Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge is 11 stone lighter and he’s written a diet cookbook to reveal exactly how he did it
Dubbed the ‘stay happy’ eating plan, Tom created the Dopamine Diet which he claims triggers ‘happy hormones’ while shedding pounds
TV chef Tom Kerridge is half the man he used to be after losing an incredible 11 stone - and it’s all down to a simple diet he devised himself.
Dubbed the ‘stay happy’ eating plan, Tom created the Dopamine Diet which he claims triggers ‘happy hormones’ while shedding pounds.
The Saturday Kitchen regular, 43, now consumes zero starchy carbs, zero sugar and zero booze, all of which have been replaced by high levels of protein.
"I can eat as many proteins as I like! Two steaks, even," he says. "I didn't know it would feel this good. I cut out carbs and sugar.
"It was terrible, absolutely horrible. I had headaches, I had the sweats, but gradually I realised how much I hated the sugar spikes and all those highs and lows.
"The temptation to go back to eating it was huge."
Then he started thinking about what was really going on in his body.
"Over time," he says, "I realised that rather than missing other things, eating just protein was making me feel pretty good and very energetic. I was enjoying it. You can't do a diet that makes you feel bad."
Experts say low-carb, high-protein diets can typically put you in a bad mood.
Kerridge has come up with a way of making sure that all the proteins in his diet are ones that trigger the release of the "happy hormone" dopamine.
His "dopamine heroes" include dairy products such as double cream and yoghurt, good-quality meats including beef, chicken and turkey, and chocolate, coffee and vanilla.
He so enthused by the results he’s written a diet cookbook called The Dopamine Diet, released early next year.
When Kerridge turned 40 three years ago, he was obese, smoked, and boozed every day.
"I just got to 40 and started wondering what I was doing with my life.
"I was drinking too much…I smoked, I ate a lot, I partied. I was beginning not to like what was happening to me in terms of my body and health, and knew I had to do something about it.”
Now he can’t even eat a single chip.
"I can't. I'm an addict. I know myself far too well. If I start eating carbs again, I'll never stop," he says.
It’s the same with alcohol. He says: "The other day me and Beth [his wife of 18 years] were out for dinner and someone offered me a glass of wine but I knew it would be a slippery slope.
It's the same with fags. I was the best at drinking beer and now I'm the best at not drinking beer."
Along with his two-michellin-starred pub, the Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, keeping him busy, he and Beth have something much more tiring to deal with – a ten month old son Acey.
"We're tired but happy”, he says. "It's totally changed my world.
Now everything revolves around him. I'm not in the kitchen on a Sunday morning, I'm in the play park."
"I always thought kids were a bit of a bind," explains Kerridge.
"But I am besotted by the whole thing. I have realised that money doesn't matter, celebrity doesn't matter."
He says that one of the main things he has learnt since having Acey is that, "I don't care about money any more. I don't care if Beth and I are rich or not. All I want to do now is build memories for Acey.
"That's what is most important right now." And sod the rest of it? He laughs. "No," he says, "not quite."
Tom Kerridge's new range of products with The Great British Exchange is available on tomkerridge.com. His book, Dopamine Diet, is published on January 12 (Absolute Press, £20)