Tom Watson today revealed that he has reversed his Type 2 diabetes and lost seven stone after going on the Keto diet – which involves putting butter in his coffee.
The Labour deputy leader, 51, said he went on the drastic weight loss regime after his weight soared to 22-stone.
He said he feared that he would die young and leave his two young children without a father unless he made a radical change to his lifestyle.
So he ditched the beer and curries he had survived on while working in Westminster and adopted the radical Keto diet, while also taking up exercise.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme this morning: ‘I have battled with my weight since my early 20s and I put the pounds on.
‘A few years ago I kept putting the pounds on and I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
‘Like a lot of middle-aged men, I immediately went into denial….I pretended I didn’t have it.
‘Then I hit 22 stone, and I have got young children, and I kept reading biographies of Labour politicians who had died in their 50s and I knew I had to sort it out.’
Tom Watson, 51, (pictured, left, in September 2016 before the diet and right (pictured today, at ITV’s Good Morning Britain studios) lost seven stone under the radical diet – seeing his weight plummet
Mr Watson overhauled his lifestyle after being given the shock Type 2 diabetes diagnosis in the summer of 2017.
He ditched all junk food, processed food, starchy carbohydrates and refined sugar from his diet.
And instead he adopted the ‘Ketogenic’ style diet also involves cutting down on carbs and taking more exercise.
One part of Mr Watson’s regime is ‘bulletproof coffee’, made using butter. The saturated fats are said to prevent you getting hungry during the day.
Mr Watson even credits the diet with helping to boost his IQ.
The Labour MP warned that one million Britons are living with Type 2 diabetes without even knowing it.
And he said that the toll the illness takes on peoples health – and the NHS – is staggering.
He said: ‘We are amputating 120 feet and toes in the NHS every week.’
But he said the illness is preventable – an curable, and he is an example of this.
Mr Watson will detail the dramatic turnaround in his health in a speech today to the annual conference of ukactive, a physical activity group.
And he will use the address to commit a Labour government to reversing within five years the sharp rise in diagnosed diabetes cases that means that more than 3.5m Britons have the disease.
He is working with a new independent group of experts looking into what measures would be needed to do that.
It comes as it is revealed that only two of 53 European nations are fatter than Britain, a report reveals today.
Our obesity rate of 28 per cent is beaten only by Turkey, with 32 per cent, and Malta at 29 per cent. The European average is 23 per cent
The UN study found that two in three of us are overweight and one in four is obese.
It blamed the crisis on lack of exercise, poor diet and heavy drinking. Campaigners said the figures were frightening and warned that deaths from diabetes and heart disease could spiral without urgent action.
Our obesity rate of 28 per cent is beaten only by Turkey, with 32 per cent, and Malta at 29 per cent. The European average is 23 per cent.
Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) score of more than 30. A tally higher than 25 is seen as overweight.