The Chase star Mark Labbett, aka ‘The Beast’, wowed the Loose Women panel today (Thursday, November 14) with his evident weight loss successes as he works hard to keep his type 2 diabetes at bay.

His gym work is continuing, he said, and he insisted that “type 2 diabetes is not the life sentence that people think it is”.

Mark first revealed his diabetes diagnosis on Loose Women in October 2017. He was 52 at the time, and spoke in support of the Men’s Body Stories campaign.

“Recently I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which, given the amount of sugar I’ve eaten over the years, I’m not gonna complain,” he said at the time. “I’ve done the crime so now I’m doing the time.”

Mark has been managing his type 2 diabetes for several years (Credit: Loose Women/ITV/YouTube)

Mark Labbett on Loose Women today

Today is World Diabetes Day, and to, er, mark it, The Chase quizzer Mark appeared on Loose Women to talk about his experience with the condition.

As he walked out on set, host Charlene White exclaimed: “As you walked into the room earlier, we can’t help but notice that the gym work that you had been talking about the last time is still going. You’re looking super fit and super healthy.”

Charlene then discussed Mark’s diabetes diagnosis. He’s had it since 2016, he explained, but it’s “not the life sentence that people think it is”.

There are treatments. In many cases, they involve changes of behaviour and diet, and therefore depend on the willpower and dedication of the patient.

But “most importantly,” he said on the show, “it’s reversible”.

Mark split from his ex-wife Katie in 2020 (Credit: Loose Women/ITV/YouTube)
He said exercise “depresses the glucose level in your blood, so if you do enough exercise and watch what you eat, you can definitely make yourself un-diabetic”.

Diabetes UK – Britain’s leading charity for diabetics – say they don’t call type 2 diabetes reversal, because that makes it sound permanent. There is, in fact, “no guarantee that your diabetes has gone forever”.

However, it may be possible to put your diabetes into remission. This is when your blood sugar levels are “below the diabetes range” and you don’t need to take medication anymore.

Mark’s diabetes journey

Mark found out he was diabetic by accident.

In 2016, he went to see a doctor about a leg injury that wasn’t healing as fast as expected. The nurse asked him flat-out if he was diabetic, to which he responded that he didn’t think he was.

They ran a simple blood test, and he got the news: “Yeah, you’re diabetic.”

He said he was baffled.

“I had no other symptoms,” he told the Loose Women panel. And he felt fine. He’d never had a hyperglycaemic episode.

Hyperglycaemia happens when your blood sugar levels are too high; hypoglycemia is the opposite, and sets in when blood sugar levels are too low.

Mark explains that his nickname comes from the French for ‘the beast’ (Credit: Loose Women/YouTube)

As far as treating it went, Mark said “walking the dog helped”.

During the pandemic, his now ex-wife Katie was working as an auxiliary nurse, so he spent his days looking after their son – “pretty much all day”, he said.

Wearing a continuous glucose monitor has been a “game changer,” he also said.

Fortunately, he’s managed to get his blood glucose level down to the “high end of normal,” even if he succumbs to the temptation to eat a chocolate bar every now and then.

Mark pictured in 2019 (Credit: Splashnews.com)

Why Mark Labbett is nicknamed ‘The Beast’

The quizzer is known for his role on ITV game show The Chase. He joined the show as “The Beast” in 2009.

At the beginning of the Loose Women segment, Penny Lancaster asked Mark how he got his nickname “The Beast”.

He answered simply that his surname, Labbett, is an altered version of the French phrase “la bête” – which means “the beast”.

Incidentally, he has a 6ft 9in brother – a twin, no less – whom the family calls The Big Beast. One day, Mark added, his son “will be The Baby Beast”.

Working hard to keep his diabetes in remission is part of his three-stage plan, which has to do with his family, and most notably his son Lawrence.

His three main priorities are to “provide” for his family, to be around “long enough to see his son graduate” and finally to have a “healthy body” and “healthy mind”.

Hear, hear, Mark!