'My year of bodybuilding helped me with self-care'

Robert Schofield says he took up bodybuilding after taking the selfie on the left in June 2024

A man who says he became overweight despite being a personal trainer is "super proud" after being selected to represent Britain at an international bodybuilding contest.

Robert Schofield, from Manchester, says he was eating too many takeaway meals after experiencing stress and depression while setting up his gym and dealing with his son's autism diagnosis.

The 38-year-old had a turning point last year when he realised he had "not done any self-care" and decided to enter a local bodybuilding contest.

"I just knew I wanted to have an end goal. I'd always loved bodybuilding and building muscle weight so I thought 'I'm nearly 40, I'm going to enter this competition for September 2025'.

"I needed a goal and the bodybuilding competition was the goal I needed."

He has spent 17 years working as a personal trainer, including for famous clients, but says he was "doing habits that I teach other people not to do".

"So I was giving people the information, motivating them, changing lives and then for my own self, the only pleasure I got, because I was working myself to the ground, was I am an emotional eater - I always have been since I was a child.

"I knew the food I was eating wasn't right but I would justify it in my head with 'you've had a long day'. And before you look, it was four or five takeaways a week, it was drinking on a Sunday."

Robert Schofield says he "loves" bodybuilding but warns youngsters not to have unrealistic expectations

Having spent about 18 hours a day working on his business and "not being present at home", he says he took stock after taking some selfies in a gym in June 2024 and decided he "needed to take control again".

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He gave up alcohol, which he says is "the best decision I ever made", does 30,000 steps daily and now "enjoys" a strict diet of mainly fresh produce.

"I have to go shopping every day. I eat lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, Greek yoghurt, lots of meat and eggs, dairy.

"I'm cooking all the time. So while I'm personal training, I've got an air fryer on the go, I've got the chopping board out and I will cook in between sessions."

Negative social media

He eats five to six meals a day but says the efforts paid off when he won in two of his categories during a regional bodybuilding contest this month.

Since then, he has been selected for a team of bodybuilders that will represent Britain at the World Fitness Federation European Championships in Poland this November.

He says the contests are "purely aesthetic" with judgements made on presentation and muscle definition but highlights it "takes a lot of work" to get to a prize-winning condition.

Bodybuilding has become popular among many teenagers, partly due to social media, and he says some youngsters have asked him for advice at the gym.

He says he does not think all the social media exposure of bodybuilding is positive, even though he loves the sport.

"It's pushed down the throats on social media, you scroll through and you open these images of perfect people - and real life isn't like that.

"I speak to a lot of young people who want to sign up to me and they've got these absolute crazy goals like they want to be this bodybuilder, they want to be giants.

"You have to explain it takes these people a long time. They've probably been doing it for years."