Bodybuilder Ted Clifton, 81, eats six meals a day and still competes despite a triple heart bypass.
The great-grandad first started lifting weights aged 16 to bulk up for football.
He built DIY gyms on five oil rigs he worked on in the 60s before health and safety laws.
But he believes his old diet –12 raw eggs mixed with sherry for breakfast, followed by eight pints of milk and gorging on pork – led to his 2016 heart bypass.
The dad-of-three recently cut out gluten and found it gave his health a boost.
He said: “I eat six small meals a day – white fish, turkey, rice, chicken, protein shakes. Ted, who has nine grandkids, runs Ted’s Gym in Workington, Cumbria, that he opened in 1978.
Ted, who competed at the 2004 Welsh Championships aged 63, said: “The diets in the 60s and 70s were full of cholesterol, I think that contributed to my heart bypass.”
Disciplined Ted never eats chips, and has potatoes and rice instead.
He said more pensioners use the gym as weight training is good for bone density and helps recovery from operations.
Ted said: “I’m not doing heavy weights now, just getting muscles pumping is good.”
Previously speaking, Ted said: "It doesn't matter what age you are, you can start bodybuilding at any time. I know people who started in their 50s and they are very good at it.
Speaking about his DIY gyms on oil rigs, he said: "The gym has been open since 1978. I worked as an electrician on the oil rigs for 15 years and I was the first person to build a gym on the rigs. It was really dangerous, in those days we didn't know about safety.
"All they wanted to do was to get men on the rigs. There would be six men in a cabin and two life jackets. I set up gyms on five rigs making all the machines and dumbbells myself.
"I worked out on the rigs to prepare for competitions because there was nothing else to do."
As well as going to the gym, Ted enjoys walking in the Lakes at weekends. He says it's the only place he would want to live except Thailand, where he plans to retire.
Ted's wife Lee is Thai and the couple visit a few times a year. Ted said: "I usually compete with an Irish guy, Eric Downey, who is 84 and older than me. I'm not doing heavy weights now, just getting muscles pumping is good.
