'I was that big, I could steer the bus with my belly': Driver John ditches the pizza to lose nine stone
It wasn't vanity that drove 22-stone John Cox to swap slap-up meals for salads - it was his snoring.
Doctors diagnosed obstructive sleep apnoea when the burly bus driver sought help for the problem, and promptly told him to lose weight.
But the 34-year-old bus driver found it difficult to give up his favourite meat-feast pizzas and laboured on for another six years.
"I was that big, I could steer the bus with my belly," he said.
Until last February, that is, when he made the decision to go on a diet. Exactly 12 months on, John has lost nine stone by following a strict calorie-counting regime and joining a gym.
The divorced dad-of-two, who drives buses for Arriva across Wolverhampton, Cannock, Rugeley and Walsall, said: "It's been life-changing. Not only have I lost all this weight but I've stopped snoring."
John was simply embarrassed and exhausted by his loud snoring, having absolutely no knowledge of just how dangerous his condition was.
"I had tests at the County Hospital in Stafford, and the doctors told me I'd stopped breathing up to 93 times in an hour. I had no idea.
"The weight was a key aspect of it - all that fat around my neck was blocking up my airways. I'd wake up to go to work and feel like I'd had no sleep at all.
"It was the job that initially made me go for help. Obviously driving a public sector vehicle meant safety was at the forefront of my mind.
"Since 2010 I've been wearing an oxygen mask at work to keep me alert but to get it properly under control I realised I needed to lose weight. "
John also went through the break-up of a relationship which was another spur to changing his lifestyle.
"I needed to sort myself out," he said.
He embarked on the Cambridge diet, a highly structured eating programme that involves surviving solely on shakes, soups and nutrition bars that provide between 450 and 1,500 calories a day before substituting some of the products for low-calorie meals.
Dieters tend to shed weight quickly - up to a stone a month - particularly during the first step of the programme.
John lost weight steadily but it wasn't until he had shrunk to 15 stone that he introduced exercise into his regime.
He says: "I wouldn't go to the gym the way I looked. Being borderline morbidly obese, I was too conscious of my body. I started going when I felt more comfortable about my body. I had stretch marks but I could live with those. Now I'm at the gym three times a week."
John grew large on a daily intake of takeaways, his favourite being Domino's 12-inch meat feast pizza. He hasn't touched one since but owns up to having had a burger and chips for lunch that day.
"I don't have them every day but I have completely changed the way I used to eat. I'd get up and have no breakfast then feed up on bacon and cheese sandwiches, pizzas, always takeaways.
"I'd have high-calorie energy drinks to keep me awake but then my system would crash an hour later. I just didn't look after myself. Now I only drink water and coffee."
John, who lives in Shareshill, near Featherstone, came in for some teasing at work over his weight but took it in good part. "I like that banter, I can take it."
Now he is a slim 13 stone and still losing weight, the jokes are no longer on him. But the real bonus of shedding so much weight has been that he can play with his children, six-year-old Oliver, and Mia, aged four.
"I can be a proper dad now, and they're really happy with the new me," he said.
