Gregg Wallace: I was warned I was heading for heart attack before losing weight

The MasterChef presenter lost four and a half stone

The MasterChef presenter said the 'three horsemen of the 'get fat apocalypse' are booze, takeaways and snacking 

Gregg Wallace was warned he was "heading for a heart attack” before he lost four-and-a-half stone.

The MasterChef presenter, 57, said he was watching himself “getting bigger and bigger” on television before a doctor cautioned him about his high cholesterol.

Recalling a conversation he had with his doctor in 2017, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I was overweight, I was eating all the wrong things, I was boozing quite a bit, I was looking at myself getting bigger and bigger on the television.

“I had a good doctor who I had a good relationship with and he said ‘Let’s do a blood test’.

“He phoned me up and said ‘Your cholesterol is through the roof’.

“I think doctors get worried if it goes over five and I think mine was approaching 14.

“He said ‘If we don’t change, you’re going to be seriously ill, you’re heading for a heart attack’.”

“So I didn’t panic, I thought this is what I need now to change, so I started looking around, thinking how can I be healthier?

Picture: @greggawallace / Instagram 

Wallace said he tried "lots" of diets but these "didn’t particularly work" for him.

"I was hungry most of the time," he admitted.

“So bit by bit I taught myself what was healthy and what I could eat and what I couldn’t eat.”

Wallace, who often shares his workout routines on social media, said he has gained half a stone over Christmas, 

"But I know now how to get rid of it, and that isn’t by doing anything crazy, that isn’t doing anything radical, that’s because I know what healthy living is all about."

“There are what I call three horsemen of the ‘get fat apocalypse’," he joked, "booze, takeaways and snacking," and previous to his weight loss he was "doing all three."

“I’m not suggesting we stop them all but if we can get a handle on it, and start to reduce it, we can go a long way to improving our fitness."