‘Being lighter makes me feel better’: Krishnan Guru-Murthy on his fitness journey

Strictly Come Dancing star Krishnan Guru-Murthy has opened up about his incredible fat loss journey.

The journalist and presenter, in a write-up for The Times, revealed how he managed to lose two stone for Strictly Come Dancing despite being a chocolate addict with a genetic heart problem and gout. He was nearly 15 stone before he began his fitness journey.

Explaining how he got fit enough for dancing, Krishnan said that a lot of people think that he lost weight for participating in Strictly Come Dancing. However, he had a different reason for shedding some extra pounds.

“My mum kept telling me, “You can’t put a price on health,” but it turns out you can: at £2,100 for a basic package,” he said. “The Mayr method isn’t just about weight loss but a full reset of your digestive system, the idea being that everything stems from how you treat your gut. It is true that you lose weight because you don’t consume more than 500 calories a day, but there’s a lot more to it than that.”

The 54-year-old continued, “On my second day, the doctor had told me my metabolism test suggested I was going to be fine on the new regime because my body was used to burning fat. They tested and prodded and massaged and I decided to pay a bit extra for food intolerance tests. The doctor told me I had developed an intolerance to gluten, rye, dairy, sheep and goat’s milk, eggs, ginger, and vanilla, and I would have to stop having them all for a while. “But that’s basically everything nice,” I wailed. No cake! No bread! No cheese! I spent half the week alone in my room glued to my phone, looking up what was left to eat that might make life worth living.”

In the article, Krishnan went on to share how he was 19lb lighter by the end of the six week of his weight-loss programme. “By day seven and time to check out, I was convinced about the method but ready to go home. My leaving instructions were to stop snacking and to eat smaller, balanced meals slowly. Most importantly, I had to eat just breakfast and lunch, with soup for dinner or something very light. The week had gone quickly, but the weight didn’t. I had only lost 5lb and was a bit cross. By week three I was 19lb lighter and lost a little more over the following weeks.”

He added that “being lighter definitely makes me feel better, as do all the comments from people who notice”.

“But losing weight does not transform your body on its own. And having said yes to Strictly, I was still basically unfit and flabby. For Strictly I would need a very different regime, and I only had a couple of weeks before the dance training started. I was going to need some help, and fortunately, I knew just the person. Sandy is married to my oldest friend, Ed. She’s a Brazilian dance champion turned personal trainer and Pilates instructor and she leapt to my aid when I told her about Strictly.

Decades hunched over a laptop have taken their toll and I am lopsided, bent and my shoulders are all wrong for dance. But Sandy somehow knows how to target individual muscles and straightens me out.  If only I had started this months ago, I might be in better shape for the competition,” he concluded.