Paddy McGuinness could have ended up looking very different on the cover of Men's Health had he stayed any longer in the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen.
The 53-year-old appears as a guest judge on this season of the BBC cooking show alongside Grace Dent and Giorgio Locatelli, with the trio assessing the culinary skills of Emily Campbell, Jason Mohammad, Jay McGuiness, Joe Pasquale and Shakira Khan.
During filming for the episode, McGuinness was coming off the back of completing 75 Hard and in the middle of his short preparation for his Men's Health cover shoot. He had been eating clean and training hard, cutting out the junk food he purposefully ate prior to taking on the 75-day challenge in a bid to hit 'rock bottom' and see if he could work his way out. He did, but with the five contestants serving up a mixture of meat and dessert pies, it wasn't exactly ideal preparation for his cover shoot.
'I nearly ruined Paddy McGuinness’ diet for the cover of Men’s Health,' Dent said. 'Paddy had been living on boiled chicken and broccoli for 42 days when we forced him to eat so much sugar, chocolate and pastry. He left winded, emotionally broken, and perilously high on nougat. Yes, I did make Paddy shout “no likey no lighty” at me – it was strangely exhilarating.'
McGuinness' routine at this point consisted of six full-body workouts a week and a 40-minute walk on the treadmill each morning. Sessions consisted of lighter weights and higher reps as he attempted to gain as much lean muscle mass as possible.
On training days, he typically ate around 2,250 calories, consuming about 200g of protein. On the one day of the week when no resistance training was scheduled, the amount of protein he consumed stayed roughly the same but the number of calories he took in decreased, with the drop achieved by limiting the amount of carbohydrates on his plate.
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This dedication meant one day of eating said pies did little to stunt his progress. Indeed, if McGuinness had any worries his judging stint on Celebrity MasterChef would have a detrimental impact on his physique, he needn't have panicked – his carved six pack and toned arms suggested otherwise.
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Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_
