Fun-loving fitness-fan Clayton Erwin was shocked by his appearance in a holiday snapshot. His partner introduced him to the world of The Biggest Loser Club and he shot into action. Now, Clayton is 14kg lighter and he’s running faster than ever.
Weight gain happened so gradually for father-of-two Clayton Erwin that he didn’t really notice it. However, alarm bells began ringing for the active Business Development Manager when a pair of trousers that had always been too loose to wear suddenly felt seriously tight.
That photograph...
Clayton, his partner Luisa and his two young sons, 13-year-old Jake and 11-year-old Dylon, had just returned from a family trip to the US to see Clayton’s brother and experience a States-side road trip. Sifting through the holiday snapshots, Clayton’s eyes fell upon a picture of himself, an instant that he describes as his moment of truth. “I looked at this photo and it didn’t look like me. All I could see was a fat man looking back at me,” he said.
Clayton had always enjoyed keeping fit by regularly playing sports and running and, until this time, the 48-year-old from Western Australia had never needed to lose weight. Right now, though, help was what he needed – and his partner Luisa delivered.
Introducing The Club
“Luisa introduced me to The Biggest Loser Club,” Clayton said. “She knew it worked because she was already using it.”
Clayton experimented with The Club to see if it would be right for him. “I knew I ate healthily in general but checking the calories in the foods I was eating, it was clear that I was eating too much, despite exercising regularly.”
He started to weigh and measure foods to get the portion sizes right, starting with breakfast cereals. He also began to check the calories in food labels when he was out shopping and the family switched from full fat milk to skim.
Clayton was so determined to stick with his plan that he ditched all his unhealthy snacks, including the handful of biscuits that accompanied his afternoon coffee.
Click to enlarge photos
Clayton before
Clayton before
Clayton after
Secret stash
One of Clayton’s workmates may have also breathed a sigh of relief when Clayton joined the Club. “I can now confirm that the stash of biscuits hidden in my colleague’s filing cabinet is safe from me,” he laughed.
Over the weeks, Clayton enjoyed reading the features and information on the website but he loved the diary most of all. “It allowed me to quickly see what eating less can do for me and it also made me more aware about calories in and calories out. Now, I think twice about what and how much I eat.”
All this time, Luisa was taking her Biggest Loser Club plan very seriously, too. “She got rid of unhealthy snacks from the house saying, ‘if I can’t have them, no one can’,” said Clayton, “so no one could be tempted”.
Small changes, big results
By making relatively small changes to his diet and continuing to be active as before, Clayton started to see fantastic results.
“When I saw how much weight was dropping off and I started getting positive comments from my customers, it made me knuckle down even more – I was absolutely determined to get to my goal weight.”
Within 12 weeks, Clayton was 12kg lighter shrinking from 92kg to 80kg. Inspired and delighted by his weight loss, Clayton opted to continue and he lost a further 2kg. He has stayed around his current weight of around 78kg for some months now.
Proof of his improved fitness came with his regular runs. Clayton explained, “I have been running long distance for a while now and last year, I completed a 10km run in 59 minutes. One year later and over 12kg lighter, I completed the race in 53 minutes. It felt great and it was a lot easier being lighter.”
Squash and the fat boy
“I also played squash regularly and I used to feel lethargic and slow chasing that squash ball around the court but now I feel great. Then, my partners would joke, ‘who’s the fat boy on the court?’. They can’t say that now. It is great to lose weight, get fit and enjoy a longer life,” he said.
Luisa is really happy for Clayton and she has also seen great weight loss success. “She has done really well and has reached her goal weight now but she won’t tell me what it is,” Clayton said.
The only downside of dropping two sizes for Clayton is having to buy new clothes. Until recently, he was looking forward to using his success files gift voucher to buy some sassy new threads. That is until he encountered one small challenge...
“When Luisa heard that I would be receiving a $200 gift voucher for sharing my story with other Club members, she said, ‘oh good, I can buy some new clothes!’”
“I told her no. That I had lost the weight so it was my prize but she just said. ‘Well, I introduced you to The Biggest Loser Club in the first place, so it should be for me!”
Who will win the fashion spree? Watch this space!
If you’ve reached your goal weight and you’d like to share your story with The Biggest Loser Club, email Gemma at gbattenbough@sphealth.com.au. For each story we publish, we thank our successful slimmers with a $200 gift voucher.