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<\/p>\nA 10-year-old boy, whose fitness journey has attracted millions of followers on social media, says his weight loss has given him the confidence to go to high school next year.<\/p>\n
Jacob, from Wellesbourne in Warwickshire, decided to take matters into his own hands after he was bullied by his classmates and referred to as “fat and tubby”.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t want to go to high school overweight because in high school it’s different; you can get more hurt, and I didn’t want that to happen,” he said.<\/p>\n
With the help of former amateur boxer brothers Harry and Joe Freeman from Boxwave Fitness in Stratford, Jacob has lost 22kg (3.5st) and says his confidence has “definitely gone up”.<\/p>\n
‘Bullying really hurt me’<\/p>\n
More than 50 million people have watched the trio’s training videos, and a fundraising page to buy healthy food and sports gear has raised nearly \u00a312,000.<\/p>\n
“Before I started Boxwave, my confidence was really bad,” Jacob said.<\/p>\n
“They [classmates] were calling me really mean words, and it really hurt me on the inside.<\/p>\n
“Whenever I went to the park with my grandad, there were always other kids there, but I didn’t want to ask them if I could play because I was afraid they were going to be mean to me, so my grandad had to ask for me.”<\/p>\n
Joe Freeman said Jacob’s fitness journey meant he was now able to play football at the park with children he had just met.<\/p>\n
“We’re very proud of him; he’s a star,” he added.<\/p>\n
“We pushed him as far as we can, but Jacob has done amazing, and it’s such a happy story.”<\/p>\n
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The trio’s training videos have attracted tens of millions of views on social media [BBC]<\/p>\n
The brothers added that they had been alarmed by obesity rates and hoped to encourage more young people to start exercising.<\/p>\n
“The sad part is there are thousands of Jacobs out there, and that’s where we want to reach out to these kids and inspire them,” Harry said.<\/p>\n
“If you can get into it at a young age, it just stays with you, and it’s so much easier,” he added.<\/p>\n
Jacob reassured other children who may be scared to go back to school, as they had been bullied.<\/p>\n
“I have been in their position… but my message would be try your very best to ignore them.”<\/p>\n
The primary school pupil added that his next challenge was to train to run a 10km (6.2m) race.<\/p>\n
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