MAN v FAT: Leeds lads losing weight with football friends

Local TV

We headed to Goals Leeds in Kirkstall to discover the world of MAN v FAT Football where around 90 Leeds lads meet every week to build fitness, improve confidence and boost their mental health, all while playing the beautiful game. The club lost a combined total weight of over 620kg in 2025 and have lost around 3000kg since launching in 2019.

Transcript

00:00It's a weight loss programme for men based around football, with the idea that it doesn't

00:05matter how good or bad you are at football, as long as you're contributing on the scales

00:08and kind of losing weight, you have the weight loss score on the night and the pitch score,

00:14and both of those get put together. So whether someone's not played football for 15 years,

00:20but they're motivated to lose some weight and be in a community, anyone can come.

00:25I started playing here in 2019. I was trying to sort of lose weight on my own, but I needed

00:32that kind of competitive edge just to really motivate me to shed the pounds. So I saw Man

00:39Be Fat as an advert on social media and I signed up and within a couple of weeks I was down

00:43playing with a new team and it's really helped me lose weight. I've lost probably about four

00:47or five stones since I started. And yeah, it's really helped. The atmosphere around the club

00:52is really good. We are sort of more of a weight loss league that plays football than a football

00:55league that occasionally loses weight. So we've really hit that balance. It's been

00:59great these last couple of seasons.

01:00You have people from different walks of life, different ages, all with the same common goal.

01:05That is to lose weight. We encourage each other on a weekly basis to keep tracking our food

01:11intake, make sure on top of our diet, as well as just for regular, bravely advice and encouragement.

01:20We always ask each other, how are you doing? How's family? How's work? So it's become a

01:24place where I look forward to coming to every Wednesday.

01:28There's a scoring system in place where if a certain number of players lose weight that

01:32week, whether it's a hundred grams or a kilo or two kilos, whatever it might be, the team

01:38gets bonus points for that. They also get bonus points if they track what they've done that

01:42week. So if they've tracked the diet in some way with an app or a food diary, there's also

01:47a tracking point. There's also points for that. And then when guys get milestone on the weight

01:51losses, so like a five, 10, 15%, there's also bonus goals there. So it's really heavily

01:56incentivized to make changes on the scales to then also whatever the pitch score is when

02:01they go out and play, that all gets added together.

02:04I've been able to meet new people. I've been inspired as well to, I mean, go on this fishnet

02:10and it's been really good because knowing fully well that I've got other people like

02:15me as well, trying to bring down the weight. And sometimes there are ups and there are downs,

02:20but I mean, I've been enjoying it.

02:22As a club, we lose nearly 300 kilos in a season, last season. So yeah, it's been a really good

02:28motivator for a lot of players. And if you really see it in the way when they turn up

02:33and they're in a much better mood because they're still losing weight, I feel it much

02:36better.

02:37It's gone from strength to strength. And that's not from me. That's from the guys that are

02:42all part of the programme that have taken it upon as a community. And obviously my assistant

02:47Andy was here tonight and Kevin's not here tonight. I think, yeah, seeing the guys, the efforts

02:51they're putting in on the scales, you know, it's transformed lives, not just physically,

02:57but mentally and socially.

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