LIVING C Clive discovers the way to a slimline tonic

With the encouragement of wife Carole he shed a whopping 5st 7lbs - an incredible 77lbs - in just six months. And Carole, who was the first to join a local Slimming World group, partnered him by losing 2st 5lbs herself.

The Huddersfield couple say the weight loss has re-energised them both and radically altered their lives. And their message to other people is simple: “Get off your couch and do it. The benefits are massive.”

At his heaviest Clive, a retired academic who formerly worked at the University of Huddersfield, tipped the scales at 20st 7lbs. After having been an active sportsman, playing rugby and squash, he was astounded to find he had put on so much weight.

Then in 2007 he had a mini stroke. Doctors couldn’t find a reason for it. Clive thought he had the answer.

“I was very overweight because I wasn’t doing anything, just vegetating. There’s no explanation for it other than generic laziness. I had retired and I was happy just not doing anything physical.

“In 2015 I went back to the doctor and he told me I was clinically obese. I had a 52-inch waist. It dawned on me that I was going to be 70 in two years and if I didn’t do something I wouldn’t make it. It made me consider my mortality.

“I was in denial. Being over 20 stone made me realise how much I had let myself go for ten years. I had to lose weight.”

Even friends were concerned for Clive. On holiday in Whitby, Carole and their pals decided to walk to nearby Sandsend, three miles along the coast. He had to take the bus.

The tipping point for Clive was when Carole joined Slimming World in May last year.

“Trying on clothes for me was a big thing,” recalls office manager Carole, 62. “I was a size 16 and was looking to go up another size. That was my tipping point. I’d run for the bus and be out of breath. I was getting up to the 13st mark and I knew that that was a lot. I was snacking a lot, having takeaways and fish and chips ... It was time to do something about it.”

Clive was astonished to see Carole cooking wholesome, flavoursome meals and enjoying decentsized portions. How, he asked pointedly, could that help her lose weight? The answer was optimising food to focus on healthy eating, and cooking intelligently.

“It’s just about eating sensibly,” says Carole. “Our fridge is stocked with the right things. We don’t have to weigh, measure or count calories. We don’t deny ourselves anything and we’re never hungry.”

Clive signed up. In his first two weeks he lost 11-and-a-half pounds more than he’d managed under his We are in a mindset that this is a way of living. You can do this and still have your life. own steam in the previous three months. By the end of his first month with Slimming World he was a stone lighter. After eight weeks he’d dropped two stone or, as Clive points out, “ten per cent of my body weight”. An accompanying increased exercise regime - walking, swimming, cycling - also played its part.

By January this year he’d hit his target weight of 13st 10lbs and Carole hit hers, 10st 11lbs.

The Hetheringtons, who live in Fenay Bridge, have proved to be a real success story with the Almondbury 5.30 Group. He’s feted as “Greatest Loser” and “Man of the Year”, and together they’ve been voted “Couple of the Year”.

Says Carole: “We are in a mindset that this is a way of living. You can do this and still have your life. I’m glad I joined Slimming World but I am proud of what it’s done for Clive. I had been going on at him for years.”

Adds Clive: “It’s been like a project, and we have been the project. Some people build a shed. I have reinvented myself. I go walking, cycling, I’ve rediscovered cooking, I’ve joined New Mill Male Voice Choir and Carole has joined Honley Ladies’ Choir.

“And when we went to Whitby recently I walked all the way to Sandsend ... and back.”