Mike Denman, a father of two, vividly recalls the pivotal moment when he realized his weight had spiraled beyond his control. It wasn’t when the scale tipped at 23.5 stone (150kg), nor the day he purchased his first pair of 44-inch waist trousers. Even frequent trips to McDonald’s for a snack before dinner didn’t quite hit home. Instead, a simple, innocent remark from his young daughter became the catalyst for change.

During a visit to a garden center with his two-year-old daughter, Norah, they stumbled upon a statue of Buddha. Norah’s reaction to the statue struck a chord. “She hugged it and said, ‘Daddy,'” Mike recalls. While his wife and mother-in-law found the moment amusing, it was a wake-up call for him. “I knew something had to change. I didn’t want that to be the perception of what her dad looked like,” he reflects.

This realization marked the start of Mike’s transformative journey. Over the span of four years, he managed to shed eight stone and sculpt a physique that could rival an Olympian’s, complete with a six-pack. The transformation began with small, deliberate changes to his lifestyle. “My relationship with food was terrible – I was out of control,” Mike, now 45, admits.

‘She hugged it and said “Daddy,” ’ recalls Mike. ‘My wife and mother-in-law found it hilarious, but I knew something had to change. I didn’t want that to be the perception of what her dad looked like.’

It was the beginning of a four-year journey that led to Mike shedding eight stone and gaining a six-pack that would make an Olympian envious.

The former chef started by making small changes. ‘My relationship with food was terrible – I was out of control,’ says Mike, 45.

‘Being around food professionally for decades created terrible habits. I’d eat standing up, taste constantly and use food for stress relief. But it was during the Covid pandemic that I really noticed a change – I was eating more, snacking more and drinking more.’

He began by cutting down portion sizes, switching out unhealthy snacks with alternatives and cutting the booze.

Mike reached 23.5 stone (150kg). He shed 8 stone over a four-year weight-loss journey

‘For me, and I think for many people who get into the shape I was in, it was not about a lack of knowledge of what I should or shouldn’t be eating,’ he says.

‘I obviously didn’t think multiple chocolate bars, packets of crisps and snacking on cheeseburgers was good for me, but it was a way of coping. I didn’t need to look for the perfect diet plan, but by tracking my calories and making sure I was staying on target, I was making a big difference.’

Alongside these simple changes in diet, he also began an intense fitness regime. He was training six days a week with a personal trainer, doing two workout classes and four weight sessions. It was a regime so intense that Mike, who is now a qualified fitness coach, does not recommend it to his clients.

As well as the exercise classes, he aimed for 10,000 steps a day and made small changes to try to increase activity levels, such as taking the stairs rather than a lift.

But after two years of training and having lost four stone, he was still not satisfied with the results – which was when he turned to weight-loss jabs.

‘I got impatient and it was a moment of weakness,’ he says.

‘I had a private prescription for six months, but it didn’t really work for me – I lost a very modest amount of weight but I felt terrible.

‘I was nauseous all the time. I constantly felt bloated and lost all motivation to train, because of how I felt.

Mike’s daughter, then aged two, saw a statue of Buddha in a garden centre. She hugged it and said ‘Daddy’

‘I also found that it was really hard to get healthy – to get the right amount of protein and nutrients – because it suppressed my appetite so much.’

After ditching the jabs, Mike returned to his strict regime and continued to shed the pounds.

Despite his healthy diet and a training schedule which had resulted in losing five stone, Mike was suffering from low moods, and blood tests eventually revealed that he had low levels of testosterone.

‘I left it a couple of months, gave up alcohol, and focused on sleeping well and strength training – all the things they suggest. But when I did another test, it was still low,’ says Mike.

He had levels of 8 nmol/L, which is on the cusp of being able to get a testosterone replacement therapy prescription on the NHS, so he sought one privately.

‘I now keep my level around 20. I use an injection – I inject twice a week, a low dose, which gives a steadier level rather than peaks and troughs. For a man my age, around 20 is normal,’ he says. ‘I didn’t notice much change in weight, but there was a definite improvement in my mood and libido. It felt like getting back on a level playing field.’

He adds: ‘I tell the men I coach, if they think they have low testosterone, to sort out their lifestyle first – but I know that wasn’t possible for me, so if it doesn’t work for them I’d suggest seeing a doctor.’

Two years on from coming off Mounjaro he’d lost another two stone and cut his body fat percentage to ten – the equivalent of a professional athlete.

Mike is now a personal trainer, coaching other fathers embarking on their own transformations

‘Over the four-year journey I found I would plateau at certain points,’ says Mike. ‘What I did to combat that was to change something else. So for a while I tried intermittent fasting, or I would cut out something else from my diet. That helped to kick-start the weight loss again.’

Another key change was cutting out alcohol. He says that he would often have a bottle of wine in the evening, but now has only about four glasses a year.

‘I started by cutting out drinking during the week. After a while I just didn’t have the urge at all,’ he says. ‘People often switch off when told to cut out drinking, so it is not something I necessarily recommend. But it had a great impact on my sleep and, as a result, my motivation to train.’

To complete his transformation, he underwent a hair transplant.

‘It wasn’t about vanity,’ he says. ‘It was the final piece after four years of proving I could change. You can’t fix confidence and health with cosmetic procedures, but when you’ve done the internal work, aligning the outside makes sense.’

Now a personal trainer, he is coaching other fathers embarking on their own transformations via his Fit Dad Project. ‘Mounjaro didn’t work for me, but I still lost eight stone,’ he says. ‘The real transformation happens in your mindset, not with a prescription.’

Mike has distilled his transformation into three key tips.

He says it is not enough to just want to lose weight, as even now he still suffers ‘food noise’ – a term to describe the nagging cravings many who overeat experience. He says that, above all, the reason he succeeded was because he had a strong motivation – being healthy so he could watch his children grow up.

To complete his transformation, Mike underwent a hair transplant

He also suggests finding a realistic exercise plan that fits around day-to-day life, and that following a diet that allows you to continue enjoying food while cutting calories is key.

Figures show 80 per cent of middle-aged men are either overweight or obese. As a result, they are 60 per cent more likely to die before the age of 75 from heart disease, lung cancer and liver disease than women.

Part of this is biological. As men age, their levels of testosterone and human growth hormone wane, making it much tougher to burn calories and build muscle.

As muscle mass deteriorates, it is replaced by new layers of fat, especially around the waist and stomach.

However, experts say the real problem is twofold – men are less likely than women to notice weight gain, and they are at higher risk of suffering the consequences.

‘As men are more likely to store body fat around the waist, this is well associated with cardiometabolic diseases [such as heart attack, stroke and diabetes], for which the prevalence is greater in men,’ says Dr Michelle Swainson, lecturer in physiology at Lancaster University. ‘Higher waist is associated with more visceral fat around the organs, and this can lead to increased metabolic, biochemical and hormonal changes.’

Research has also shown how men tend not to even realise they have put on weight, while a 2022 study by Anglia Ruskin University found middle-aged men see piling on the pounds as inevitable.

Dr Swainson adds: ‘There is an increase in body fat, and from middle age this is associated with a decline in muscle, slowing metabolism and fewer calories being expended. But obviously there are lifestyle factors at play as well.’

Some experts, though, insist it is not that men are resistant to change, but that weight-loss and health messaging is not geared to male motivations.

‘Midlife is a critical crossroads for men, be it with fatherhood or their career,’ says Professor Paul Galdas, a men’s health expert at the University of York.

‘What the research has shown us is that men are motivated by what matters to them in life – being there for their family or being in shape for work – often over how they look.

‘So targeted, goal-oriented provision that moves the focus away from just weight loss can be really effective for men.’

Studies also reveal that men make up just 11 per cent of participants at weight-loss programmes such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World.

Professor Galdas explains that this is because, for men, weight-loss programmes are more successful when the health impact is not the primary focus.

He adds: ‘What we have seen with programmes like Man v Fat – where football and socialising is the primary activity and men are not being told what to do – is that it is more successful in getting them to participate and lose weight.’

Dr Swainson feels the focus needs to shift from weight and BMI to encouraging men to be more aware of their waist size, as this links more closely to health risk.

She says: ‘They should measure at their belly button, not where trousers are worn. Know that a low-risk waist is less than 37in, moderate risk is 37in-40in and high risk is over 40in.’

Her words echo recommendations from The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission. New criteria was first proposed in January in a report by 58 experts who argued that BMI alone is not a sufficiently ‘nuanced’ way to assess obesity.

Under their proposed system, people with a BMI of less than 30 could be labelled obese if they carried more weight around the middle, giving them a ‘high risk’ waist circumference.

Earlier this month a study in the US by researchers from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, who examined data from some 300,000 adults, found that adopting the new definition would expand the number of people classed as obese by almost 60 per cent.

Despite appearing to have a healthier BMI below 30, these individuals were at significantly higher risk of organ damage and diabetes and more than three times more likely to experience organ dysfunction.

In Britain, where around 13million adults are obese, the same calculation could see that figure soar to nearly 21million. Despite this, experts insist it should be seen as a trigger for positive change.

And as Dr Swainson points out: ‘It is never too late to start.’