A St Johnstone supporter lost more than two stone after joining his sporting heroes for training.
Tom Rhodes signed up for the Football fans in Training (FFIT) scheme, run by Glasgow University, after struggling to lose weight for two years.
At his heaviest, Mr Rhodes weighed 19 and a half stone. He lost about two and a half in the two years before he signed up for the scheme, then shed another 32lb on the 12-week programme, finishing up 14 and a half stone.
The 49-year-old IT professional, who works from home, said his sedentary lifestyle was the main cause of his weight gain.
“It wasn’t unusual in the winter, when the weather was rubbish, for me not to go out the front door all day,” he said.
“If we got a bit of snow, it could be two or three days. The whole course was a good combination of getting you out and doing some exercise, like playing football, and starting to eat properly.
“For me, that was cutting out all the rubbish between meals working from home, the fridge is 10 yards away and if I was feeling peckish I would go and get something.
“It was a habit more than anything else.”
Mr Rhodes trained once a week at McDiarmid Park, where members of the scheme were occasionally joined by some of the squad.
He said: “We had one or two turn up for a couple of sessions and have a kick-about with us, but they are at a level of fitness way beyond anything we could do.”
He added: “I now feel absolutely fantastic it’s almost like a new life. At the end of the course, I was like another person, and not just physically I was a lot more alert mentally.”
The FFIT initiative was developed with Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs to help male football fans feel better and live a healthier lifestyle by losing weight, taking more exercise and improving their diet.
Over the last 12 months St Johnstone fans have the largest average weight loss, at 16st 5lb.