BBM Motivation founder Dave Letele reveals how he lost 36kg after regaining half his weight

Detailed summary

Boxer and BBM charity founder Dave Letele is reminding people that it’s never too late to get back on track after losing 36kg this year. The 47-year-old fitness advocate says his…

Boxer and BBM charity founder Dave Letele is reminding people that it’s never too late to get back on track after losing 36kg this year.

The 47-year-old fitness advocate says his recent transformation came after some “particularly stressful years” where he resorted to comfort eating and regained “around half the weight he’d previously lost”.

He started training for a boxing fight in February, but the weigh-in before the Taranaki bout became the real wake-up call.

“I was trying to get out of the weigh-in because, although I hadn’t weighed myself, I knew where I was, and it was really embarrassing,” he told the Herald.

Since 2014, Letele, also known by his professional boxing nickname Brown Buttabean, has been open about his health and fitness journey.

His charity, BBM (Buttabean Motivation), helps combat high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease among Māori and Pacific communities in New Zealand.

“Depression never really goes. It’s just always just simmering there,” he says.

“But now I’ve got my eating back in order and feeling a lot better, and I’m able to handle life’s challenges better because I’m in a better state of mind and I’m feeling better about myself.”

Comfort eating and obsessive training at the same time “added to the stress”, he says, and there was no “magic pill or potion” to help him lose weight.

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