How proud of you about how huge a contribution MAN v FAT has made to mens’ health over the past ten years?
I’m simultaneously proud and horrified.
I know precisely how it feels to wish that your mental and physical health was better, but we forget sometimes that when you’re in the pit, it’s hard to take good advice, or make those sensible changes. It feels suffocating and dizzying and it leaves you needing help and that’s not always a comfortable position for a man to be in. So, if MAN v FAT has been that source of help to even one man then I am exceedingly proud.
At the same time I’m horrified because for so long, men have been failed. Make no mistake – men have died and been robbed of years of their lives because health campaigns have seen them as difficult to reach and embedded the myth that men don’t want help. Governments have failed them. Employers have failed them. Health organisations have failed them.
As a result, women get an average six extra years of life than men and that should be a cause for shame. Obviously, we should be aiming to extend everyone’s life expectancy, but we must do more to address the inequality in men and women’s health.
When you started back in 2014, did you always think it would reach this point? How much further do you think there is to go?
All I knew is that MAN v FAT was something I wished existed for me. When we had the forum, I remember the warmth and the fellowship of the other guys and the communal drive to help each other. I think in those early days I got a sense of what it could be like, if men banded together to solve this shared problem.
I never stopped to imagine where it could go, I just knew that MAN v FAT was a source of hope for some and that was more than enough to fuel the next day. As for how far it can go, I believe the obesity crisis can be solved entirely and I believe MAN v FAT can be part of that solution.
You have also benefited from being a part of the MAN v FAT Community. How has it changed your current and future health and wellbeing?
I think I’ve belonged to and benefited from every incarnation of MAN v FAT! I read the magazine, I chatted on the forum, I wrote the book, I attended the first courses, I joined the leagues. As the saying goes: been there, done that, knitted the golden moob*.
Through it all, it made me feel less alone and like there was hope that I could achieve my health goals. In that time I’ve learned so much. I’ve talked with men who were actively contemplating suicide, I’ve celebrated with guys who hit their goals, I’ve seen men becoming dads and go on to set an example for their families.
I’ve also scored a number of truly world class goals that should be spoken of alongside the achievements of minnows like Ronaldo and Messi. In each instance I’ve learned more about what it is to be a man and I hope that it’s made me more compassionate to men in all situations.
Why do you think MAN v FAT works as a programme to support men of all ages?
I often think back to the early conversations we had with public health departments who said that they loved the project but hated the name. “Fat” was a very dirty word. They said it was shaming and regressive. To me “MAN v FAT” always felt like the right way to phrase the situation.
The guys on the leagues knew they were fat, they didn’t like that and they wanted to do something about it. So, I think there’s something about the honesty of the starting position that sets the tone for what comes next. Once you’re honest, it puts everyone on the same level and I always felt that it actually reduced the shame men felt. We were all the same – we all wanted the same thing – why not just own it?
Issues around male health and wellbeing aren’t going away – what are the next steps for MAN v FAT and others like us to make meaningful contribution and changes to the health agenda nationally (and internationally)?
That’s an interesting question with an unpalatable answer. I believe that as a species we need an honest conversation around what happened to food. Too much control and power has passed to supermarkets and food manufacturers. Consequently, they sell products that are addictive and that create an obesogenic environment with little in the way of oversight.
In my view, we need a movement that recognises what has been done to food, rejects what is being offered to us and sets forth a way that we can be free of the influence of the food industry. Unfortunately, you tend to sound like a swivel-eyed loon when outlining just how pernicious the influence of food manufacturers has become.
Sum up MAN v FAT and its community in three words
There’s always hope.
*The golden moob was an early prize for the winner of the biggest loser on the MAN v FAT Football leagues
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