The stars of ITV The Chase are a force to be reckoned with – taking to the telly on a daily basis to do battle with those who would hope to win a fortune. But how do those Chasers stay in shape?
From a drastic 10-stone wright loss to a staggering 2,000 sit-ups a day (!), here’s a round-up of the Chasers’ health secrets and workout routines.
Turns out that the brain isn’t the only muscle that our favourite quizzers like to exercise!
ITV The Chase star Shaun Wallace
In the TV spin-off The Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles, Shaun Wallace revealed a truly astonishing daily workout regime. Inspired by personal loss and fears, Shaun – aka The Dark Destroyer – knocks out no less than 2,000 sit-ups a day.
“Every morning when I wake up I do 2,000 sit ups because my mum suffers from dementia,” Shaun said. “My dad sadly died from motor neurone disease and it really saddened me to see them physically degenerate.”
Every morning when I wake up I do 2,000 sit ups because my mum suffers from dementia.
He continued: “Whilst I know I can’t delay the inevitable I know I can postpone it by keeping myself physically and mentally sharp.”
Anne Hegerty
Chaser Anne Hegerty lost three stone after her appearance on I’m A Celebrity in 2018. Speaking about her weight loss on The Jeremy Vine show, she previously revealed her secret to keeping the pounds away.
I’m not a fit fat person and I would like to be fitter, but I am not unhealthy.
“I’m not a fit fat person and I would like to be fitter, but I am not unhealthy,” she said in 2019.
“I need to do it in small stages. If I just try and live healthily and drink lots of water, the weight loss will come,” she continued.
Mark Labbett
Star Mark Labbett has shocked fans over the past few years with a staggering 10-stone weight loss. He recently told The Mail: “I think one of the pluses of having what may or may not have been Covid a few times is that I just lost my appetite. My appetite is nothing like it once was.”
I’ve done it the old fashion way by eating a bit less and I’ve tried to go to the gym.
In 2023, he told The Sun: “I’m not really trying to diet, I’m just being sensible, people say you’ve had the gastric sleeve or band, and I haven’t. I was tempted by the gastric band but a good friend of mine who’s a GP, said my problem is sugar, I have a sweet tooth.”
“A gastric band is useless for me because sugar metabolises quite quickly, so I’ve done it the old fashion way by eating a bit less and I’ve tried to go to the gym,” he revealed.
Jenny Ryan
Chaser Jenny Ryan revealed to The Sun how her GP once fat-shamed her over a phone appointment.
“Isn’t modern life great? Your GP can now fat-shame you over the phone, so you don’t have to waste time travelling and sitting in a waiting room before being made to feel awful about your own existence!” she said.
She went on to reveal the doctor’s reaction when she told him that she’d lost weight since their last call. “Do you know your current weight?… Oh… That’s *significantly* lower than last time, well done. Not good enough though, is it?” she quoted.
However, Jenny hasn’t opened up much more on her lifestyle and fitness.
Paul Sinha
After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2018, Paul Sinha was forced to rethink his health and diet regime. He appeared on the ITV documentary Diabetes: The Fast Fix that same year.
The show challenged him to live on 800 calories a day for a month to ‘fast himself better’.
He told The Express: “Every year I go on diets, I go on binges, I go on diets, I go on binges. But January 1, it’s a constant in my life, [I’m always] 13 stone 11 or 13 stone 12.”
ITV The Chase star Darragh Ennis
Little is known about former contestant-turned-Chaser Darragh Ennis‘s life off-screen. However, the brainy Irishman wowed fans in 2022 after posing topless by his pool at home.
He later joked about his weight in a TikTok video (where he posts under the username @bonesgiles). “Signs you need to lose some weight,” he laughed, as he showcased a broken hammock.
“It’s not a great sign when you get into the hammock and it rips in two,” he joked on Twitter.
Read more: How much money The Chase stars actually make from each show
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