Who we are

We’ve been helping men lose weight since 2014. Find out more about our history, our mission and where we are now.

Our Story

2014

MAN v FAT was founded by writer Andrew Shanahan, who was struggling with his weight but was frustrated at how local slimming clubs were aimed at women. This made him wonder how many other men out there were struggling with weight loss - and MAN v FAT was born. We started life as a website and digital magazine.

2016

We took MAN v FAT into the real world with the launch of MAN v FAT Football – a football league exclusively for overweight men who want to lose weight. Players are rewarded not just for winning games but for losing weight too, with weekly weight loss progress counting towards team goals. It was a hit, and since then, we’ve launched over 150 MAN v FAT Football clubs across the UK.

2017

We launched our first Scottish MAN v FAT Football club in Glasgow.

2018

2018 was a busy year - we launched our first Welsh club in Cardiff, went international with the launch of MAN v FAT Australia, were a finalist in the Royal Society for Public Health Healthier Lifestyle awards and we won a UK Active Healthy Communities award.

2019

We became a part of award-winning healthy lifestyle provider Thrive Tribe’s family of services and were able to expand our efforts to reach more men than ever before.

2022

We took MAN v FAT to Northern Ireland with the launch of our first club in Belfast, and expanded our mental health and wellbeing support with the introduction of MAN v FAT Foundations in association with Koa Health.

2023

We celebrated fantastic weight loss success with our first in-person MAN v FAT awards, and we partnered with leading sportswear manufacturer Hope + Glory to create some amazing MAN v FAT Football kit. We also hit a grand total of 500,000lbs lost by MAN v FAT Football members – incredible stuff.

Where we are now

Our mission is to support as many men as possible to lose weight and improve their health – without any confusing lingo or restrictive fads. Here’s how we’re doing.

From humble beginnings in Solihull, we’re now supporting thousands of men in over 150 clubs across the UK on a weekly basis.

Our incredible MAN v FAT Football players have lost a combined total of over 600,000lbs – that’s equal to over 50 elephants. Not bad.

Media watch:

WALES online

13 June 2023

Tom Read’s weight loss at MAN v FAT was featured on Wales Online. Check out how he lost a whopping 6st 7lbs!

Our Partners

Start your fight against fat with man v fat football