Dr Mark Cortnage

Mark has over 25 years of experience in exercise, nutrition and behaviour change, beginning as a personal trainer.

He has designed and run health programmes privately and for local authorities, working with several hundred men and women. Two of these, Shift the Timber and The Alpha Programme, used football to bring men into weight management and healthier habits. His PhD examined how to build a successful nutrition and exercise programme that men aged 35 to 64 would join and stay with.

Specialism and focus
Mark's work concerns healthy life expectancy: the years people live in good health, as distinct from the years they live. He focuses on evidence-based strategies that extend healthspan, covering physical activity and strength, nutrition and weight management, sleep, and psychological and social factors such as purpose and connection. His emphasis is on prevention from midlife onwards, and on behaviour change that people can sustain. Within this, his research focuses on men, who are less likely to take up the health support available to them.

Currently
Mark is writing a book on healthspan, Life to Years, and developing a series of public talks and articles on healthy ageing for men. In 2024 he co-presented "Longevity and nutrition: can we all really live to 100 and beyond?" at the Cambridge Festival.

Within the educational field
Mark is a highly experienced lecturer who uses contemporary teaching strategies to develop student knowledge and improve engagement. He has acted as an internal and external course verifier and as a consultant on integrating employability frameworks into curricula. He has written three undergraduate programmes, each meeting the relevant Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body competencies.

• Strategies to improve healthspan, longevity and healthy life expectancy
• Physical activity, nutrition, weight management and lifestyle change from midlife
• Men's engagement with health and weight-loss programmes

• Public health
• Nutrition
• Healthspan and longevity
• Healthy ageing
• Weight management
• Physical activity as we age
• Behaviour change
• Men's health

Currently Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Public Health

Previous teaching experience

• Essential Issues in Public Health (module leader – level 7)
• Sports Nutrition (module leader – level 6)
• Professional Skills for Public Health (module leader – level 6)
• Professional Skills for Public Health (module leader – level 4)
• Introduction to Public Health (module leader – level 4)
• Promoting Health and Wellbeing (module leader – level 5)
• Population Health (module leader – level 5)
• Health Communication (module leader – level 5)
• Social, Political and Ethical Issues (module leader – level 7)
• Culture, Society and Health (module leader – level 5)

Mark has also taught and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students across the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care at ARU, including Operating Department Practice, Paramedic Science, Nursing, Occupational Health and Midwifery and public health.

• PhD – The optimisation of a nutrition and exercise programme for men aged between 35 and 64 years of age, Anglia Ruskin University
• MSc International Public Health Nutrition, University of Westminster
• PG Cert Higher Education, Anglia Ruskin University
• BSc (Hons) Human Nutrition, London Metropolitan University
• National Certificate Sports Studies, University of Hertfordshire
• NVQ Personal Trainer (Level 3 advanced)
• Master Practitioner eating disorders & obesity (BPS approved)

• Mark co-leads the ARU Nutrition research ethics panel
• Reviewer, American Journal of Men’s Health
•  Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy

• Hallmark project - Exploring engagement in healthy lifestyles and healthspan within younger age groups and factors which may contribute to engagement: £45,000
• Sits on the UKPHR Practitioner registration Task and Finish group
• Health, Wellbeing and Performance research grant: £6,000

Cortnage M, Lillis J, Roberts J (2026) Male perceptions and experiences of weight loss initiatives: Considerations for sustainable lifestyle practices. PLOS ONE 21(8): e0348158. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348158

Cortnage, M., Pringle A., 2022. Onset of Weight Gain and Health Concerns for Men: Findings from the TAP Programme. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19(1), pp. 579. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010579

Cortnage MG (2020) The optimisation of a nutrition and exercise programme for men aged between 35 and 64 years of age. Doctoral thesis, Anglia Ruskin University.

• 2026. Research on men and weight-loss programmes covered by Newsweek, HealthDay, News-Medical and StudyFinds.
• 2024. Co-author, "People in the world's 'blue zones' live longer – their diet could hold the key to why", The Conversation; republished by Yahoo News UK and Japan Today.
• 2024. Co-presenter, "Longevity and nutrition: can we all really live to 100 and beyond?", Cambridge Festival, 16 March; featured in the University of Cambridge's speaker spotlight.
• 2023. Featured in The Telegraph, "The life-changing health benefits of losing half a stone", 18 July; also carried by Yahoo News UK and MSN UK.
• 2022. Interviewed by The Times for "The secret to shedding pounds in midlife", 8 March.
• 2022. Featured in Woman's Weekly Healthy Living, "Think yourself slimmer", June.
• 2022. Research on middle-aged men and weight gain covered in print by the Daily Express and Daily Star, online by Yahoo Lifestyle, MSN, Medical Xpress and ScienceDaily, and by outlets in India, Poland, Germany, France and Australia.
• 2020 and 2022. Broadcast on BBC Essex.