Northern Ireland man loses 6.5 stone after death of his father - and now inspires others to lose weight too

A Northern Ireland man who tragically lost his father has shed a whopping 6.5 stone - and now helps others to follow in his footsteps.

Civil servant Gary Redpath, 34, hit rock bottom after the death of his father in 2019, gaining weight and spiralling with alcohol, the Belfast Telegraph reported. On New Year's Eve that year, Gary hit rock bottom and was found walking down a carriageway the following morning.

But when Covid struck, Gary used the opportunity to turn his life around.

Now, Gary works as a fitness instructor - and alongside his flourishing Instagram account, for many people he offers his services for free.

He said: "I was angry at the world. That one sentence just broke down the dam, and allowed me to start grieving. But also, just two words - 'be nice'. The amount of negative self talk I was doing at that stage was overwhelming.

"The internet will tell you that fat loss is easy. It’s just calories in versus calories out after all, isn’t it? Well, yes, but if it was that simple we’d all be like Adonis and you wouldn’t be jumping from fad diets, or spending money on some crazy fat burning pills that don’t work - only to regress a few months later.

"Don’t plan to go all in and start restricting foods in favour of only eating bananas. Or cabbage soup. Or whatever the latest craze is. If you try be 80 per cent on target, rather than 100 per cent, you will get a better result.

"Without an insane level of discipline, it’s almost impossible to stick to a totally rigid plan 100 per cent of the time, so you’re more likely to go off track, and when you do, it’s more likely to be a bigger fall."

Gary has close to 1,000 followers on Instagram now, and as of November last year weighed in at just over 10 stone (65kg). He has been working with clients online to help them achieve the same sort of weight loss.

He said on Instagram: "All you need to be willing to do is make a commitment to bettering yourself through some simple healthy habits, across six weeks working with me.

"All I ask is that you can fully commit to setting some personalised goals, we’ll work on a plan to achieving those, and I’ll hold you accountable to them."