A father who put on 420 pounds while gorging on pizza and guzzling pints of Guinness has reduced his weight by almost half by dancing to TikTok tunes.
After years of binge eating, 52-year-old Adrian Scarlett was so large that a tape measure couldn’t even fit around his enormous waist.
The father of four used to consume copious amounts of fatty kebabs, pizza, and cheese pies, which he accompanied by pints of Guinness and glasses of red wine.
Last year, the headteacher made the difficult decision to act because he thought he was “eating himself to death” and wouldn’t survive to see his kids grow up.
In order to track his weight reduction, he started recording videos of himself “dad-dancing” on TikTok in July of last year.
He was inspired to keep getting healthier by the millions of views and hits his humorous videos received on his Bye Bye Fatman page.
Adrian lost 174 pounds in a year, increasing his weight to 259 pounds, and his size decreased from 7XL to XL for shirts and pants.
Adrian, a resident of Hereford, England, claims he lost weight by combining food and exercise with Slim and Save.
He has entirely stopped drinking alcohol and now adheres to a rigorous 1,500-calorie diet each day.
He said, “It’s very strange. I’ve been a big guy throughout my adult life. I was a binge eater, especially when I got stressed at work. I’d eat pizzas and kebabs and drink a few pints of Guinness and red wine at the weekends. It just piled on and the last year I just thought if I carried on the way I was going I would be eating myself to death. I want to see my kids grow up and I knew I had to do something so just thought I’d go on TikTok to monitor my progress. I started dad-dancing and having a bit of fun and it all went crazy. One video got over a million hits and I’ve got 60,000 followers. The support I got from comments from people around the world inspired me to carry on. Because I’m still losing weight, probably some of it hasn’t sunk in yet. The loose skin is the obvious different change. I’m still adjusting and I may need surgery in the future if there is chafing.”
Bongani, 22, Michael, 6, Emily, 3, and Cian, 20 months old, are Adrian’s four children.
He said that his wife Debra, who is in her late 20s, has helped him in his efforts to lose weight.
“Simple things like getting up off the floor and going upstairs was an ordeal at 30 stone. Now I can do what normal people can do. I’ve always been a happy-go-lucky guy. I have a binge eating disorder, I realized it’s not a happy way to live. That journey of reflection of self-love and self-respect has led me on the journey. The knock-on effect is you get more respect. I see it in subliminal ways. People treat me differently. One example is job interviews. As soon as I walk through the door, my experience, my professional qualifications become secondary to my size. It’s something quite common for people who are bigger.”
