Surrey football club offering men chance to start weight-loss journey
Man V Fat is a football club in Guildford where players score goals for their clubs both on the pitch, and also by hitting weight-loss goals off it
A Football club in Surrey is offering men a chance to lose weight in a group atmosphere this new year
Man v Fat is a football club in Guildford where players score goals for their clubs both on the pitch, and also by hitting weight-loss goals off it
Within the club their are six teams, which players are randomly assigned to and they play a match every week
At sessions, players weigh-in, followed by a 30-minute game of seven-a-side football, with extra goal bonuses awarded to teams based on their weight loss. A team’s total weight loss and match scores then contribute to its position within a club’s overall league table.
Sam Morgan is the coach at Man V Fat Guildford
"Man V Fat is what I like to describe as a weight loss programme through the medium of football.
The clubs at around 70 people, so we play seven aside is the team size, we've got six teams, but the squads can go up to 13 per team to allow for the the people that can't make every single Friday.
So we've always got enough numbers to to get the games going ahead."
Mark Smithies is an assistant coach at the club, Mark first joined as a player and told us about the weight loss journey he made.
"For me, it's been incredibly powerful. I've just lost from my heaviest. I've now lost 50 kilograms, which is quite a lot of weight. I almost look like a different person now.
But the power of peer-to-peer support is amazing really
You're not necessarily just supporting your own team. There's a like a brotherhood across the club that where we're all supporting each other."
Mark added that this group atmosphere can be particularly powerful for men on a fitness journey
"I think it's a unique thing to find within Men's Health. Men tend to not talk about their own needs and look after themselves, but when it comes to being part of a team, I think that really changes and that element of how we approach weight loss changes from a team mentality for sure. I found it incredibly powerful."
Last Year Man V Fat was crowned community club of the year at the nationwide MAN v FAT Football Awards, celebrating its outstanding impact on men’s health and wellbeing.
Sam Morgan told us about one particularly inspiring story from within the club
"One of the common things I hear from members that come and join is that their aim is to be able to run around and play football with their children again.
There was one lad that joined that he said this was his goal, he really just wanted his son to be proud of him. And after coming down for a couple of weeks, he then invited his son to come and watch him play because he felt confident enough that he could be proud
I think that's the sort of community that we do see the people bringing down their children to come and watch them play and be part of it is is something really special."
Sam also told us about how people can get involved
"There's a website and there's a microsite with Guildford, so hopefully we can get you the link to to share and yeah, my details will be on there.
They'll get a phone call from me shortly after that to start talking about how we get them assigned for team."
Mark added that this process of assigning a team is a big part as to what makes the club so accessible
"One of the benefits of joining Man V Fat is that you don't have to look for a team, you are allocated a team. I think looking for a team is maybe sometimes quite daunting for someone coming in."