Todd Payne, a 34-year-old from Rochdale, has shared how he lost an incredible 9 stone in just two years after deciding to turn his life around. His weight loss journey began in September 2024, when he weighed 167kg. Following the death of one of his close friends, Todd decided to make a change and transform his fitness and lifestyle.
Having just moved back to Rochdale Village, a chance encounter with an old friend led to him joining MAN v FAT. Established in 2014 by Andrew Shanahan as a website and digital magazine, it is now a football league exclusively for overweight men who want to lose weight.
A turning point and a new community
Speaking to The Manchester Evening News, Todd provided an insight into how he reduced his weight to 109kg, completed 2 x 10km races, took part in the Manchester half marathon in May, why he has a strong interest in Hyrox and his plans to take on the full Manchester Marathon next year.
“I’ve always struggled with my weight and have been quite the yo-yo dieter. It got to the point where I never considered how big and unfit I was. In September, we were just about to move house. We’d been away on holiday and I remember saying to my wife ‘I’m sick of this, I can’t do this anymore’,” he said.
“Genuinely that was it, something clicked in my head. There were other things going on at the time. A friend of mine had taken his own life. It was a bit of an epiphany that I needed to sort my life out. I stuck to it, weight started dropping off and you get a bit more into it. It keeps coming off and you get more into it.”
“I saw an old friend of mine outside our local shops. He said ‘do you fancy joining MAN v FAT’. He was someone I used to play a lot of football with when I was younger. It was nice to get a bit of nostalgia with an old friend. Getting into the MAN v FAT community was the stepping stone I needed for weight loss.”
How MAN v FAT works
Giving an insight into what MAN v FAT is, Todd continued: “It’s a footballing community for essentially overweight men to get together, play 30 minutes of 6-a-side. You do that once a week.”
“On top of that there's huge encouragement for weight loss. It’s not about winning on the pitch, you’ll score goals based on if your team lost weight that week, individual goals and targets, there’s points for tracking your food that week and there’s a weekly challenge. It could be anything from going for a walk or showing off a meal you made for under a fiver.”
“It’s great for keeping you accountable, and on track in terms of what you’re putting into your body. There’s the social and exercise element too. It’s a better Slimming World for men who love running around the pitch.”
Noting that he has a ‘competitive nature’, the football aspect of it made him ‘want to do it even more’ due to it ‘not just being about losing weight’. On top of this, MAN v FAT has led to Todd making lots of new friends who have provided plenty of encouragement.
“I typically have quite a small circle, but the community is great. We do a lot outside of football. We’ve started a park run group, we try to meet up once every few weeks for 11-a-side football matches. Friendship groups have grown and there’s a lot more socialness to it outside of the Monday.”
“The end goal is to get to your BMI. When you hit that you can still carry on playing, but you don’t lose any extra points for losing weight. It’s quite the opposite, if you put on weight you lose points. Yes it’s good to play with others trying to lose weight, but you risk the forfeit.”
Physical challenges and future goals
Another big help for Todd is going to the gym, which has helped him realise it’s ‘the mental side of things that you definitely what you need to focus on more than anything’.
“I’ve got a personal trainer who I’ve trained with for over a year, his name is Theo Vassiliou from the LWL Gym in Rochdale. He’s a good lad. He is the complete opposite of me, he’s always happy and full of energy. He’s changed my life around,” he said.
“Theo has become a very good friend of mine, which is so nice considering I started off as a client. He went through everything in the gym, he keeps me accountable, he shouts at me when needed and he picks me up when I’m down. I get it’s a lot of money and not everyone can afford it, but he’s been great for me.”
Asked about how he’s become a big fan of taking on physical challenges, Todd explained: “The Manchester half marathon went far better than I expected. I had a target time of 2 and a half hours. On the day I just wanted to do it without stopping to prove I could do it. I did it in 2 hours and six minutes. I was over the moon, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“It was all mental. It just shows how powerful the mind is. I’ve booked the Manchester Marathon for April next year, double the distance, we’ll see how that goes. Before that I’m doing a Hyrox.”
Looking ahead to the future, Todd’s goals have moved more towards fitness than weight loss. While there’s ‘still weight’ he wants to lose, Todd is continuing to embrace being active, doing long distance runs, lifting weights and entering Hyroxes and says he will ‘push and challenge’ himself as much as he can.
Top tip for beginners
For anyone in a similar position to where he was two years ago, Todd recommends beginning your health journey by getting an app where you log what you’re eating and see how many calories you actually need.
“I had to be accountable, not lie and log everything,” he stated. It made a huge difference and the weight dropped off purely from that. Walking as boring as it sounds is important to do every day.
“It’s not easy to get your steps in. Try and take yourself for a walk as much as you can. Getting up early in the morning and having a walk, and doing the same in the evening.. We’ve got dogs which makes it easier to get 8000 to 10000 steps a day.”
“Once I started fitting in clothes better, buying clothes that are in a smaller size, it was a huge boost. Every week without fail I make sure I have a cheat meal. I have more than earned it. If you don’t do it, eventually you’ll give up. One bad meal isn’t going to hurt the rest of the week when you’ve been good and strict.”
