A dad who has lost almost seven stone has hailed his young son as the inspiration behind his staggering weight loss transformation.
Pete Cranfield, 37, from Speke, put on weight after falling into “bad habits” which revolved around eating junk food and drinking excessively. At his heaviest, Pete weighed 24 stone, and said he was in a “horrible place” where he didn’t even want to leave his house.
He told the ECHO: “Even though I was on my feet all day working as a barber, my diet and my drinking habits just meant that everything went out of the window fitness wise. Over the years, I slowly started putting weight on. In my mid-20s I started to do something about it and lost a couple of stone, but I just fell back into bad habits.
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“It had gotten to the point where I was really overweight and feeling tired all the time and my mental health wasn’t in the best place. I became agoraphobic when I was at my lowest.
“I was just in this really horrible place where I was anxious all the time and I had to have some therapy sessions, which really helped me.”
Pete had enjoyed an incredibly active lifestyle up until the age of 21, and was even selected for the Great Britain under-20 shot put team, sometimes training twice a day. However, his busy work life left little time for keeping active.
But, in 2020, the arrival of Pete’s son, River, prompted him to make a change. The barber, whose roster of clients includes stars like Wayne Rooney, sought advice from personal trainer Matt Nuttall to help him get back in shape.
Pete said: “I thought, when the baby arrives, I want to do something to get healthy and make sure that I’m here to see him grow up in the long run. It was a bit of a reality check really.
"I also started a podcast and I had Matt on as a guest. After the podcast had finished, he stayed on chatting to me and asked if I fancied doing anything and I said I really would.
“The last time I’d trained, I’d gone to a gym in Wirral and had thrown myself in at the deep end with a load of rugby lads. I felt like I was going to die and it put me off going back. So this time I started really slow and steady and just built it up from there.”
And last year, the 37-year-old took inspiration from long-time friend and bodybuilding champion, Marcel Vormawah Jonas, who urged Pete to pursue his passion for bodybuilding.
After spending the last nine months training, the dad-of-one is set to take part in his first show on September 25.
He said: “I managed to get my weight down to just over 17 stone. I’ve obviously gone up and down with bodybuilding and, if it wasn’t for that, I probably could have gotten down to about 14 stone by now.
“We’ve been measuring it more on body fat levels so my body fat’s right down, as it needs to be below 10% really on stage. I’m starting to be able to see my abs coming through.
“The show is exclusively for first-timers. I’ll be in the tall, open bodybuilding class and everyone who steps on stage that day will be doing it for the first time.”
While Pete is proud of his transformation, it's his family’s response that matters most to him.
He told the ECHO: “My whole driving force behind this has been River. Before he came along, I was drinking too much. I feel proud of myself, but I hope more than anything that my mum and dad are proud of me, and obviously my son as well.
"Social media has been great for me. I had a guy message me who’s lost four stone since February, and he told me that, without me knowing, I’ve helped him do that. Things like that really blow me away and make me feel proud.”
You can follow Pete’s progress here.
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