MIKE Freeman is half the man he used to be - quite literally.

The 58-year-old sales rep from Amblecote has stunned family and friends by losing almost half his body size.

Mike has shed an astonishing 149lbs (10.6-stone) over the past 18 months since making the decision to change his life.

Since joining Wollaston Weight Watchers, Mike has never looked back.

He used to tip the scales at well over 24-stone and Mike admitted: "It was just through pure greed. If I went to the fish and chip shop I couldn't just settle for large fish and chips, it had to be with a couple of scallops and a curry sauce as well.

"I'd buy a family pork pie, but I couldn't just eat half of it and leave the rest, I'd eat the lot.

"It got to the point where I couldn't walk up and downstairs without getting out of breath and I was sweating all the time.

"I'd been meaning to do something about it, then I saw an advert on the back of a bus about getting fit in Dudley and that triggered me off."

Jane Hadley, who runs the Wollaston Weight Watches group, admitted she'd never met anyone quite like Mike during her 18 years involvement with weight loss and she said: "He's an inspiration to us all.

"His discipline is astonishing. He must have struggled to walk when he first joined us, but he's lost so much weight; I have to keep looking twice at him now.

"Mike has two beautiful Lassie-type dogs and yet he couldn't even take them for a walk. Now he takes them out for miles at a time, in fact it's unbelievable the energy he has got."

Jane, who also runs Weight Watchers groups in Amblecote, Kingswinford and Ham Dingle, said: "I run the groups simply because I want to make a difference to people's lives.

"However, it's really rare to get men coming along to the groups at a time when obesity is getting really bad. But it's the group support that really works and we need more men to come forward."

Mike's secret is quite simple. He insisted: "It's down to sheer determination. If you eat better and exercise more, the weight will leave you.

"I was out of breath all the time and struggled to walk half a kilometre. Now I walk everyday, sometimes up to eight or nine miles and I feel alive again."

Mike never misses the group's weekly meeting at St James Church and has already surpassed his long-time target of shedding 10 stone - but he doesn't intend to stop there.

He added: "People have now started asking me why I walk so far and I simply reply to them - because I can."