I shed 16st and it saved my life

Mr Paris, from Mid Calder, saw his weight soar to 30 stone after he gave up semi-professional rugby in 2001 and focused on a desk job in customer services.

Doing no exercise and indulging in unhealthy snacks between meals, he ballooned, to the point that he avoided plane travel because he was too big for the seats, and could only buy his XXXXXL clothes from specialist online stores.

His confidence evaporated and his health collapsed as he suffered from fatty liver, back and neck pain and high blood pressure.

Mr Paris hit rock bottom in January last year when he visited his GP, taking daughter Lucy, now four, along with him.

He recalled: “One of the doctors said, ‘Do you want to be around to walk Lucy down the aisle?’ My heart hit the floor. My parents were big, and it wasn’t until that point I thought the end was nigh.”

Stunned by the doctor’s comment, Mr Paris drew up his will, and even began secretly recording video diaries for his children to remember him by after he died. He tried several diets, achieving modest weight loss. Eventually, last May, he found a diet that helped him turn the corner. With one-to-one consultations and a box of food every week from the Cambridge Weight Plan, his weight plummeted.

He says: “The big thing was one-to-one support. You get given a box of food for the week and you can’t divert from it, so there’s no temptation.”

Now weighing in at 13-and-a-half stone, he has resumed both playing and coaching rugby, and has left his old job to become a diet counsellor for the firm.

On Saturday, he scooped the 2011 Male Slimmer of the Year award at its annual convention.

It was in the run-up to the awards that he decided to get his kilt adjusted and found out that he had enough material to be turned into kilts for Zach, six, and 18-month-old Rory.

Wife Deborah said: “I have my sexy husband back and we now have a future to look forward to.”

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