Jamie Brooks, 34, once weighed a whopping 36 stone, working full-time as a chef and gorging on food at work.
After work he could live on a diet of takeaways and sugary drinks, piling on the pounds and putting himself at serious risk of a host of health issues.
Jamie would also scoff jumbo-sized packs of Galaxy Minstrels in one sitting, surviving on fast and processed food.
Making his life even more difficult, he had to buy 7XL clothes from a specialist supplier and had given up on finding love.
He finally decided to lose the weight after his friend, van driver Neil Williamson, bombarded him with text messages every day for weeks.
The messages called Jamie a “fat f***” and said “you’ll be dead by the time you’re 40“.
Realising something had to change Jamie embarked on an incredible weight-loss journey, cutting down to under 1000 calories a day and stepping up his exercise regime.
For the first two months on his weight-loss journey, Jamie restricted himself to 640 calories a day, decided for him in a specialist dietician consultation with Ideal Weight.com.
He ate breakfasts such as porridge and had meal replacement shakes during the day, followed by balanced meals at night like spaghetti bolognese.
The weight quickly started to drop, with Jamie upping his calorie intake to between 800 and 1,000 after two months.
After giving himself a break on a higher calories intake, he then dropped back down to 640 for two more months.
After a year, Jamie had lost a staggering 21 stone, more than half his body weight.
Following his weight loss his confidence grew, and he found love with his partner Melanie.
On his staggering weight loss Jamie said: “I just got bigger and bigger as a child, I was never slim.
“I would combat the embarrassment by laughing it off and I’d just be the fat jolly one of the group.
“It took the full six weeks to motivate me to do something but I’m so glad I did. Neil has saved my life, I can’t thank him enough.
“I never made plans for the future as I always thought I would be dead at a young age, but now I’m healthy and have an amazing girlfriend – I’m a new man.”
Another chef who more than halved in size was celebrity chef and TV personality Tom Kerridge.
Once weighing in at 30 stone, Tom has dropped 12 stone over the years.
It all started around Tom’s 40th birthday when he decided to take measures to improve his health.