Lisa Parratt was left devastated when she was told in a Facebook group chat that she was 'way too heavy' and 'just too big' to join a boot camp. Photo / Supplied
Lisa Parratt was left devastated when she was told in a Facebook group chat that she was 'way too heavy' and 'just too big' to join a boot camp. Photo / Supplied
A personal trainer has been slammed for telling a woman she was "way too heavy" and "just too big" to join his bootcamp sessions.
The 159kg woman from England was fat-shamed by the personal trainer in a group Facebook chat.
Lisa Parratt, 33, says she was devastated by the incident.
The woman suffers from anxiety and has a mental health support dog to help her.
Parratt, from Leicestershire, has lost 12kg since January and contacted personal trainer Gary Randall to ask about joining his bootcamp in the local park.
She added a friend of hers to the chat who also wanted to join the sessions.
Randall, who brands himself "Buffmaster", was friendly at first but then told the group he'd seen the woman at the gym and she needed to lose 31kg before he could help her.
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She asked why he couldn't help her lose the weight and he told her "you gone too far sorry".
"I was at my parents' house at the time and I went dead silent. My mum said 'what's wrong?' and then I just passed out crying. I have poor self-image anyway so it was really tough. I actually felt quite ashamed," she told The Sun.
She said she initially wanted to join the bootcamp to combine with her gym sessions and help her lose more weight.
"I wanted to build my confidence back up and to be the best version of myself that I can be. In order for me to get the best out of life and live a good life I need to lose weight for health reasons," she said.
Parratt decided to post the personal trainer's comments on Facebook in the hopes he'd realise how damaging they were.
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"I don't hide from my weight but I do expect a professional personal delivering a professional service to give a better response than that. Why didn't he come over and have a quiet word with me when he saw me?" she said.
"I was worried that if he said something like that to the wrong person they might not be here now. I wanted to raise awareness so I posted it on Sunday night a few hours after his message."
The personal trainer was slammed on social media but refuses to back down.
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He posted on his personal and business Facebook page the following morning: "Always best to be honest in my business sometimes brutally #teambuffmaster".
He told The Sun the incident had been "blown out of proportion".
"She is a very silly woman. She is the one making herself look a fool," he added.
Parratt says she has received more than 500 private messages of support from the public.
"I don't know most of these people. It has been really overwhelming, I just want to say thank you to everyone," she said. "It has made me realise there is a lot more good in this world than I thought.
"When it first happened I just wanted to give up, but now I am determined to prove him wrong."
