Film director Kevin Smith, who is best known for his films Clerks and Chasing Amy, is "ecstatic" after losing over three-and-a half-stone in weight.

The 48-year-old suffered a heart attack last year. Afterwards the doctor urged him to lose weight.

Celebrating his achievement, the director of Dogma took to Instagram to show off his new look. So far it has received over 164,000 likes.

"This @weightwatchers Ambassador is thrilled to announce that I'VE lost 51 Pounds!," he wrote. 51lbs is approximately 3.65 stone.

It's a brilliant achievement considering that only six months Kevin Smith weighted 256 pounds, which is just under 18.3 stone. Kevin now weights 205 pounds, which is approximately. 14.6 stone.

This @weightwatchers Ambassador is thrilled to announce that I’VE LOST 51 POUNDS! Six months ago from right now, I was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack I’d had the night before. When I went to my Doctor a week later, she told me “The best thing you can do for yourself now is to lose 50 pounds.” Half a year later, I can report that I followed Doctor’s orders: I started at 256 and now I weigh 205. This is the lightest I’ve been since high school! My hope now is I can slowly lose another 10 with #weightwatchers and get down to my birth weight of 195! But for now, I’m ecstatic to have reached this chunky milestone! I wanna thank #pennjillette for his book #presto, @raycronise for getting me started with his potato famine, and the good folks at #weightwatchers for their app-based program that made it easy to keep track of and control my eating! And I also wanna thank my kid @harleyquinnsmith - the little vegan astronaut who explored this meatless/milkless galaxy ahead of me, leading by example. Since I never wanted to see the inside of a hospital ever again, I simply copied the Kid. So this wasn’t a diet: these results came from a total lifestyle change of eating solely plant-based foods (which is tough because I hate vegetables). But mostly, I wanna thank all of you as well - for the kind and encouraging words along the way. Never underestimate the power of positive feedback: you folks telling me I looked better or healthier helped me stick with it. An encouraging word can really make a difference in someone’s life and your compliments kept me going! And just look where I went! #KevinSmith #WWambassador #WWFreestyle #WWFamily #WWBros #weightlosstransformation #weightloss #WWCommunity #ad *People following the Weight Watchers program can expect to lose 1-2lbs per week.

A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Aug 26, 2018 at 12:56pm PDT

Explaining why he decided to lose the weight, he wrote: "Six months ago from right now I was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack I'd had the night before. When I went to my Doctor a week later, she told me, 'The best thing you can do for yourself now is to lose 50 pounds'.

"Half a year later, I can report that I followed Doctor's orders: I started at 256 and now I weigh 205. This is the lightest I've been since high school! My hope now is I can slowly lose another 10 with #weightwatchers and get down to my birth weight of 195! But for now, I'm ecstatic to have reached this chunky milestone!"

He also said: "But mostly, I wanna thank all of you as well - for the kind and encouraging words along the way. Never underestimate the power of positive feedback: you folks telling me I looked better or healthier helped me stick with it."

A benefit to dropping lbs. is now I get to play with the past and make lotsa before & after pics! The left photo is from the #zackandmirimakeaporno premiere in 2008 when I weighed my most at 330 pounds. The photo on the right is from today, when I weigh 205. The guy on the left has no idea one day he’ll become a @weightwatchers ambassador or look like the guy on the right. The guy on the right is only interested in staying alive longer and never going back to an operating room. #weightwatchers #WWambassador #weightlosstransformation #weightlossjourney #WWFreestyle #WWFamily #WWBros #WWCommunity #ad *People following the Weight Watchers program can expect to lose 1-2lbs per week.

A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Aug 27, 2018 at 2:54pm PDT