I’m proof you don’t have to shy away from carbs to slim down: Gregg Wallace attributes a dramatic fifth weight loss to ‘giving up snacks, takeaways and cooking and exercising more’

People don’t need to cut out bread, pasta and potatoes from their diet to lose weight, Masterchef presenter Greg Wallace said as he revealed the secrets behind his five stone weight loss.

The former greengrocer, 59, shook up his diet after gaining almost 17 stone, with a dangerously obese BMI, and doctors warned him he was at risk of having a heart attack.

After trying ‘every diet under the sun’ and none of them working, he said the secret to his weight-loss success was cutting out takeaways, chocolate and chips and ‘eating good meals’, rather than cutting out carbohydrates from his diet.

Gregg said the Mediterranean diet, which is full of whole grain carbohydrates, is “the best you can have” and pointed to France, Italy and Spain, which consume a lot of bread, potatoes and pasta but are “all slim”.

The fitness fanatic also said that going to the gym is not essential for losing weight and urged people to instead add exercise to their day through walking, swimming or even table tennis to maintain their weight loss.

Discussing his new podcast, A Piece of Cake, on BBC Radio 2’s Michael Ball Show yesterday, he said: ‘There’s so much conflicting information out there that it’s hard to know what to do.’

In one episode, Dr. Giles Yeo, a world-renowned geneticist from the University of Cambridge and author of Why Calories Don’t Count, says exercising to lose weight is the “dumbest thing you can do”, according to Gregg.

Gregg used the example of a 250 calorie chocolate bar.

He said: ‘As he rightly pointed out, you would have to be on a treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes to get rid of the chocolate bar. That’s without the takeaway pizza, half a bottle of rosé and some chocolate chip cookies on the couch.’

Gregg launched his own weight-loss company four years ago, Gregg Wallace Health (GWH), which shares advice and recipes to help people lose weight.

Some users of the plan, which does not ban food but discourages unhealthy snacking, say they have lost 12 stone.

The promising program has recently teamed up with Loughborough University, where researchers are testing how well it works and hope it will gain support from the NHS.

Discussing his own weight loss, Gregg said he became motivated to shift the balance after becoming “increasingly unhappy” with his appearance and concerned about his health.

He said: ‘I got really big. And there is a photo of me and my dear friend John Torode in India. He looks great and I’m tall – my shirt is hanging over my pants, I wasn’t happy.

“At the same time, my doctor was doing a blood test and he said, ‘We’ve got to do something, Mr. Wallace. This blood test is making your cholesterol skyrocket. You’re about to have a major illness here.’

“Those two things combined – not being happy with the way I looked and when the doctor told me I was going to have a massive heart attack – made me take a really hard look at how I was living.”

Gregg said he then tried “every diet under the sun and none worked.” “You just beat yourself up emotionally, you think you’re weak-willed,” he said.

He has previously detailed that he tried to eat less, cut out lunch, cut out carbs and Weight Watchers, but was “always hungry and frustrated.”

What finally worked was “cutting the snacks, cutting out the takeaways and cooking more,” Gregg said.

He said the Mediterranean diet – which includes lots of whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and oats – is “the best you can have” and pushed back on the idea that people should cut carbohydrates from their diet.

Carbohydrates – such as rice, grains and oats – are packed with fiber, calcium and iron. They are the main source of nutrients and energy in human diets.

Health experts have long disputed the claims of some diets that cutting carbohydrates is the key to weight loss. In fact, gram for gram, carbohydrates contain less than half the calories of fat.

Gregg said, “We all think we shouldn’t have carbs. You’re thinking about this Mediterranean diet.

“The French, the amount of bread they consume is all small.

‘The Spanish, their patatas bravas and paellas, rice, potatoes – slim.

‘The Italians, the amount of pasta, but they are all slim. It’s not the carbs.’

He said: ‘What you won’t see (in those countries) is a lot of takeaways.

‘What you don’t see is people eating chips and chocolate.

“They stop at lunch, an hour, two hours, so they can start eating properly.

‘They just eat good meals.

‘That’s what I learned, that’s how I lost five stone, that’s what I teach people, that’s what the healthy places in the world do. They eat good food.”

Gregg added that while exercise is essential for maintaining weight loss, spending hours in the gym is not at all essential for losing weight.

‘Exercise is important if you have lost weight to maintain your weight. Going for a walk, swimming, playing table tennis – it doesn’t have to mean you’re a gym bunny,” he said.

Fitness expert Joe Wicks, also known as the Body Coach, was a guest on Gregg’s podcast.

‘He draws the line between sports and exercise. We need movement, we don’t necessarily need movement,” Gregg added.

Gregg has previously detailed his typical meals, including a high-protein yogurt with oats and fruit, or an omelette with sausage, mushrooms and turkey bacon for breakfast.

At lunch he eats canned fish or cooked meat on Ryvita slices and adds a handful of arugula. “I can pick this up at any supermarket on the way,” he says.

Dinner often consists of chicken fillet in pita bread with peppers and onions or a home-made curry.

He said his plate is always piled high and he eats as many of these meals as he wants.