Dad who feared not seeing his kids grow up after spending summer bedbound loses 46kg and can now outrun his daughters

A dad of two who became “terrified” he might not see his daughters grow up after spending a summer bedbound listening to them having water fights outside has lost a whopping 46kg, going from a size XXXXL to a XL, and said he is a “different human being” and does not “recognise” his reflection in the mirror.

James Scroggie, 40, a head of e-commerce and app marketing, who lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire, with his wife Sarah, 35, and their two children, Eloise, seven, and Robyn, four, reached his heaviest weight, 139kg, in lockdown, and thinks it started to pile on after he got married as he was not trying to “look good for somebody else any more”.

Before deciding to lose weight, James would eat up to 6,000 calories a day, and often found himself relying on convenience food and eating takeaways two or three times a week.

But, in 2022, he was diagnosed with diabetes and leukocytoclastic vasculitis – small blood vessel inflammation – and was bedbound for six weeks. Hearing his children playing outside and not being able to join in was enough for James to realise that he had to start prioritising his health.

After speaking to his GP, he was soon prescribed semaglutide – a weight loss medicine that works by making you feel fuller and less hungry – and was able to lose around 15kg.

To help boost his weight loss even more, in May 2023, he joined his local Ultimate Performance gym and has focused more on healthy eating and exercising – he has since gone on to lose a total of 46kg, and now weighs 93kg and can run faster than both of his daughters.

James told PA Real Life: “I’m a different human being now – both physically and mentally.

“I don’t recognise myself when I look in a mirror.

“I can play with the girls and pick them up without getting out of breath.

“Earlier, my youngest said ‘Daddy is so strong’ when I picked her up above my head – she never would have said that before and it’s so easy to take that sort of thing for granted.”

James slowly began putting weight on after he got married in 2015.

“I guess I settled down and got comfortable and stopped caring what I looked like, to be honest with you, because I wasn’t really trying to look good for somebody else any more,” he said.

“I already secured a wife and I just let myself go – I put on half a stone every year for eight or so years.”

At the time, James often relied on convenience food and barely exercised.

He explained: “I’d have a takeaway two or three times a week, and when I was in the office I’d eat sandwiches and a lot of pasties… I’d eat a lot of red meat, I’d have a steak two or three times a week.

“My portion control was horrendous… a chocolate bar and a couple of bags of crisps wouldn’t be out of the ordinary in the daytime.

“And I’d go through two litres of fizzy full-fat drinks a day and never really drank water.

“I was probably having 5,000 or 6,000 calories a day – I could have a ready meal for dinner, and be hungry an hour later, then have another one.”

But, in June 2022, a rash appeared on his thigh, and he was eventually diagnosed with leukocytoclastic vasculitis.

He said: “From there, I spent 23 hours a day in bed for six weeks… it apparently affects about 30 out of a million people a year so it’s very, very rare.

“By September, I was still in a lot of pain and ended up taking a variety of pain medication and was on very high doses of gabapentin – an epilepsy drug used to treat nerve damage.

“It turned out that the solution for the vasculitis was steroids but it caused my blood sugar to spike significantly and I became type two diabetic.”

When James was diagnosed with diabetes, in October 2022, his GP urged him to lose weight.

He said: “I know I had to lose weight – the tipping point was, when I spent that time in bed over the summer, I could hear the girls playing in the garden having water fights and not being able to spend time with them was really hard.

“I thought ‘I’m not going to see my girls growing up’, and I was terrified.”

James was soon prescribed semaglutide and said: “I physically couldn’t eat anywhere near as much and I stopped drinking full-fat fizzy drinks.

“One of the things that I noticed while taking it was that my taste changed slightly – I didn’t enjoy food as much as I used to.”

After taking the medication from October 2022 to January 2023, James lost 15kg, and as he came off the drug due to supply issues, he decided he wanted to add exercise to his routine.

So, in May 2023, he joined his local Ultimate Performance – a gym where all sessions take place with a personal trainer.

He said: “When I first started training I found it exceptionally hard because it was almost rehab – I went into the gym very, very unhealthy and very weak.

“I have two sessions a week – they’re whole body workout sessions with a mix of high intensity interval training at the end of the sessions.

“It’s a case of hitting whole body parts a couple of times a week for me with things like dead-lifts, dumbbells, lat pull-downs and hip extensions.

“It’s not always high reps, it’s not always high weight – it’s a real focus on form.”

James has also made sure to hit his target of walking 10,000 steps per day and eat a diet consisting of “clean food” such as chicken, plain rice and a lot of vegetables – and since embarking on his weight loss journey he has managed to lose a whopping 46kg.