The 32-year-old leisure club manager flexed his pecs at the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation Central Champ-ionships in St Albans on Sunday.
His toned physique saw him qualify for the British finals in Glasgow on Sunday, October 4.
Phil, who works at Holiday Inn in Marlborough Road, Coate, showed off his muscles during a 90-second pose routine in front of 500 spectators.
He then performed another a five minute “pose-off” against the other competitors.
Phil said: “It was exhausting because you’re on such a low calorie diet and you are under hot lights holding strenuous poses for up to 30 seconds. You get wiped out at the end of it.
“It was amazing walking in from a life where I am the only one who looks like this to a room full of people just like me or bigger. It is daunting, though, when they’re checking out your muscles while you’re changing.”
Phil undertook a punishing fitness regime in order to get ready for the competition.
The father-of-three lost three stone in six months, slashing his 4,500 calorie-a-day diet to just 2,000.
Phil, who has been weight training for more than 15 years, has a 4.5 per cent body fat ratio compared with the average man’s 15 per cent.
“It’s not healthy to maintain such a low body fat ratio for long periods of time, so when I have a break I will eat things my diet doesn’t normally allow me to,” said Phil.
“This week it’s been pizza and burgers, ice cream and chocolate because I know at the end of the week it’s back to porridge oats and chicken.”
Phil, who lives in Winsley, near Bradford on Avon, gets up between 4.30am and 5am for an hour-long run before having a breakfast of porridge.
He then goes to the gym for his weightlifting routine before having another meal of porridge and chicken and starting work. He eats every two hours for the rest of the day.
He said: “Bodybuilding is the most dedicated sport because it’s a 24-hour sport where you have to eat, sleep and train bodybuilding.
“For the competition I had to keep training flat out while cutting right back on what I ate for months to strip the fat off my body. A lot of the time it just left me exhausted.
“It got to the point where I was going to bed before my children. I was just zapped. But it was all worth it to be told I’m in the final.”
