I lost 100lb and won Â£5,000 bet: Man shed third of his body weight in just three months after staking Â£50 Alistair Lee bet he would lose 100lbs by Christmas Alistair, 28, had placed a Â£25 bet a year earlier He went from 23st 2lbs to 15st and waistline go from 52 inches to 38 inches Bookmakers William Hill weighed in punter Alistair Lee with a special present of Â£5,000 yesterday after he staked Â£50 at 100-1 that he could lose 100lbs by Christmas. Alistair, 28, had placed a Â£25 bet a year earlier at 46-1 that heâ€™d spend Christmas thinner, but that failed so he returned with an increased stake of Â£50 12 months later as an incentive to lose a third of his body weight. And remarkably after falling ill at the start of this year, Alistair lost all the weight with an exercise and healthy eating regime in just three months and saw his waistline plunge from 52 inches to 38 inches. Before and after: Alistair Lee (left before) bet he would lose 100lbs by Christmas and managed to (right after) No longer a Christmas pudding, Alistair, who went from 23st 2lbs to 15st - a full stone below his 100lbs target weight to win the bet, said: â€˜It was all about exercise and healthy eating. â€˜Iâ€™d seen a story a couple of years ago in the papers about a man called Peter Heeks who placed a bet to lose 100lbs and won Â£10,000 and thatâ€™s when I tried to do the same. â€˜That year I had Â£25 on and failed in my attempt, but I was getting depressed by my weight so last Christmas tried again with a fresh bet. â€˜The odds this time were 100-1 and I placed Â£50 on to win Â£5,000 - the winnings were an added incentive to reach the target. â€˜I fell ill with pneumonia at the start of the year and was unable to do anything for about six weeks. I ended up in hospital for three to four weeks with a lump in my chest that needed a drain fitting. â€˜It was only at the end of August that I was fit enough to start exercising properly and I started with a Slimming World diet for the first eight weeks. â€˜But my trainers Jun Yung and Kelsey Yung at the FDMA gym in Barrow-in-Furness altered my diet to make sure that I was eating the right level of calories to do the exercise. Slimming World helped me with the support group side of things. â€˜Iâ€™ve been to loads of gyms in the past, but Jun was fantastic and everyone at the gym was very supportive and gave me all the information I needed to reach my target. â€˜I am single and one of the main motivators for me, apart from the bet, was I wanted to meet someone and I wanted to look my best to do it. William Hill paid out the Â£5,000 winnings to Alistair who bet who could lose 100lbs by Christmas Day â€˜About five years ago I lost all the weight, but I put it all back on with lack of exercise and my diet before was genuinely horrendous. â€˜I developed sleep apnea and got depression, but everything is back to normal now. My parents are amazed as they hadnâ€™t seen me for about eight weeks and in that time I dropped about 70lbs. â€˜I have had friends drive past me in the street who didnâ€™t recognise me. When William Hill accepted that second bet they helped change my life.â€™ Alistair, from Crewe, Cheshire, who works for a Manchester-based safety engineering company, was spending one to three hours a day in the gym doing circuit training and walking for 40 minutes daily with a 60lbs pack on his back. He added: â€˜On Sundays I go out for a couple of hours and do an eight to 10 mile walk. I feel pretty good now, apart from occasionally being knackeredfrom training.â€™ Bookmakers William Hill take about one hundred bets a year on weight loss,but Alistair is in the top three all-time payouts from dieting flutters and the only punter ever to win his bet on Christmas Day. William Hillâ€™s spokesman Rupert Adams said: â€œWhen he called to say he had succeeded we were flab-ergasted, this is an amazing achievement and he deserves his winnings. â€˜We obviously, reckoned he was a 100-1 shot having failed in his attempt the year before.