Football Fans in Training

RADIO COMMENTATOR: '..St Johnstone take on Celtic.'

'A very pleasant day too in the fair city of Perth...'

Let's face it, as we get older, our stomach gets bigger.

Does your stomach get in the way when you put your socks on?

Well, here's something to help.

This is a new me. I'll be training all the time now.

This is where you start to see results.

This is a revolutionary solution to help us all live a better life.

We actually held the weight we lost in our hands.

You've got a minute and a half. That's the good news.

I've two daughters and they're chuffed.

What did he say the good news was?

How does it work and what did it mean to these guys

to turn their lives around in just 12 weeks?

The fact of the matter is this,

if we've put on three pounds a year since we were 25,

by the time we hit 45, we're over four stone heavier.

Roughly two in every three of us are now overweight,

with just under one in four considered in the danger zone,

known as clinically obese.

You are currently in the obese category.

Basically you are considered clinically obese.

After smoking, obesity is the most important preventable cause

of cancer so it really has a huge health implication.

There'll be a lot of men who watch this,

who would describe themselves as being fat

but when we start to talk about things like chronic obesity,

men get a wee bit scared.

They don't want that word associated with themselves.

They would like to do something about it but really,

can they be bothered?

He's right but where to start?

On the Saintees!

Football is something that does get us off the sofa,

so why not base lessons on healthy living in an SPL club?

This simple yet original piece of thinking is exactly what

Football Fans In Training tried last year.

Run by the SPL Trust,

it was so successful that this season the pilot

was rolled out to every club.

And rest there. Well done.

To qualify, fans had to be between 35 and 65-years-old,

with waist-circumferences over 100 centimetres

and trousers bigger than 38 inches.

They had to be male because, in Scotland,

this is the group currently causing most concern.

The amount of people now taking part means the pilot expanded

into not only a true scientific study

but also the first of its kind in the world.

"I understand any information I provide will be treated in the strictest of confidence."

All the data we're collecting from the men, their height, their weight,

their BMI, their blood pressure, their eating habits

their physical activity and general wellbeing.

We think the programme should improve all these things.

What we're doing over the course of the next 12 months

is finding out whether we're right or not.

Newly promoted to the SPL,

this was the first time Dunfermline had run a course.

You will never achieve your target if your attitude's not right.

When I get up in the morning, I'm a wee bit... My eyes are still shut.

Before I wake up, I go...

And I don't touch wood.

LAUGHTER

You know what I mean? Then I say, "Wahey!"

Right, let's go. Cos I'm not in that coffin yet!

There's things to do!

When you see that big steak,

you see that big chip butty,

-if you've not got the courage to say,

-BLEEP...

LAUGHTER

Hey, sorry!

The BBC. That's the end.

Jim Leishman, Children's parties!

Courage, lads.

APPLAUSE

Opening night at St Johnstone was all about pedometers.

Baseline step count - the number of steps you take on a regular week.

OK, so, the way we measure that is,

once we've got the pedometers working, as you need

to take a note daily of how many steps you've taken.

The way it works is, when you put your foot down, the jolt comes up

through your knee so it needs to be up above your knee, on the side.

It jolts down and it will give a little vibration

and that will give you your step. So every step you take, it'll come up.

Let's go!

As an 18-year-old, I was part of the team for the Harriers

that won the Scottish cross-country under-20 championship.

I just want to feel better in myself.

I know what I used to feel like when I was running.

I want to get back to being able to do things like that.

The first three or four weeks

is really about you guys getting familiar with your pedometer

and getting used to the steps you need to do to meet the goals we've set you.

Guys, what we've got here,

if you have a look. These are your typical food groups.

Is this one portion of meat then?

Yes. This fatty bit will probably be bigger

and you'll start to get this bit even higher.

Very difficult to do this on your own, very difficult.

Being in amongst a group of people, I've got an extra support there.

It's harder to give up now.

Obviously, I am really overweight and I don't feel good about myself.

I want to do something positive with that and change that.

I'm actively seeking work as well, so the fitter I am,

the better I feel, the more confident I am.

It's not just about losing weight.

I'll see you next week. Well done, guys. Good stuff.

So, if you look at page three...

Anybody else do a lot more walking

in that week than they did previously?

Celtic were part of last season's pilot. Demand for their course

meant they had to run classes on both Monday and Friday nights.

How many people restrict themselves to that, if they're having chips?

Joe?

Who decided what a portion was? How do you come to that?

It's the amount of calories that are in it.

Stephen's going to go for a wee walk around while I clear up here.

To be honest, the likelihood of me joining the gym is slim

but as soon as I saw this, the fact that Celtic were involved made it

instantly more attractive.

The wife and I had a child last year and essentially I just want

to get myself more fit, so I'm around for her growing up

and so I can be more active with her when she starts to walk and stuff.

So I'm not out of breath or whatever.

I just want to basically do it for her.

-8,401.

-8,401? Brilliant.

The food diaries, they are useful...

Not everyone is a supporter of the club where they train.

I'm a Ranger's supporter.

But Dunfermline would be my closest ground.

That's where we travel to every Wednesday.

I've been getting in my car in between hires

and walking around my car and speaking to everybody and just...

trying to walk, exercise more.

-The pedometer helps.

-I think it does, aye.

I came home at 11 o'clock one night

and hadn't done enough steps. I had to go out for a 40-minute walk

at 11 o'clock at night just to get my steps up! So, I'm addicted, yes.

The start of the season at Rangers

and a guy with a clip board stopped me.

I must've looked quite heavy.

Alcohol is measured in units.

I was a wee bit shocked actually.

A lot of them were a lot bigger than me

I know I'm quite heavy but I didn't realise I was so obese,

as they... That's what we're classed as.

That.

LAUGHTER

Hi, Emma. How are you getting on?

'That five kilos maybe doesn't sound a lot

'but I do notice my shirts, my jeans are a wee bit slacker.

'I've got more energy, by walking, exercising.

'Your pedometer becomes one of your...'

I'm constantly checking it to see if I've got enough steps.

If I haven't, I go for a walk at night.

It's not just a two-week course.

They've emphasised you have to change your whole lifestyle.

And if it makes you a wee bit fitter

and it reduces the risk of heart... or a stroke

or diabetes, I think I'll have to keep doing it.

Do you do this all day?

As much as I can. To get it higher, I go for a walk about.

I'm 51 now.

You don't want to get any heavier and run the risk

of heart attacks or diabetes.

So it's a health thing. As I say, I've got two daughters

and they're really chuffed I'm participating

and trying to lose a wee bit.

They've given me plenty of support as well.

I was quite happy, losing half a stone or something

but I want to get over a stone and lose maybe

a stone and a half, if I can.

It's only six weeks to go so I'll have to walk

around my car more often.

The course is not just about exercise.

Around half the time is spent in the classroom,

discussing a range of topics, like what you eat and when you eat,

so-called comfort eating.

The best thing is to have the wok really hot.

It's a thing a lot of people do. It's good to talk with the guys.

Everyone's in the same boat.

Chop the turkey breast up,

just very thinly.

It is what you're doing. You're sitting in, watching the football.

You think, "I think I'm going to have a packet of crisps."

Or on a Sunday think, "I'm back to work tomorrow,

"I can't be bothered cooking."

I'm aware that that happens and it does go on.

There's plenty here, so...

It does make you think, the next time I'm in that position,

which would normally be tomorrow, at my mum and dad's,

instead of me going and getting a packet of crisps,

it might be in my head not to do it.

It is hard to think about it but...

OK, guys, well done!

Get your heart-rate, get your pulse. What sort of figures do we get?

15.

What we're doing over the next couple of weeks is we want to relate

how you feel with what your heart-rate is roughly.

Right, off you go again.

It's just a way of doing that...

I don't know what they call that game,

and I must have gone to the side

and must've pulled a muscle or whatever.

Quite embarrassing for that to happen during the warm up.

I'm not used to having sporting injuries. Hopefully, next week.

Alan had to sit out a couple of weeks

but returned to complete the course.

In fact, around three quarters of those who start the course

make it to the end.

At the half-way point, I'm actually on target to hit the goal

for the whole period. I've lost 5% of my weight

which I'm delighted and amazed at, in all honesty.

I'm still on target to lose 10% by the end of the ten-week period.

That's what I've lost?

One of the things we did tonight was hold the weight we lost in our hands

and that was quite an eye-opener.

To think you were physically carrying that weight all day,

'when you're walking about, at work.'

It goes in no time at all.

One of the things we discussed tonight was keeping in touch.

And I think we'll do that after the course has finished.

So whether it's starting up a walking club or getting together

for a five-a-side,

I think we'll put some mechanism in place to keep it going.

I come home for round about six, have something to eat,

sit for ten, 15 minutes and just get back out, walk down here,

spend an hour here and walk back up.

-Do you do that every night?

-Most nights.

I'm probably at a point where if I don't do something about it,

in all honesty, I probably never will.

I could probably just quite happy roll along as I was before.

But I'm happy that I've done this.

It's strange because as you do lose a bit of weight,

I think you actually get to a point

where you feel as if you've got more energy rather than less.

It's just a habit, like anything else.

That's almost me.

That's me.

I don't fancy it. It's too cold for that. In the water?

Probably at the start of the programme,

I couldn't have walked and talked at the same time.

I would've probably been out of breath. But now I feel fit,

I could walk for miles.

I'm feeling a lot better about myself.

The thing that really amazed me was when they gave us a pedometer

and I was only doing 2,000 steps a day.

And I didn't realise how little that was until they told us

at the class that anything under 5,000 is really...

You're not doing anything. I live by my pedometer now.

It's on all the time. I'm always going, "Right, I need more steps.

"I need more steps."

I am 20-stone-seven at the moment.

I was actually 14 and a half stone at one point.

People thought I was ill.

That was about 15 years ago, something like that.

A lot of it was comfort eating as well.

When you're stressed at work, you come in

and just grab the first thing you see, pizza or crisps or whatever.

Now I've got it all set out, what I'm going to eat for the week.

I try and think about it in advance now and make time for the gym.

I'm taking control of my life.

This is a new me. I'll be training all the time now.

I don't eat bags and bags of crisps any more now.

That's me from now on.

I look forward so much to my Monday nights

and going along, even if it's only two hours.

You wish it was a lot longer or more often.

And going to Parkhead every week. I love that.

Coming out the tunnel every week.

The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up.

More hair than on your head anyway!

See what I mean?

See when you slag off these players,

think about how good you are yourself.

I'm loving this. I'm loving the football.

I used to play Saturday, Sunday, midweek, five-a-sides,

the whole lot and I love it.

I absolutely love it and I love it with the boys here as well.

Everyone is like-minded, you know, so you don't feel out of place.

Fantastic.

I started working from home about 10 years ago

so I was sitting at home, go through the fridge,

grabbed a bag of crisps, grab a bit of chocolate and you'd do that

a couple of times a day. Easily.

Just over 10 years, it's just built up. Every year another half stone.

Now I want to reverse it and be going the other way.

Every day now, you've got a 20-minute walk to go

and get your paper at lunchtime and then another longer

walk in the evening just to try and get your steps up.

That evening one gets longer all the time,

because every week I want to go a bit further.

In five weeks, Tom has notched up

over 400,000 steps on his pedometer.

But he has sights on a bigger milestone.

There was a mention on the very first day

that somebody managed a million steps.

It's probably a 50-50 chance that I will manage that.

Three months ago, I hardly walked at all

and now every day,

I do a couple of hours walking at some point or another.

It's a real couch potato into doing loads of exercise now.

You've got 30 seconds left to go! How you feeling? Talk to me!

Talk to me! Knackered?

LAUGHS

Doing well, boys. Go on, keep going. Let's go!

-Are you enjoying yourself?

-Suck it in. Suck it in. Good.

Didn't say it was going to be easy.

This is where it starts to hurt, yet?

Motivation goes downhill, but this is where it counts,

this is where you start to see results.

Got to fight through it. We keep going. Lift your stomach the ground.

Perfect. There. There. Good. Good. You got another minute and a half.

-That's the good news. OK.

-What did he say the good news was?!

You've all done planks, all looking pretty good, yeah?

What I should be able to do... Nice and firm.

When I sit on you, you should be holding it nice and tight.

-Perfect. Well done, big man.

-LAUGHTER

Good. Well done, squats. Keep those hands out. You'll be walking

like John Wayne tomorrow. Doing fine though.

Oh, pain, pain, pain!

Don't come in for a close-up!

Last 10!

Nine, eight, seven,

six, five,

four, three, two, one!

Stop there!

Tremendous. Really chuffed.

You can see the look of people thinking,

I've just done that, I've just done 45 minutes of a spin cycle class.

I've just done a boot camp for an hour. You know what I mean?

Whereas, I couldn't walk the length of myself six weeks ago.

Aye, you'll be pretty sore. I'm not going to lie.

A hot bath is always good.

We just went down to the concourse.

We had to basically run around the length of the park.

Then he asked us to do it another two times.

Didn't quite make it running all the way the second

and the third time but I was definitely feeling the pace.

-I hadn't realised how unfit I am.

-We're all different levels

and it's gonnae happen. But it will happen.

'After that, we did some work with a medicine ball'

'which involved doing a couple of steps and a lunge

'and then backwards and forwards.'

You will feel this easing off as we go.

It's a really important part of anybody's training.

I woke up on Tuesday and I could hardly move.

Basically, I just had pain in my legs and stuff like that.

I suppose that's because I'm not used to doing any exercise

never mind the more intense stuff that we've been doing.

I just had this kind of impression that the gym is full of all

these Skinny Minnies and Muscle Eddies

I don't really know how I would fit into that scene

because it's just not me.

I've never really thought, "I'm going to go on a diet."

To me, going on a diet was something

that my wife and her friends or my mum talked about.

They were always on diets. I never really consciously thought,

"Oh, I'm going on a diet."

But it's not a diet as such,

it's just more of a change of what I'm doing, basically.

Nice bracing walk on a Sunday morning, just the job.

I used to weigh this much!

I've struggled a few weeks with the exercises and training and that.

I'm trying to keep going because I know if I stop,

I'll get back into the old habits.

I've eaten fresh veg just about every teatime now.

I'm eating a lot more fish.

I'm drinking a lot more water, I don't have fizzy juice.

It's things that were second nature to me before I came along to this.

You wouldn't go up to somebody and say, "You're obese", would you?

You might go up and say, "Oh, you're a bit fat",

but it's harder to take the word "obese" than saying you're fat.

It's only a wee word but it does have big ramifications.

Somebody says you've got to go to Slimming World for six, ten

or twelve weeks or something like that,

I dare say I wouldn't be as comfortable as I am now in it.

I don't think I could do that, but because it was through

a football club and it was with other football-minded fans,

I think that's what's made it a lot easier.

I've lost just under 11 kilos in eight weeks.

I've got two young daughters and if I keep doing it,

I'm going to enjoy it more with them.

Being slightly overweight and not as healthy as I have been,

they suffered as well.

Finally going to crack a million steps.

I think you have to do it to understand what went into it.

It's 11 weeks of constant fitting time in,

in-between a job or doing other stuff with the family

to get two or three hours of walking done a day.

After twelve weeks of adding up his daily step count,

Tom's millionth was in sight - what could go wrong?

Shit.

What's happened?

300 past it!

Easy! No problem. Do it again.

Tom's achievement is the equivalent of walking from Perth

all the way to Birmingham.

I'm not really going to celebrate it at all.

It's become a way of life and I want it to stay that way.

I don't want that to be particularly special.

I just want to be normal

and get myself back to thinking fitness, fighting weight again.

I love that view.

Pretty sad that it's come to an end.

I've absolutely loved every minute of it so...

But I'm really going to miss it.

Put a wee bit on from last week because I was over at my mum's

and over-indulged in Ireland so there you go.

Not unexpected but back on it from next week.

I'll just pop that round a little bit more.

If you stand the other way

so your heels are against the back of the frame, that would be great.

20cm off my waist. About a stone and a half, thereabouts.

That's equivalent of 51 inches.

I don't know if that's supposed to be your ideal weight or what,

but it just shows you it's still the start of a journey, I suppose.

The thought of coming tonight and thinking it's the last time

the group's going to be all together, it's a bit sad.

I'm not getting hung up about the weigh-in.

I did before but I'm not now, because I know how I'm feeling

and I'm feeling better, and things fit me better,

and I feel better within myself. So I'm happy with it, you know.

As long as I don't put any weight on, I'll be happy.

I've got trousers I can get into now that I couldn't before

so I can tell by that alone that I have lost...

Maybe not lost it in the weight but I have lost it in inches.

I'm a wee bit peeved that I never lost as much as I thought

I was going to lose, you know, but anyway, I'll be upbeat about it.

Least I didn't put weight on.

The first part of the course is now complete

but if you are feeling motivated check out

"Football Fans in Training" on the internet.

These guys will be monitored for the next nine months

and only after a year will the scientists know for sure that

combining football with lessons in healthy living actually works.

What we're interested in is the long-term outcome

so we've not got the men to come on the programme

and just lose weight over 12 weeks.

The important thing for them is to keep it going for 12 months.

Well done, guys, give yourselves a big round of applause. Good stuff!

You look quite intelligent with them on!

I'll stick them back on, then!

Yes, I do want to do it again.

If it comes to it, try and do it in ten weeks to get the second million.

You want to keep going, try and get my weight down and try

and get back out and do some more running or more strenuous exercise.

You get into a habit.

For me, it was creating a different habit, a better habit,

and for me, that was taking exercise in the evening rather than sitting

in front of the TV and eating, so the benefits are there to be seen.

It's tremendous.

I'm certainly sleeping better... Big time.

A lot more energy as well. Wee changes like that. It's been good.

First time I ran was basically when I came here,

since my early 20s probably.

So I can do that now.

Albeit not very fast, not very good, but...it's a start.

It's the best thing I've done.

The course is 12 or 14 weeks long, but I'm not just doing it

for that and then switching off, I'll keep doing it.

I will certainly try and take it further,

take it into my life as well.

That's our speech for the Commonwealth, hey?!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd