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Hibs’ stars Ben Williams and Tom Taiwo were guests of the Club’s Community Foundation last night at the celebration event to congratulate the men and women who successfully completed the latest Football Fans in Training and Healthy Hibee courses at Easter Road Stadium.

The event was held within the Edinburgh Suite in the West Stand and compared by Operations Manager Stewart McGuire.

Deputy Director of Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow Sally Wyke provided an informative presentation regarding the success of the initiative which is ongoing at all 12 SPFL clubs and revealed that the Hibs’ fans’ weight loss was higher than the average throughout the country.

During the latest courses which finished last month, a total of sixteen men and eight women survived the Christmas break in action to finish a total of 12 weeks of health, nutrition and fitness education, resulting in a total weight loss of 82 kg for the men and 18 kg for the women. The men reduced their waist measurement by a total of 1.64 metres and the women reduced their waist measurement almost two-thirds of a metre!

Importantly, both groups were able to monitor their blood pressure and heart rate over the term of the course and were provided additional information about smoking cessation, bowel cancer and heart disease.

Everyone was then presented with a Training Top and  photographed with Ben and Tom before the pair took part in a question and answer session and the fans were keen to learn about the clubs training regime and players diets.

Tom Taiwo said: “Today we spent about 30 minutes in the gym then took part in a 90 minute highly intense training session before going back into the gym for another 30 minutes. As you all know, even half an hour working to your limits is enough to achieve what you need to achieve. Tomorrow is a recovery day and it’s vital to train hard then let your body recover.

“At away matches when we have a long bus ride home, some of the boys will prepare a healthy meal such as pastas and chicken in a Tupperware box to eat after the game to replace the fuel instead of binging on something quick like pizza.

Goalkeeper Ben Williams added: “My training is different and more specialised. Mine is short and sharp and I can probably burn as much energy in 10 minutes doing what I do than the lads do in half an hour or even 45 minutes. We try and maintain a solid diet throughout. I don’t calorie count, for me, everything in moderation, as long as I work hard in training and work it off, I’m happy with that.  Subtle changes in diet have worked for me such as full fat milk replaced by semi-skimmed, no butter on toast etc. Little things make a difference in the long term. On a Friday the meals that we get supplied at the Training Centre will be a lot more carbs based such as pastas.

“To be honest, the manager does push us hard in training but not much harder that Pat did which may be a surprise to a few people. Terry and Maurice have both been honest and said that when they came to the club they weren’t expecting us to be as fit as we were or work as hard in training as we do. We have an honest bunch of lads and every day everyone wants to work hard for each other.

“In terms of facilities at East Mains, the sky is the limit. You can create your own facilities and take yourself down the park but the facilities are there to help you improve as a player and that’s half the battle. We have a great gym and access to sports scientists and great physios and the whole set up is fantastic.

Healthy Hibee is funded by Pfizer Foundation UK and promotes health improvement for men and women of all ages through nutrition, physical activity and basic health screening. FFiT is funded by the SPFL Trust and supports overweight men between the ages of 35 and 65 to lose weight and reduce their waist measurement.  People who complete the course can become part of Hibernian’s Fit for Change group which meets weekly to help them continue toward achieving personal goals.

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.