievement!  Well done that man.  You don't fancy a transfer to Bristol do you?!? 

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