Bob Mewse, 56, weighed about 133 kg after years of feeding his sweet tooth with cakes and biscuits.
He was horrified a year ago when he saw himself on Google Street View — a mapping service that uses a 360-degree camera to record images, Daily Telegraph reported. Mewse lost a third of his body weight after drastic changes to his diet and a strict regime of exercise. He now weighs 89 kg.
The Google Street View photograph showed Mewse, of Bristol, side-on opposite a filling station wearing a tent-like grey shirt. He said: “I was horrified when I saw that photo. I was massive. My belly was sticking out and I looked huge.
“I’d been thinking about losing weight for some time but after seeing that picture, I knew that I actually had to do something about it. I was in such bad condition that I was unable to walk and talk at the same time.
“My blood pressure was sky-high.” Mewse was classed as morbidly obese. After seeing the picture, he joined a gym in Longwell Green, Bristol.
A personal trainer gave him an exercise programme to run in conjunction with a healthy eating plan — which replaced cakes and takeaways with fruit, salads and protein-rich foods — and he lost weight rapidly.
(Published 15 November 2010, 16:28 IST)