Martin Fletcher had lost count of the amount of times he had woken up in the middle of the night, choking and gasping for air, his wife irritated by his booming snores.
The father-of-two, 46, from Liverpool, was struggling with sleep apnoea, an obesity-related condition which causes you to stop breathing due to excess weight pressing down on your throat.
Mr Fletcher, who tipped the scales at a mammoth 24st 7lb (343lbs) at his heaviest, realised he had to make some serious lifestyle changes if he wanted to see his two young daughters grow up.
For years he had tried and failed to stick to an exercise plan, and even though he ate healthily, his job as a record producer brought with it late nights and takeaways, which didn’t help his waistline or sleep patterns.
Thankfully for Mr Fletcher’s family, it was fiftieth time lucky when he embarked on a US-devised fitness plan built around yoga which, over the space of 13 months, totally transformed his mind and body—unlike other high intensity workouts that had left him feeling frustrated and sore with painful condition plantar fasciitis.
He said: ‘I had an unbelievable wake-up call when I did a high intensity workout called Insanity, because when I was jumping at 20 odd stone, I’d land hard and damage my ankles, injuring myself until I developed plantar fasciitis in both feet.’
The new plan was totally different to anything he had tried before. Developed by former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, DDP Yoga combines traditional yoga poses with dynamic movements, strength-based exercises and cardio.
Furthermore it is suitable for all fitness levels and abilities, meaning Mr Fletcher was able to get stuck in without causing further injury.
He started training for around an hour a day, waking up at 5.30am to fit in a session before his kids got up, and miraculously, within a week he lost 15lbs.
Mr Fletcher said: ‘Every time you engage your muscles, your heart rate goes up, so if you engage the muscles at the same time as doing the yoga moves, you end up sweating, without moving from the same spot.
‘By the end of half an hour, you’re absolutely dripping in sweat.’
After sticking to the plan for 13 months, as well as maintaining a strict eating schedule and portion control, Mr Fletcher lost a mammoth 10st (140 lbs), and now weighs 14st 4lbs (200 lbs).
Before he discovered DDP Yoga, when he was struggling with plantar fasciitis, Mr Fletcher was horrified when his GP warned him that his only options to lose weight would be to take GLP-1 weight loss medication or undergo bariatric surgery.
He said: ‘Everyone always assumes I’m on Mounjaro or I’ve had surgery, and doctors had told me that they were the only options I had left, but I’m not touching that rubbish.
‘I didn’t fancy sticking a needle in me every week, and knew I could do it the natural way.
‘I had high blood pressure too and was starting to get a curvature of the spine.
‘I knew this time I had to do something drastic, and be extremely disciplined.
‘It was just getting unbearable to be in my body, it wasn’t really a life, it was an existence.’
Mr Fletcher had always struggled with his weight and body image.
‘As a teenager, I thought I was massive, but it was probably just body dysmorphia,’ he said.
‘But from my 30s onwards, I really struggled with obesity. Over the years, I’d regularly lose 50 to 60lbs in three months, but then something would get in the way and I would lose momentum.
‘We’d go to the park, and the kids would get an ice cream and not finish it, and I wouldn’t want to waste it, or I’d be out with them every day during half term, and suddenly, I hadn’t worked out for a week.’
However, it was developing—potentially fatal—sleep apnoea which truly frightened him.
Whilst most symptoms occur at night—including loud snoring and disrupted breathing—it can lead to more serious problems such as high blood pressure, increased stroke risk, heart disease, depression and a higher chance of having a serious accident caused by tiredness.
‘I was just always exhausted, because what happens is you don’t breathe properly, so you don’t get full, deep sleep.
‘Your body is crying out for oxygen, and you kind of choke yourself awake, it’s horrible. I had no energy to stay awake or do any exercise—it stopped my ability to do anything.
‘It was keeping my wife awake as well, and I was so exhausted I couldn’t play basic games with the kids, like tag, I couldn’t run five yards.’
Things couldn’t be more different now, with Mr Fletcher loving life—and feeling lighter.
He said: ‘I feel absolutely amazing, I’ve got my confidence back, my sleep apnoea had got dramatically better, and my blood pressure is back to normal.
‘I’m actually becoming a DDP instructor now, because so many people have asked me to help them after seeing my weight loss. It’s so good, I would recommend it to anyone.’
Mr Fletcher’s story comes as shocking research recently suggested that severe snorers, triggered by conditions like sleep apnoea may be at higher risk of lung cancer.
US researchers, who assessed the health records of more than 2.4million adults, said they cannot be sure exactly why the common sleep disorder raises this risk.
But they believe it may be due to the lack of oxygen people get during the night – or lifestyle factors including smoking and even obesity.
Experts have long advised that waking up during the night does not necessarily mean you have insomnia, which figures suggest affects up to 14million Brits.
Still, sleep deprivation takes its own toll, from irritability and reduced focus in the short term, to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
