Ed Sheeran is taking each day as it comes when it comes to his fitness journey. While the English singer has been open in the past about the fluctuations in his weight and how he's found success in methods such as giving up smoking and learning to love running, now he's trying to go even harder in the gym and get to that magical point of finding his six-pack. However, as with every exercise regimen, it hasn't always been easy, which he opened up about further during a recent conversation with Andy Cohen for SiriusXM's Small Stage Series.
"You're super shredded right now, to what do we owe this?" Andy asked the 37-year-old crooner, who attributed it to a goal he'd set for himself at the start of the year after he'd "put on a lot of weight last year," adding: "And I'm going to hit gym heavy, try and lose a stone [approx. 14 lbs]. And then as I was doing this, I was like, 'Let me see how far I can take this.'"
© Getty ImagesEd mentioned that he'd never had a six-pack in his life, and wanted to see if he could "do it," setting it as his personal goal. When Andy asked him how that was going, though, the "Perfect" singer quipped that he would "keep messing up," saying he would "keep being out somewhere being like, 'I'll have a couple of beers.'"
However, even with that, his physique is still shaping up quite nicely, per his own admittance. "But I'd say it's going all right. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life," he proudly declared. He touched on the expectations the industry had placed on him to have a six-pack like his contemporaries during a previous conversation with Rolling Stone, expanding upon his complicated relationship with his body.
"I'm self-conscious anyway, but you get into an industry where you're getting compared to every other pop star," he shared. "I was in the One Direction wave, and I'm like, 'Well, why don't I have a six-pack?' And I was like, 'Oh, because you love kebabs and drink beer.' Then you do songs with Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. All these people have fantastic figures. And I was always like, 'Well, why am I so … fat?'"
© Getty ImagesHe alluded to developing an eating disorder the way Elton John had described doing so in his own book about his early years. "So I found myself doing what Elton talks about in his book — gorging, and then it would come up again. There's certain things that, as a man talking about them, I feel mad uncomfortable."
© Instagram"I know people are going to see it a type of way, but it's good to be honest about them," Ed continued. "Because so many people do the same thing and hide it as well," adding that he still struggled with it at the time. "I have a real eating problem. I'm a real binge eater. I'm a binge-everything. But I'm now more of a binge exerciser, and a binge dad. And work, obviously."
© Getty ImagesHe also attributed the birth of his first daughter, Lyra, with making him quit drinking. "Having a couple of beers is one thing. But having a bottle of vodka is another thing. It's just a realization of, 'I'm getting into my thirties. Grow up! You've partied, you've had this experience. Be happy with that and just be done.'"
