Body coach Joe Wicks: Topless? I feel like a bit of a plonker

He makes us go weak at the knees. And that’s just us fellas. Joe Wicks, aka Mr Beef Cake, is the thinking woman’s phwoar.

An online nutrition coach, the creator of the 90-day Shift, Shape and Sustain Plan has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world. He shifted more than 900,000 copies of his best-selling 2015 book, Lean In 15 and Channel 4 gave him his own show, The Body Coach. It’s not a bad return from the tousle-haired owner of Britain’s best man chest.

And he’s planning to repeat the feat with his first hardback book, Cooking For Family & Friends. He enjoyed writing it and is hoping it will resonate with readers.

“This is my first hardback book, it’s called Cooking for Family & Friends and it is about showing people that you can still socialise, eat delicious food and stay lean. This book has got starters, main courses, sides and even desserts – so if you are on the 90 Day Plan it is perfect for you, and if you’re not on my plan but just love delicious food, it is also perfect for you. It’s got roasts, BBQ ribs, fish finger sandwiches, toad in the hole, salads – it’s even got a really guilty chocolate fondant.”

Nice, chocolate fondant. We like what you’re thinking, Wicksy.

“My first three books have sold millions and one question that kept coming up was ‘If I’m going out this weekend, or I’ve got friends coming over, how can I stay lean?’ It made me realise that people struggle to be lean in social situations and that was the inspiration for my book. To show them that being lean is a lifestyle. So I’ve pulled all of my family favourite recipes together, the things I cook when my mates come over, to create a really delicious cook book that I’m so proud of.

“I’m always thinking of different recipes and making meals in my kitchen, so writing this book was about sitting down and pulling together not only my favourite recipes but also my mates and family recipes, things that I know are crowd pleasers. I get given deadlines by the publisher and I’m good at sticking to them – although I did have to pull an all nighter this time round to get the final draft to them on time.”

Joe is a genuine phenomenon, a man who has become the second most influential person in the food industry. And though he tries to not think about such labels, he accepts his responsibility to the millions who buy into his work. After all, he is single-handedly helping women get bikini-ready for summer, while getting his male followers to shift from a 36-inch waist back to a 32.

“It’s insane isn’t it? When I stop and see the sales figures and hear these amazing things that are said about me, it bowls me over. Because day-to-day I am just ordinary Joe, but my ethos has really connected with people and my 90 Day Plans are helping change peoples lives and that makes me more proud than I could ever even explain. I don’t necessarily feel that I have a massive responsibility because I’m just doing what I’ve always done – I just want to encourage people and help them be as happy and lean as they can be.” Isn’t he nice? The success of Joe’s books is remarkable. And his 90-day and 30-day plans have helped more than 150,000 people to transform their bodies. And while for some it’s simply about looking better, for others there’s been a bigger effect. Looking good usually equals feeling great – quid pro quo, Joe is also the Giver of Happiness.

“It’s more than 150,00 now. It means everything to me – when I first started personal training and running bootcamps my mission was the same, I wanted to help people feel energised and I’m still doing that now just on a different scale. Every single transformation makes me feel proud – whether I get six emails a day or 600 emails a day, every single one of them makes me feel happy and proud.”

One of the joys of Joe’s plans is that they go against conventional wisdom. For years, we’ve been told to eat less and exercise more. Joe, however, has tipped that on its head by telling us to eat more and exercise less, which sounds like far more fun.

“When I was running bootcamps I realised that it didn’t matter how much these people were exercising, if they weren’t putting the right fuel in their body they weren’t getting the results they wanted. I met some people who were going to the gym twice a day but weren’t seeing any changes. So I devised a plan that was about doing HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for 25 minutes, four times a week and then making sure they were eating the right foods.

“One of the biggest mistakes people make is they exercise loads and then don’t eat enough, but your body is like an engine and it needs fuel to burn. If you don’t eat enough food you body holds on to fat. To burn fat you need to get your heart rate pumping which HIIT is great for, then you need to eat a meal with carbs and protein and get that fuel back in your body’s engine. At other times, stick to fats and proteins – eggs, cheese, chicken, meat, fish, veg. The worst thing that you can do is two hours at the gym and then eat a salad.”

He hates the word ‘diet’. Sparks fly when we mention it.

“DIETS DON’T WORK! Simple. A diet is something you start and it finishes, sometimes you might get good results, sometimes you don’t, but you will always end up at some point back where you were. They are just not sustainable long term. I am teaching people how to live a lean life, how to have roast dinners, eat burgers, have pudding, how and when to exercise so you feel full of energy – it doesn’t have to be a chore and it is certainly not a diet.”

Passionate

But perhaps it’s not just the transformative effects of his fitness plan that have made Joe the nation’s go-to shape-shifter. He is – and even us fellas can admit it – a bit of alright. His youthful looks and Arnold Schwarzenegger chest have made him a sex symbol for many. And yet, if reports are to be believed, he’s planning to cover up in future. That’s to say, he’s decided not to get his kit off. Wah . . .

“Ha ha, I haven’t said I’ll never go topless! When I released my first book every photo shoot I did people just wanted me to take my top off, and to be honest, I don’t think people need to see me topless while they are eating their breakfast. I’ve just done a cover shoot where I am topless, so its not that I’ll never do it but it needs to be in the right context.

“I think people do take me seriously, so if we’re talking about body, fitness and body shape of course I need to practice what I preach and show people that I have also go a lean body. But if I’m doing an interview about cooking and food, I just feel a bit of a plonker standing there with my top off!”

It’s not just his fans’ lives that Joe has transformed. He’s also changed his own. It’s taken him just three years to go from running a scratching-a-living personal training business into being a multi-million-selling author. The former state school pupil who studied sports science at St Mary’s University, in Twickenham, didn’t imagine he’d become the face of a national move towards litheness. He can’t believe he outsells Jamie, Nigella and Delia and his life has become so busy that he’s had to surround himself with a team who can keep on top of things. He’s not complaining, however.

“I am super excited to be doing something I am passionate about and I have so many outlets – my books, my DVD, my TV show and of course all my social media and because I’ve got so much going on it means I don’t have a typical week. No matter what, I always exercise because it makes me feel brilliant and it sets me up for the day but that is probably the only constant in my life.

“It could be that I’m in a car to Great Yarmonth to film for a Channel 4 show, or I could be at Body Coach Headquaters chatting to all my support heros that help run all the plans, I could be doing media interviews or photoshoots, or I could be sitting down and writing recipes for my new book. But I’ve always got my phone on me so I keep up my social media and there is never a day where I don’t either film my food or take a photograph of it. I am so fortunate to be doing what I love, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world right now.”

Not that he’s down with all of the fitness fads that fill the airwaves. As well as hating diets, he’s also skeptical about the lifestyle choice for clean eating. Clean Eating has earned more than 30 million Instagram hashtags and is all about eliminated processed foods and refined sugar, sticking to wholegrains, eating more fruit and vegetables and cutting back on salt and alcohol.

Rapid

Joe’s nonplussed: “Honest answer – I don’t know because I’m not about clean eating. I think it’s an umbrella term that anything vaguely healthy got put under. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know what clean means! All I know is that I’m about delicious food that is lean and great for sharing.”

It’s not so long ago that he was wondering how to pay the bills and yet Joe’s success has changed his life. He’s enormously successful, he doesn’t have to worry when he’s buying a round of drinks and all of the indications are that he’s going to get more and more popular in coming years. His success has been rapid. From earning a modest living in 2014 to being King of the Hill in 2017.

“A lot of people think that I was a bit of an overnight success. The truth is it took me five years of really hard graft. When I did my first tweet I had about 14 followers who were all my mates and I didn’t really know what to tweet, and when I made my first instagram video my friends and family were like – why are you doing that? I had no one watching but I just kept going.

“Then it kept growing and growing, and at the same time I launched the 90 Day Plan and that started growing steadily, and it was when my social media stats grew that publishers took notice. In between that time I was working 18 hour days – videos, social media, managing the 90 Day plan and giving support to users answering their emails. So I put it my formula for success down to being consistent and authentic.”

But that doesn’t mean he is unable to take holidays. Though Joe went through a spell of not taking a day off, his work-life balance has never been better than it is right now.

“When I first started this I couldn’t really take any holidays and it was really full on. I’ve got much better at taking time out and I really love going away with my family and friends. I just spent a lovely week in America with my brother, sister-in-law and my nephew. Me and my school mates go on a big holiday twice a year too, so rest is really important to me.”

l Joe’s new book, Cooking For Family and Friends: 100 Lean Recipes to Enjoy Together, is available from Amazon, priced £10, and other outlets.