GRAHAM King is less than half the man he used to be - and he couldn't be happier.

The 39-year-old Basingstoke man has shed an incredible 20 stone - going from an enormous 34 stone 7lb and a 66-inch waist to just 14 stone 7lb.

And now that he has achieved his amazing weight loss, Mr King has set his sights on a new goal - to find love.

"I see old pictures now and I just don't recognise myself," said Mr King. "I've got lots more confidence too. And most of all, I'd like to find love. At the age of 39, I've got a lot of catching up to do."

He added: "I didn't have any friends or social life. I was afraid to go out - I knew what people would think of me.

"I could talk to girls, but it was bad enough for any friends that I had in the past. I felt embarrassed for them to be seen with me, so it would have been much worse for a girlfriend.

"I felt unattractive too. People at work used to tell me I had a good personality, but it didn't seem enough."

Mr King, who works as a debt collector for Yellow Pages, said his weight problem began as a small child when he was served up huge quantities of food.

"I had been chubby all my life," he said. "My mum used to pile my plate high with home-cooked dinners - big steak and kidney pies with a two or three-inch crust and I wasn't allowed away from the table until I'd cleared my plate.

"I also ate loads of crisps and chocolates and sweets at home too - I was never told that I couldn't have them. I was so huge that I could never go into a shop and buy my school uniform like all the other children. I had to wear a man's shirt and trousers and there was no school blazer big enough to fit me."

Mr King added: "I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I wasn't bullied at school. I had a group of friends, but then at 16, when I left school, I lost touch with them.

"By then, I weighed 22 stone and had a 46-inch waist. Over the next 10 years, I put on another six stone. I was eating far too much but I wouldn't eat in public as I knew people would stare at me and think that I shouldn't be eating.

"I would skip breakfast and lunch and then as soon as I got home I would cook half a bag of family-sized pasta and pour a tin of curry sauce over it.

"Then all through the evening I would munch my way through chocolates, sweets, two litres of cola and crisps - I could eat up to six bags of crisps in one night."

Mr King's dramatic weight loss has come about by him going on the well-known Atkins Diet. He said he first became interested in the diet plan after hearing about a colleague who had lost eight stone on it.

But his mind was well and truly made up to do something about his weight after a doctor told him his condition had become life threatening.

"I was at risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack. I had diabetes and my blood pressure was sky high, so I was on medication to bring it down but that wasn't really working.

"I couldn't even walk 50 yards without collapsing for breath. I weighed 34 stone 7lb and was absolutely enormous. I'd been to the hospital for a check-up and they couldn't weigh me on normal scales as they didn't have any that reached that weight. I had to be put in a sling for them to weigh me - it was so humiliating."

When he embarked on the Atkins Diet, Mr King said he ate eggs and three rashers of bacon for breakfast, chicken breast with cheese and peppers for lunch and steak and broccoli for dinner. After just two weeks, he was amazed to find that he had lost 16lb.

"I couldn't believe it," said Mr King. "I would lose sometimes as much as 9lb in a week, sometimes only just a few. But it came off steadily. I also went to the gym every day."

The only drawback to the dramatic weight loss was a pile of loose saggy skin around his stomach. This excess skin - weighing a stone - was removed in a six-hour operation at Basingstoke hospital in May.

Now, happy with his new look, Mr King said: "I've lost an amazing 20 stone and I feel like a new man.

"I'd like to learn to drive a car now. I've never been able to drive, as I've been too fat to get behind the wheel.

"I can run for a bus now without panting and, because I'm working out at the gym, I'm getting a six pack for the first time in my life.

"I had two choices. I either killed myself or did something about it. And luckily I chose to do something."