A lottery winner who claimed he was fat-shamed at a gym swimming pool has been banned from all of the company's branches across the UK. Adam Lopez, 40, said a staff member at a Nuffield Health gym asked about his diet and suggested he take up sumo wrestling while he was swimming.
Banned from all 110 centres
Lopez, a former forklift truck driver from Mattishall, Norfolk, has now been banned from all 110 Nuffield Health Fitness and Wellbeing centres nationwide. He won £1,000,000 on the National Lottery jackpot in July 2025 when he had just £12.40 in his account. He had been a member of the club for years and said the incident happened earlier this month.
After the alleged fat-shaming, Lopez retaliated on social media, calling the trainer a "chubby bird" and saying his requests for a video meet rather than an in-person one were denied. In the post, he also mentioned his brown belt in jiu-jitsu.
Membership terminated
A complaint was lodged to the gym, but on August 13 Lopez received a letter notifying him that his membership had been terminated with "immediate effect." Lopez, who is managing director of the Norfolk Trade Centre, said: "I do not apologise. My post did not warrant a complete ban from all Nuffield Health's clubs. What the member said was rude and condescending. It's unacceptable. She told me I should take up sumo wrestling and asked me about my diet."
He added: "I was ignored by the lifeguard who is responsible for taking care of problems like this. Why should I sit back and take it? I would never hit a woman."
Company response
Nuffield Health said: "The safety and wellbeing of our members and colleagues is our top priority. While we cannot comment on individual cases, we'd like to reiterate that we take all instances of both fat-shaming, and threatening behaviour extremely seriously."
