Ed Sheeran opens up about pressures to lose weight during early career

'Should I actually care if I'm fat or not? No-one's bought my records based on me looking a certain way'

Ed Sheeran has revealed he has stopped worrying after feeling early pressure in his career to lose weight.

The singer-songwriter spoke in a new podcast by fellow musician George Ezra when he told of how he’d attempted several different diets, after comparing his body unfavourably to the likes of Justin Bieber or members of One DIrection.

“I was like, 'they're so photogenic and they've got six packs... and I should look like that,'” he said.

“But should I actually care if I'm fat or not? No-one's bought my records based on me looking a certain way.”

He added: ”But as soon as you become in the public eye and people start picking holes in you, you start thinking things are bad for you. Like, 'Am I fat?'“

After attempting to slim down with crash diets he has since adopted a different routing of eating “what you want” and exercising every day.

He told the BBC last year that the worst advice he’d ever received about losing weight was from a model.

“She used to dip cotton wool balls in diet Pepsi and that would be her meal for the day,” he said. “That's a bad diet tip.“

Sheeran was the first guest on George Ezra's new podcast, with future episodes set to feature Craig David, Rag 'N' Bone Man, and Hannah Reid from the band London Grammar.