FIIT Dad Podcast
By Ben
FIIT Dad PodcastMar 06, 2020
#12 - Best exercise for fat loss, juice diets & veganism
#11 - David Cyril on going from 0 to 100,000 Instagram followers, health & Slimming World
David is a social media sensation who rose to prominence in 2018 after his daughter, Beth, began documenting his weight loss journey through Instagram. With a history of performing both on the stage and to a high level in multiple sports - David certainly embraced the camera to put it mildly, and thanks to his quick whit, comedic timing, adorable delivery and ongoing weightloss progress turned the heads of many, almost instantly.
Fast forward to 2020, David is now 87 years young and captures both the attention and the hearts of thousands of engaged followers on a daily basis. Through his regular Instagram lives and daily updates David has become a source of inspiration to a community of over 100,000 followers.
His influence even extended from social media to mainstream media on a global scale – giving David a newly found mission to inspire, motivate and put a smile on the faces of those who tune in to absorb his content.
David was born into a generation where stereotypically men were not very conscious of their health, nutrition and image so it was fascinating to hear first hand how David’s relationship with food and with his own health has developed over the years. After suffering a heart attack some years ago, David became acutely aware that he had to make positive changes to his nutrition, if he were to avoid any further health scares. Around 5 years ago, with the support of his beloved family David joined a local Slimming World group.
Now many personal trainers and professionals from the world of health have certain reservations around the slimming world plan. I’m certainly not anti-slimming world, in fact I’m PRO whatever works for you. Whilst my own, personal opinion is that things can be fundamentally improved within the plan, particularly around educating members on the normality of ‘weight fluctuations’ and nutritional education which done correctly I do believe could help improve the relationship members have with food, their weight and themselves long term. However there’s no denying the power that a supportive community can have on an individual when it comes to adopting new habits and having consistency within their actions and David is a great example of that.
In this podcast we explore David’s story, as well as his relationship with slimming world and his whirlwind adventure with social media.
I found David to be incredibly warm hearted, inspiring and just an all round gentleman. One comment David frequently gets through social media is ‘I wish you were my grandad’ and having sat down with him for the length of time we did to film todays show – I certainly feel the same. If you aren’t already following Davids story via Instagram, then I can highly recommend you do. If nothing else, I can guarantee you a smile a day. You can find David by searching davidyril_sw .