Robin's Story

Anyone who saw tonight’s This Time Next Year on ITV will remember Robin Dixon! He lost an astounding ten stone with his Bodychef diet plan and left Davina speechless!*

We’ve been with him from the start and, now that he’s determined to lose another five stone, we’ll be with him for a little longer. After the camera crew packed up, we thought we’d catch up with Robin to reflect on the incredible year he’s had and on where he wants to go…

But we started with the show itself. With all eyes on his waistline for a year, Robin says it’s been a strange experience but one that he’s enjoyed. It’s been a long and life-changing journey and, though he admits to being a little nervous about how he’ll be received, he says he’s ready to be a star, joking: ‘I’ve had to increase security even – don’t even ask!’

Robin now feels ten times better than he did a year ago. ‘The transformation’s big’ he says. But going further, he admits, ‘if I’d have never found the help that I’ve had… I dread to think about where I would be now.’

One doctor told Robin at that point that he’d not live past forty. He’s frank about it now, saying he’d hit rock bottom and was in a dark place, even that he felt his life had ended. ‘You just give up on yourself in the end,’ he tells us. ‘You think why should I like myself when nobody else could? It’s horrible. It’s a situation I never want to be in ever ever again.’

This was the moment Robin’s mum heard about This Time Next Year and was the first to tell him: ‘This is the break you need.’ Determined to make a change, he took the opportunity with both hands. ‘I was fed up of seeing everyone else’s success, I was fed up of seeing everyone else able to do it but I couldn’t.’ He was accepted on the show but, by his own admission, that still left him with a mammoth task: ‘To lose ten stone in a year, in anyone’s eyes,’ he says. ‘That is a mean feat.’

Robin started out on a milkshake diet but struggled. ‘I was craving food so badly, I was falling off the wagon and I was beginning to cheat and stuff.’ It wasn’t working, he was worried and, without getting results, he thought he’d never reach his target.

‘Then the show contacted me and offered a trial with Bodychef,’ Robin explains. He found the idea of fresh, calorie-counted food hampers appealing – ‘it’s like a bespoke diet’, he now says – but he worried about the food… ‘Because,’ as he explains, ‘even though I am a big person, I’m fussy with what I eat.’

And Robin’s not the only one. 10 stone may be more than most of us are looking to lose, but eating healthy food you like is a problem for anyone. But not when you have a personal chef!

As Robin puts it now, ‘with Bodychef, I just chose what I wanted! You’ve got it all there. All you’ve got to do is unpack it, heat it and eat it!’

And his results? Robin’s weight began to fall as soon as he started using Bodychef and he hasn’t looked back since. ‘I needed the goal at the end of it,’ he says, ‘that pledge’, but once he reached his target, Robin only wanted to lose more! ‘It’s not the end. The show was my starting block for where I want to be. And without Bodychef’s help, I probably wouldn’t have had a brilliant outlook on the rest of my life…. Bodychef gave me the trump card to get my life back.’ Aiming to lose another five stone, Robin can’t get enough.

So is he a fan? ‘I sing your praises something chronic!’

Robin says his eating habits have now fundamentally changed. He says his outlook on food is different and that we’ve taught him portion control. ‘And it is amazing how now I eat and think, Christ I’m full up! And there’s a fine line between being full up and bloated.’

And is he any less fussy? No! ‘I still have what my body’s got used to’, he says, ‘but now I get the healthier version of it.’

Find out more about Robin’s story!

*Results may vary by individual