Filipino-French celeb foodie used to be 115kg 'fat kid'

At his heaviest, he weighed 115kg - all because he could not resist fast food and was unmotivated to exercise back in college.

At 1.77m tall, Filipino-French foodie, restaurateur and new TLC personality Erwan Heussaff was overweight as he slogged his way through school.

The turning point came in 2008, following a bad break-up during a six-month working stint in Greece, when he decided to turn his life around.

He kick-started his healthy eating website The Fat Kid Inside that year, and shed over 40kg.

Now, the 28-year-old maintains an acceptable weight of 75kg and a healthy lifestyle encompassing frequent gym sessions, triathlons as well as a clean diet.

He said his buff Greek friends pushed him to adopt an exercise regimen and encouraged him to be comfortable in his own skin.

"It all boils down to discipline. Eat plenty of protein and vegetables and stay away from additives or processed food. Stick to things that you can eat in the forest," He told M in a phone interview from Manila earlier this week.

 

 

Heussaffshares creative and healthy recipes on his website, complete with cooking videos to encourage healthy eating.

The owner of Taguig's The Hungry Hound restaurant and Niner Ichi Nana cocktail bar, Heussaff travels widely and adopts multiple cooking styles and flavours.

"I like to take things that might seem complicated but that people want to do at home, and attempt to simplify it," said Heussaff, who is the younger brother of famous Filipino-French actress-host Solenn Heussaff, and has been dating popular Filipino-Australian actress Anne Curtis for four years.

Singaporeans can get healthy living tips from the former "fat kid" himself this Saturday at the TLC Festival.

OUTDOOR EVENT

Held at The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay, the free outdoor event will also feature appearances by the international travel and lifestyle cable TV channel's hosts Bob Blumer, Denise Keller and Jock Zonfrillo.

Heussaff will soon be seen on TLC in a series of vignettes called Food Fix With Erwan Heussaff, where he demonstrates how to prepare easy fusion cuisine. He looks forward to having his own long-form programme in the future.

Following the success of The Fat Kid Inside, the business management graduate is eager to venture into more food-related video content.

He will head to Los Angeles next week, where he will partner with US food and travel video network Tastemade to make a series of videos.

"It's the age of technology and I'm excited to share more creative content on food with people out there, especially through video platforms like Snapchat," he said.