Ed Sheeran stopped caring if he was fat or not when he realised no one was buying his music based on his weight.
The flame-haired singer has slimmed down in recent years after comparing himself to Justin Bieber and his pal Harry Styles, but he's since given up crash dieting in favour of exercising a little bit every day.
"I was like, 'They're so photogenic and they've got six packs... and I should look like that,'" Ed said of his chart rivals on George Ezra's new podcast. "But should I actually care if I'm fat or not? No one's bought my records based on me looking a certain way.
"I had zero insecurities before I became a singer - and I was born with ginger hair. I didn't care. I'd have a beer belly, ginger hair, wouldn't wash and wear scraggly clothes. 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?'"
Ed went on to admit to Budapest hitmaker George that he was following a no carb diet when the pair first met, and would only drink vodka and tonic water in a bid to beat the bloat. However, his attitude to diet has now vastly changed.
"Eat what you want and exercise every day," he said of his mantra.
Ed also opened up about the start of his career, recalling that his first album came out at the same time as Adele's mega-successful 21 in 2011, and how he followed James Blunt's lead by becoming one of the hardest working men in showbiz.
"Everyone at the record label was like, 'James Blunt became massive because he worked harder than everyone else.' So, I was like, 'Get me his diary and we'll do all of that times two,'" he smiled.
On Monday (12Feb18), it was announced that Ed was leaving Elton John's record label Rocket Music after seven successful years. The 26-year-old's manager, Stuart Camp, has decided to depart the company and manage Ed independently.
