The 27-year-old hit the headlines last week after his trainer Mike Hind banned takeaways from serving him
“HIT him, Dibsy!”
It’s not the first time a Sun reporter has had to dodge a punch but this time it’s a heavyweight trying to land one, with his personal trainer egging him on.
Luckily for me, this heavyweight is 40st Darren “Dibsy” McClintock, whose obesity battle hit the headlines after his trainer Mike Hind banned takeaways from serving him.
And even luckier, we have both just endured a 40-minute bootcamp workout at Mike’s gym — and as Dibsy tips the scales at nearly four times my body weight, it means I’ve got a bit more energy left than he has, enough to dodge his last few lunges in the boxing ring.
But, exhausted and covered in sweat, Dibsy still gets awarded the winner’s belt in a light-hearted ceremony.
It’s another encouragement dreamed up by Mike to give Dibsy the belief that he can win his personal battle of the bulge.
His story — including his admission of weighing 40st rather than the 30st widely reported last week — has brought the UK’s obesity crisis into sharp focus.
We are the third fattest nation in Europe, according to the World Health Organisation, and the North East, where Dibsy lives, is one of the most obese regions in the country.
He has struggled with his weight all his life, and the death of his father from cancer when Dibsy was 18 didn’t help his increasing reliance on comfort-eating.
Numerous efforts over the years to lose weight failed and his huge bulk now has a devastating effect on his life — he is single, he can’t get a job, he has to order specially-made clothes and when he goes on holiday he has to book two plane seats.
Dibsy, 27, finally decided to act earlier this year when a heart scare landed him in hospital for a week and a doctor delivered the stark message: “Diet or die.”
Married dad-of-three Mike heard about Dibsy’s plight and offered to take him under his wing for a year.
He now puts him through his paces twice a day at his Mas Body Gym, in their home town of Middlesbrough, and provides all his meals from his newly opened healthy eating diner.
Dibsy was consuming an alarming 11,000 calories a day — an average man needs around 2,500 — but was burning hardly any because he was so inactive.
He is now down to 3,500 a day after ditching takeaways, booze and unhealthy snacks and, thanks to his new exercise regime, is burning 2,000 a day.
The results are remarkable.
On day one he couldn’t walk more than a few yards without getting out of breath.
I joined him for a workout on day ten as he proudly announced: “I’ve lost 2½st already.”
The first exercise — just a warm-up, said Mike — involved flipping a huge, 130kg lorry tyre.
Despite his weight, Dibsy isn’t lacking in upper body strength and he made it look easy — which it isn’t.
We then moved on to pushing a metal sledge the length of the gym and dragging it back the other way, with Mike holding on to make it harder.
Then it was on to the 5kg slam ball session — hurling a medicine ball into the ground with as much force as you can.
Next came smashing a sledgehammer on to the lorry tyre as hard as possible, as Mike yelled at us to do it harder.
The innovative bootcamp exercises are designed in part to replicate the physical exercise people might do in their daily jobs, and are perfect for Dibsy.
Mike, 35, explained: “He is too big for conventional gym equipment, so we need to get him doing something different.
“You work with what you’ve got and using this equipment we have devised a set of exercises that put him through it without creating too much strain on parts of his body that can’t handle it yet.
“We also have a heart monitor on him all the time which gives a real-time readout of his heart rate and calorie burn rate.
“The strain on his heart is something we need to keep an eye on, so if it gets too much we ease off and let him rest.
“We also need to make sure he doesn’t overheat, so if he is getting a bit hot we use a leaf blower to cool him down.”
By then we were both shattered, but there was little time for rest as Mike moved us into the boxing ring.
“Don’t hit him too hard, Dibsy,” instructed Mike. “Or not at all?”, I suggested.
Thankfully, Dibsy was just about done in — the heart monitor revealed he had burnt 1,520 calories that session — and I could keep him at arm’s length.
Afterwards he told me how he had got so heavy.
He said: “I have never been skinny but the weight started really going on in my early teens.
“I have never been sporty and if my mates went to the park for a kickabout I’d just sit it out because you are embarrassed if you can’t run around with them.
“My family say that my dad dying of cancer at 50, when I was 18, had a big effect, but I’m not so sure.
"I wouldn’t blame my weight on that, it’s down to me and no one else that I am this size.
“I have been seeing doctors and dieticians for years and my weight would go up and down.
"I lost 6st at one stage but it went back on.
“People do say things in the street or stare and kids call me ‘Fatty’.
"That obviously hurts, so I go home and comfort-eat to make me feel better, which puts more weight on, which attracts more comments. It’s a vicious cycle.
“I have had girlfriends and long-term relationships and I wouldn’t say I have lost them because of the weight.
“But I am single now and being this size does affect that side of your life.
“I knew I had to do something after I had my recent scare. It started when I began getting out of breath.
"It got worse and I could hardly breathe. It was terrifying and I was taken to hospital.
They said my heartbeat was all over the place. Normally they said they would give me some drugs and shock my heart so the beat gets back to normal.
“But they had no idea how much drugs to give me — they were scared I wouldn’t wake up.
"So instead they gave me beta blockers and blood thinners and basically hoped I didn’t have a heart attack.
“I was in hospital for a week and a doctor came round and told me I couldn’t keep doing this.
“He said if something didn’t change, I was heading for an early grave. To see the look on my mother’s face when he said that was heartbreaking.
"I have never had a doctor be so straight with me before and I decided that this time I had to do it for real.
“I didn’t know Mike but I had heard of his new diner which serves healthy food so I went down with my mum and got chatting to the staff.
“He got to hear about my plight and messaged me to say he could help. The next day I went to see him and he asked me about my life and what I hoped to achieve.
“It was pretty emotional when we talked about what the doctor had said. My mum said she didn’t want to bury her child and we all ended up in tears.
“Mike agreed to help, both with an exercise plan and a meal plan. It was intimidating going into the gym for the first time. I have been to gyms before but it has never worked for me.
“But at Mike’s gym everyone is so encouraging and wants me to succeed. And the support Mike gives me away from the gym is incredible. He texts me about 30 times a day to check I am OK.
“One evening, a couple of days into my new exercise regime, I was at home and I messaged him to say I was struggling. It was a night that I’d usually have a takeaway and I was missing it.
“Without a moment’s hesitation he said, ‘I’ll see you at the gym in ten minutes’. I said, ‘But the gym is closed’. He replied, ‘I own the gym — see you there’.
“We did a 40-minute workout and I got home exhausted and went to bed, really pleased with myself.
“It’s support like that which is getting me through. I want to learn to drive and get back into work.
"I used to work in a chemical plant but got laid off.
"Since then it has been impossible to get another job because of my size.
11,000 calories
BREAKFAST: Two sausage sandwiches (three sausages in each) with a pint of Fanta
MID-MORNING SNACK: Packet of crisps
LUNCH: Chicken sandwich with full-fat mayonnaise, packet of crisps, a pasty and bottle of Coke
DINNER: Huge plateful of chicken curry, rice, naan bread and spring rolls – plus a ham sandwich while that meal is cooking. Served with another pint of Fanta
SUPPER: A takeaway parmo (see below), kebab or pizza
DRINKS: Dibsy only drank alcohol at weekends. But a typical Sunday session involved 12 cans of Strongbow Dark Fruit cider, ten Southern Comfort and lemonades and six Jagerbombs
WHAT’S A CHICKEN PARMO? Teesside delicacy, consisting of deep-fried chicken breast covered with bechamel sauce and cheese,
then grilled and served with chips for a gut-busting 2,000-calorie meal
“Work clothes don’t fit and I’m obviously a massive health and safety risk.
“So if I can lose weight I will get back into work and will have less time at home, thinking about eating.”
Mike takes one obese person under his wing every year to get them fit.
"It’s his way of giving back to the community which helped him to launch his gym with a crowdfunding appeal in 2013.
He is providing all of Dibsy’s meals free for a year, plus two training sessions a day, which would normally cost £32,000.
As The Sun reported last week, knowing Dibsy’s big love of takeaways, Mike came up with the idea of a leaflet which he distributed to local fast food places, saying: “Do not serve this man.”
Dibsy loved parmos — a local delicacy of chicken in breadcrumbs, deep fried and covered in bechamel sauce and cheese, amounting to 2,000 calories.
Mike said: “His target weight is 20st and we will get there.
"His family is on board, I am on board, but most importantly Dibsy is on board.
“That is vital with any addiction, admitting you have a problem and wanting to do something about it.
“We will not fail.”
3,500 calories
BREAKFAST: Overnight oats (left to soak in milk overnight) with berries
LUNCH: Omelette with green beans and broccoli
DINNER: Jamaican jerk chicken and white rice or steak meatballs and pasta with broccoli
DRINKS: Dibsy has ditched fizzy drinks and alcohol. He now drinks four litres of water and a protein shake each day
