A lorry driver who used to scoff a whopping 10,000 calories every single day is ready to start dating after shedding more than half his body weight.
Vlad Tudose, 33, topped the scales at 29st after years of unhealthy eating and had unsuccessfully tried to lose the weight several times - until he found a new football team.
Vlad, who is originally from Romania but now lives in Coventry, said: "I moved to the UK with my girlfriend and my best friend, but after seven years we had to break up.
"I wasn't taking care of myself and I was in a very negative space, just letting myself go.
"In all honesty, I had a lack of confidence and care."
He added that, while studying for a law degree at the University of Coventry, he was a "fit and active" student who played football and rugby, weighing just over 11st.
However, an addiction to junk food slowly began to take hold over the years and healthy meals lost out to fried chicken, burgers and fizzy drinks. Vlad also became a regular at his local chippy.
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On a typical day he'd scoff three chocolate-filled croissants for breakfast, snack on more chocolate throughout the day and put away a burger, chips and wings for dinner.
After several years together, Vlad said his girlfriend made the decision to break off the relationship - which caused him to spiral even further.
He said: "I'd order takeaways three times in the day. I’d turn off the phone and put on six movies in a row, or watch a couple of series.
"I split up with my girlfriend as she couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t even look at myself. I didn’t even have a mirror, so I didn’t really know how bad I looked.
"I was wearing elasticated trousers, so I really had no idea that I was even getting bigger. I was letting myself go and I wasn’t realising just how bad things were getting.
"But my girlfriend didn’t leave me because of my weight, she left because of how I had become and how little I cared about myself.
"That was a really low point for me."
But by 2012, wearing 48in waists and XXXXXL tops, he realised something needed to change.
So began a long pattern of trying and failing to lose weight, taking on one fad diet after the next. But each time he fell off the wagon and ended up putting on even more weight.
When at his heaviest weight of 29st, Vlad was no longer able to climb a flight of stairs standing up.
He recalled a humiliating incident when he called an ambulance because of knee problems, but had to crawl down the stairs to see paramedics who couldn't carry him.
"I was so embarrassed and I was struggling with depression and anxiety," he said.
But last June he saw an advert for the MAN v FAT football team and decided to join his local team.
Vlad thought the league, launched in 2015 as an initiative to help men lose weight, was his best chance to lead a healthy life and he threw himself into playing.
Soon Vlad was booking Tuesdays off work so he could play with his team - which is awarded an extra 0.5 goals for each player who has lost weight since the previous week.
He also started eating more healthily and ditched his takeaways for salads and grilled meat - slashing his daily calorie intake from 10,000 to 2,100.
He said: "The next day, I threw away all the unhealthy food from my house. I started having two or three meals a day, things like grilled fish and vegetables.
"Being with a group of people who were all so supportive in the football team was incredible.
"I was at breaking point so often, when I felt the need to binge, but I'd start thinking about the team and wouldn't want to let them down."
Since joining the team Vlad has shed a phenomenal 15st and now weighs 14st - but he still has a little bit more to go before reaching his goal weight of 11st 9lbs.
After dramatically slimming down Vlad has been able to shop for medium-sized clothes in high street shops, rather than scouring the internet for plus-sizes.
He said: "It’s been a massive change to my life. Even my family think I'm completely unrecognisable.
"And it’s so easy now. It’s just my lifestyle. This is how I live.
"Even just waking up, I have energy and I’m active. My mental health is great and my colleagues all tell me I’m like a different person. I feel like a completely different person, too, and I have a totally different life."
