A Scots man has shared his story after fears he would be dead by the age of 30 prompted him to overhaul his lifestyle and lose 13 stone in a year. Arran Chidwick, 24, weighed 27st 8lbs at his heaviest, and gorged on family bags of crisps, kebabs, Chinese takeaways and burgers, leaving his mum terrified she would be burying her son before herself.
The aircraft fitter from Auchinleck, East Ayrshire, struggled to fit in aeroplane seats or tie his shoelaces properly. He had to order his clothes online, and struggled with anxiety due to his weight.
Although he didn’t realise it at the time, he believes his binge eating was a way of coping with the trauma of an accident he was in as a child. It was the effects of overdoing it on a night out drinking with friends that gave him the wake up call he needed to make drastic changes to his lifestyle.
Arran said: “I felt I was gonna die before I was 30 and I knew I needed to make a change. I was in a way depressed myself. My way of dealing with past trauma was binge eating – I would eat whatever I wanted and drink at the weekends constantly.
“In the morning it would be hard to tie shoe laces, I couldn’t go to the shop to buy clothes I wanted. Everyone would stare at me at the pub, sweating at concerts, people judging you at football games, struggling on the plane.
“I’m glad it’s by me now, but it was horrible. At the end of 2023, I had a big drink with my pals. My heart was racing the next day and I was not right for two weeks. My mum told me she was going to end up burying me before her.
“My granddad died at the end of 2022 as well so I wanted to do this for him.”
After a heavy drinking session with his pals on Boxing Day 2023, Arran decided enough was enough and got in touch with a local personal trainer, Jim Drummond, ready to make a change. Over the next year, Arran lost 13st 7lbs through a change of diet and exercise – swapping junk food for fruit and veg and a protein-based diet – and now weighs 14st 10lbs.
He even ran the Great Scottish Run 10km at the end of last year and plans to take on the half-marathon this year. Prior to his weight loss journey, Arran struggled with anxiety because of his weight.
He said: “I didn’t realise but my form of coping with it was eating until, you take a step back and look at it now that I’ve realised that. When I went for my new job I thought no one would want to hire me because of my size.
“Meeting new people would give me anxiety. Now that weight has gone I feel a lot more confident in myself. Other people will be struggling with their mental health like I did and I want to show that they can do it too.”
Arran initially scheduled his PT sessions when the gym was quiet as he was “embarrassed” about his appearance. Gradually his confidence built and Arran was able to shed an initial three stone in just three months.
He said: “To start with it was basic circuits and then we gradually got doing more cardio with a bit of weights. I started going to the gym myself but I scheduled my PT when it was quite quiet at the gym as I was embarrassed – now I go 4-5 times a week.
“At the end of last year, I managed to the Glasgow 10km. I’m looking to do the Glasgow half-marathon this year Within 3 months I’d lost over 3st and I’d lost over 9st by June time.
“My goal was to be able to go to Download festival in June below 20st – by the time I got to the festival I was 18st and I burst out crying.”
Arran doesn’t have a goal weight but wants to build muscle and says he’ll “never” go back to how he was before. He added: “I haven’t got a goal weight but I just want to maintain it and build muscle. Because I’ve done it right I built muscle whilst losing weight and I don’t have that much loose skin.
“I tracked every calorie and it’s important not to feel sorry for yourself and think everyone is against you – you’re the only one that can change yourself. Anybody else that feels as if they can’t do it, you can do it – you’ve just got to really go for it and believe in yourself. I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
“I’m of course a little bit worried but I hope this is me for the rest of my life. Now the gym is just a part of my life – I could never see myself going back to that.”
Diet before:
- Breakfast: Two breakfast rolls (sliced sausages black pudding) packet of crisps, fizzy juice
- Lunch: chips and cheese curry sauce, burger
- Dinner: Chinese, kebabs – nothing that’s good for you.
Diet after:
- Breakfast: Crumpet thins, bananas
- Big bottle of water every day.
- Lunch: Turkey crumpets and banana or a rice cake.
- Dinner: Food prep company called Prime Pep or chicken fajitas