In a single year Tom Jenkins, a retired and heavily overweight schoolteacher from Scholes, lost more than 10 stones.
Such dramatic weight loss transformed the 66-year-old from a 24-stone, morbidly obese couch potato into a healthier, slimmer, man of action.
Today he is a regular at the gym, thinks nothing of walking around the reservoir near his home and has, quite literally, found a new lease of life.
As he says: “A lot of my friends, at our age, are slowing down. But I’m speeding up.”
Tom, who used to teach science at secondary school level, was forced into early retirement because of health problems caused by his weight. Varicose veins and ulcers on his legs, symptoms of poor circulation, affected his mobility. He was, he says, in a ‘Catch 22’ situation.
“Because I was fat I was immobile and the ulcers made me less mobile so I couldn’t exercise,” he explained.
“If I went upstairs I was out of breath. I didn’t walk anywhere. If I was in town I had to keep stopping and sitting down. I knew every seat in Huddersfield town centre.”
He also developed an umbilical hernia, which further affected his ability to be active – and surgeons wouldn’t operate because of his size.
A visit to his GP for what Tom describes as ‘my pensioner’s MOT’ revealed that his blood sugar levels were creeping up to pre-diabetic levels. It was time to tackle his weight problem once and for all.
Tom attributes much of his weight gain to family life. Before he and his wife Eva, also a teacher, had their children they enjoyed a lot of outdoor activities and were extremely active. But years spent driving their twins, Bunty and Peter, now 24, to school and to after-school activities, coupled with work and irregular mealtimes, led to weight gain.
As Tom explains: “There was a lot of grabbing snacks between meals and for meals I’d have fish and chips or pie and peas. I was eating a lot of ‘crap’ – chocolate, biscuits, cakes and sweets.”
But in June 2014 Tom joined a Slimming World group in Holmfirth and by July 2015 had become almost half the man he once was. He lost so much weight that he was able to have a hernia repair operation. He now has normal blood sugar levels and his ulcers have healed.
His clothing size has gone down from XXXX to M/L.
Out went the sugary snacks and stodge. Instead Tom and Eva now eat more vegetables and salads. They cook favourite dishes from Slimming World recipes and have three good meals a day.
As Tom has noted: “The colour of your shopping at the supermarket goes from beige to coloured. Our trolley is always full of fruit, lettuce and veg.
“We never, ever go hungry because our food is slow release and you don’t feel you want to snack between meals. You learn to look out for certain things – fresh pasta for instance, is coated in oil so we avoid it.”
Tom admits that he’d lost weight with slimming clubs in the past and knew the healthy eating plans worked, but didn’t find the right motivation to get his weight down to a healthy level until he faced the prospect of adding diabetes to his growing list of ailments.
He discovered early on that men are rarely seen in slimming clubs and says: “With men, I think it’s a denial thing. They don’t realise how fat they are and they don’t have a realistic view of the rubbish they eat.”
As well as regaining his health, Tom’s weight loss has greatly enhanced his ability to take part in one of his hobbies - as a member of historical re-enactment societies. Tom and Eva belong to a number of such organisations, including the Sealed Knot Society and English Civil War Society and are members of the Blew Regiment, which re-enacts 30 Years War battles.
His very first Sealed Knot uniform was so vast that he would now be able to fit his entire body into one trouser leg. “When we first got involved I couldn’t really do much,” said Tom, "now I’m dragging cannons about as a gunner.”
While Tom has always had a lot of leisure time interests – he’s also a member of Huddersfield Woodturners; makes replica early musical instruments and is a fly fisherman - he has found that regaining a more youthful figure allows him to enjoy life more fully. He explained: “I’m a member of Huddersfield Fly Fishers and walk around the reservoir at Bowshaw when I’m fishing. I hardly used to walk at all, now I will circumnavigate the reservoir.”
He’s also enjoying the fact that he can buy clothes from mainstream suppliers. “Instead of going to the fat man’s shop, I can get my clothes in the supermarket if I want,” he said.
Tom has been so successful at turning his life around that Eva decided to join him at the weekly slimming club meetings. Group therapy, he says, is an important part of maintaining their healthy lifestyle.
He has a message for the 68% of British men who are currently overweight: “Don’t waste time, do it (lose weight) while you are younger. But – and I say this because of my age – it’s also never too late. And buy a quick cook book, one that’s full of easy recipes. I can make a healthy stir-fry dish in 10 minutes.”
Around 27% of the British population is now obese - three times the number in the 1980s. Women used to outnumber men in the obese statistics but the sexes have now drawn level. However, while 58 % of women are overweight, more than two thirds of men now fall into that category. According to NHS Choices, our obesogenic environment – increased car, television and computer usage, sedentary jobs, calorie dense foods and food marketing – is to blame.
Around 30,000 deaths a year are caused by obesity, around one third of them in people under retirement age.
