Dad sees 17.5st weight loss after ditching soft drinks and walking 21,000 steps per day
Watch: Dad sheds whopping 17.5 stone
A man who was told by doctors that his size would cause him to die in five years has seen an incredible 17.5st weight loss.
Bryn Penrose, 48, was warned that he had a high chance of having a heart attack or a stroke after tipping the scales at 30st 5lbs.
This led him to make a lifestyle change and he cut out his regular six cans of soft drink per day and upped his step count from 50 to 21,000.
Read more: Why most diets don't keep the weight off (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
Within two years, he lost 17.5st and now weighs 13st, going from a size 9XL to XL.
"I feel like it's made me a better dad to my children - it's made me a lot closer to them and now I can do stuff with them," Penrose says of his relationship with his three kids, Harry, 17, and twins Charlotte and William, both 13.
"I can take them to the cinema but I wouldn't dare go to a cinema before because the seats were too small and I couldn't even fit into them.
"I've even started playing tennis now which I've never been able to do before and now I can play football with my kids as well."
After he was given the warning by doctors, Penrose began walking a circuit in his garden at home in Leeds.
He gradually built up his step count and now regularly clocks around 60 miles per week. He also hasn’t caught the bus in 18 months, instead walking everywhere he needs to go.
"I couldn't do anything before. I was even using an inhaler from anything between three to five times a day when I was at my biggest," he explains.
"I was stuck at home for four years. I didn't go out because I was big but then I was big because I didn't go out. I knew that I needed to do something but until the doctor gave me that verdict, it didn't really sink in my head.
"Walking has been really good for my mental health as it gets rid of all of the everyday stresses. It gives you time to relax and de-stress from life, it's like a reset."
Read more: Man who shed 21st left with extreme excess skin: 'I’m a 40-year-old in an 80-year-old’s body' (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
Along with more exercise, Penrose changed his eating habits but says he still has a treat day around once per month.
"Instead of thinking that I've got to lose loads of weight at a time, I started off by losing two stone and then five stone and then seven stone," he says.
"I broke it down into chunks which made it easier than being overwhelmed by having to lose 17 stone."
Experts have long recommended walking 10,000 steps per day as a way to get active and moving, but a new study has found that just 4,000 steps a day is all you need to live longer.
The research looked at 226,889 people from 17 studies and found that people were less likely to die from all causes if they walked 3,967 steps per day.
Read more: Forget 10,000 steps: Just 4,000 a day has amazing effects (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)
Even walking just 2,337 steps per day decreased someone’s risk of dying from a heart attack.
Researchers added that the more steps you do per day, the more benefits you’ll see.
Additional reporting by SWNS.
