‘The Body Coach’ Joe Wicks is facing criticism from personal trainers, nutritionists and dietitians after he claimed he has ‘relapsed’ from his sugar-free lifestyle.
The 39-year-old fitness coach and TV personality has been sharing his journey on social media as he tries to eliminate sugar from his diet altogether, including natural sugars found in fruits.Â
However, the online fitness community has raised concerns that he is sending out ‘irresponsible’ messages about disordered eating to his millions of fans.
Joe, who has 4.8 million followers on Instagram alone, posted an update video on his sugar-free journey and confessed he had ‘smashed a whole packet of Jaffa Cakes’.
He said the moment of weakness occurred while he was filming the celebrity special for BBC game show series Gladiators, and led to him eating more sugar in the form of brownies and various fruits over the next few days.
‘Got a confession to make. I’ve had a relapse. I thought I was invincible, to be honest, at one point. I was about 11 weeks in, really cut out [sugar], really was feeling good, was getting leaner, feeling amazing,’ he began his update, posted on Tuesday August 5.
‘Anyway, look, here’s what it is. And of all the places to have a slip-up, it was last Tuesday at Gladiators, when I was filming the celebrity special of Gladiators.
‘I basically walked into the sort of green room and there was a table full of sweets and sugar and chocolate. Penguins, Kit Kats, crisps, there was Jaffa Cakes.
Joe Wicks, 39, recently shared an update on his no-sugar challenge and admitted he had ‘relapsed’ because he ate ‘a packet of Jaffa Cakes’ (seen in London last year)
Thee online fitness community has voiced concerns that Joe is sending out ‘irresponsible’ messages
‘There was like breakfast bars, energy gels, it was just a table full of sugar. I had a bit of fruit to begin with and I cracked.
‘Guess what it was that done me? It was a packet of Jaffa Cakes, which I haven’t eaten for years. I smashed a whole packet of Jaffa Cakes.’
Continuing his update, Joe said he later sustained an injury on his neck which stopped him from working out for a week, adding that he ‘felt a bit run down’ and ‘had a bit of a cold’.
He also said the gloomy weather of the past few weeks and poor sleep contributed to him not feeling ‘great’.
The combination of these factors led him to have a ‘wobble’, Joe said, as he gave into temptation and carried on eating ‘brownies and loads of fruit’.Â
‘Yesterday, just for example, I had half a melon, three satsumas, two nectarines and three peaches. That ain’t normal,’ he declared, branding sugar an ‘addictive substance’.
‘That is not normal. But for me, the sugar, it’s like a little monster in my tummy. Once I feed that bacteria, it craves and wants and wants, and I have to just eat it until I’ve cleaned the house out.’
The P.E. With Joe star said that while he was not ‘beating myself up’, he said he needed ‘a bit of recovery’ time due to his slip-up with sugar.
The fitness instructor, known as The Body Coach, has been sharing his sugar-free journey – but fans and nutritionists alike are concerned about his language and relationship to food
Nutritionists like Aaron Nee have shared their thoughts on TikTok, with many saying Joe’s attitude towards sugar may suggest disordered eating
Nutritionist and lifestyle coach, Hayley Field, was unimpressed by Joe calling sugar an ‘addictive substance’ and talking about ‘relapsing’
Meanwhile, Robert Moir, a fitness and nutrition consultant, said that Joe is ‘spiraling’ and worried that the TV personality is starting to lean towards a ‘disordered eating problem’ with his content
Joshua Hill, a registered associate nutritionist and sports therapist, said Joe is ‘becoming irresponsible with his nutrition advice’
‘It’s always there, sugar’s the thing we turn to to make us feel better and it kind of does that in that moment, but ultimately, I feel so bloated, I’m just not sleeping as well and my mood has dropped, I’m just not as upbeat and positive, and I was really pushing the whole sugar-free thing.’
Joe then conceded that he would not be able to live a completely sugar-free life, but said he would continue to reduce the amount of sugar he consumes.
He advised fans who ‘have an issue with sugar’ to make sure they ‘get it out of the house’ so they aren’t tempted to eat it, and claimed that cutting sugar out left him with a clearer mind and more energy, and that it was ‘life-changing’.
Joe first began cutting both refined and natural sugars from his diet in May, after he shared a video in which he said he was ‘addicted to sugar’.Â
His no-sugar challenge came after he claimed that ultraprocessed junk food was to blame for the explosion of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses in children.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Headliner’s podcast last year, Joe said he ‘ran on sugar’ as a child and blamed it for his behavioural issues.
But his latest update has caused a wave of concern from fans and other experts in the fitness and wellness industry, including personal trainers, nutritionists and dietitians, who have taken to TikTok to comment on Joe’s claims.
Robert Moir, a fitness and nutrition consultant, said that Joe is ‘spiraling’ and worried that the TV personality is starting to lean towards a ‘disordered eating problem’ with his content.
Joe’s own fans commented on his Instagram video and criticised him for ‘demonising’ sugar and for appearing to encourage disordered eating
‘I realise [this] is a big statement to make but I think Joe’s channels are now becoming a bit problematic, which is a shame considering what he’s done for this industry and for people in general.
‘But he’s not quite qualified to be talking about this stuff and I think he needs an intervention.’
 Meanwhile, Joshua Hill, a registered associate nutritionist and sports therapist, said Joe is ‘becoming irresponsible with his nutrition advice’ and was particularly displeased with Joe’s use of the word ‘relapse’.
‘I feel sorry for Joe Wicks because he clearly doesn’t have a positive relationship with food,’ Joshua lamented.Â
‘He clearly has a poor relationship with sugar and he blames it for a lot. He’s even said on national radio his poor diet, high in sugar, caused and worsened his ADHD.
‘I’m just fed up with people that the public trusts encouraging poor and very disordered eating habits, acting like they’re extremely knowledgeable when it comes to nutrition.’
Joshua continued: ‘Relapse is a serious word. It belongs in conversations about drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling and so on, not Jaffa Cakes.’
Another nutritionist and lifestyle coach, Hayley Field, was also unimpressed by Joe calling sugar an ‘addictive substance’.
‘I was a functioning drug addict for many, many years and let me tell you, I have never craved a jam doughnut in quite the same way as I craved an 8th of cocaine,’ she said bluntly in her own TikTok video.
She also explained that Joe appears to talk about a ‘restrict and binge cycle’.
‘He’s severely restricted his access to sugar, carbohydrates for 11 weeks and now he finds himself bingeing on them and unable to control his intake of them.
‘That is classic disordered eating, what he’s describing to us, and with such a massive platform, I just don’t feel like this is the right thing for him to share.’Â
Joe’s own fans have also criticised the coach’s attitude towards restricting sugar and ‘demonising’ it.
Commenting on his video, one person wrote: ‘Cut out sugar for yourself if you want, but using a massive platform to demonise it and use emotive words like “relapse” because you ate a few Jaffa Cakes is dangerous and unhinged.’
Another said: ‘Wtf is going on here? Banning fruit?? Using the word ‘relapse’ like you have a drug or alcohol problem.
‘What you’re saying here is completely wrong. It’s fuelling a culture of restrictive dieting, which in your early days [you] said was wrong!
‘Cutting out whole food groups is not the answer and is an awful message to give to your children, let alone the others who are fully invested in you.’
A third added: ‘As someone who struggles with binge restrict cycles this sounds exactly like one.’
In a Q&A with The Daily Mail’s food critic Tom Parker Bowles, published in May, Joe claimed that it is ‘in my DNA’ to crave cheap, ultraprocessed junk food because it made up ‘about 90 per cent’ of his childhood diet.
He said: ‘When I’m stressed, it’s a real issue. I don’t just walk out of a shop with one chocolate bar and a bag of Monster Munch crisps.
‘I’ll also get a can of Coke, a packet of Fruit Pastilles and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and eat it all within half an hour.’
Joe added that his diet is much more balanced now and that he is in control ’80 per cent of the time’, but admitted to ‘drinking fizzy drinks and bingeing on sugar’ for the other 20 per cent of the time.Â
The Daily Mail has contacted Joe for comment.Â