From Hollyoaks Heartthrob to 16 Stone Couch Potato: Jeremy Edwards Reveals How He Shed 2 Stone and Conquered the Dad Bod in Just Weeks!

SNACKING on bags of crisps after pints in the pub, former Hollyoaks heartthrob Jeremy Edwards quietly watched his weight climb to nearly 16 stone.

, once famed for his and ripped physique, found himself hiding under baggy shirts and blazers for gigs.

Former Hollyoaks heartthrob Jeremy Edwards reveals how he banished his dad bod after years of late-night snacking and lack of exercise Credit: Max Ellis The soap star quietly watched his weight climb to nearly 16 stone Credit: Jeremy Edwards

“I just thought, it’s part of getting older, but the point is, it doesn’t really matter – I was unhealthy,” the dad-of-two tells Sun .

A brutally honest conversation with his wife of 17 years, , 41, was the wake-up call he needed.

“My wife told me I was fat,” Jeremy says.

“I was complaining a lot to her about my and she basically just got fed up and said, ‘Yes, you are ’.

“She was apologetic but I said, ‘No, thank you, because I don’t mind being told the truth!’”

Looking at him now, you wouldn’t think the star was the same person.

At 6ft 2in, the 55-year-old has shed nearly two stone in three months – going from 15st 8lbs to 13st 10lbs – and built muscles he didn’t even have when he was younger.

And his wife is loving his new look, too.

“Lydia thinks I look ten years younger,” he says.

Jeremy has just completed the 75-day Six Pack Revolution programme with the founder, personal trainer Scott Harrison.

The idea is that all it takes is 75 days of commitment – just under 11 weeks – to make healthy habits stick for good.

“Jeremy isn’t different to anyone, he committed,” Scott tells Sun Health.

“Middle-aged men often tend to believe the old trope that they are older now, this is normal, their metabolism’s gone and this is just what a dad bod looks like.

“The Six Pack Revolution philosophy pushes back on that. As you can see from Jeremy, he did have quite a bit to go, especially around the love handles and lower belly.

“It didn’t take long to turn him from dad bod to ‘Wolverine’, and we do this tens of thousands of times with all sorts of shapes and sizes, ladies too.”

Like most of us, when he was a youngster, Jeremy used to be able to eat and drink what he wanted but stay in shape.

The actor was once famed for his handsome looks and ripped physique Credit: Getty Jeremy, 55, has shed nearly two stone in three months, going from 15st 8lbs to 13st 10lbs Credit: Max Ellis

“I trained my whole life,” Jeremy, from Winchester, Hampshire, says.

“I was good at sports, I swam, I did weights, I played squash and . I would run every morning before work.

“When we finished at the end of the day, I’d go to the hotel bar. You’d have fish and chips, , whatever you wanted, because that’s what you do.”

Jeremy – who has daughters Theodore, five, and Scarlett, nine – was frequently cast in roles that required him to show off his body.

As bad boy Kurt Benson in during the 1990s, he became one of the soap’s biggest pin-ups.

But despite appearing confident on screen, and being just 12st 5lbs, Jeremy admits he was deeply self-conscious and would skip lunch around filming.

He remembers: “Hollyoaks were so keen to get us naked, or as close to naked as they could.

“They actually built a swimming pool in the grounds of the studios so that we could then have scenes. When you’re standing around filming, you could be practically naked for eight or nine hours. That’s a long time to have no clothes on.”

In 2016, while filming CBBC show , Jeremy injured his back throwing a co-star onto a sofa during a judo scene, changing his life forever.

Lack of combined with steroid injections and strong painkillers, his weight crept up.

“I was huge,” he says.

“I went from always being in shape to suddenly not recognising myself anymore.”

In 2019, Jeremy briefly appeared on alongside and was cruelly taunted online about his weight.

Things came to a head again when he made an appearance on Vanessa, the daytime chat show hosted by , at the start of this year.

“I didn’t like what I saw at all,” Jeremy says.

“I just looked so fat in my face. My eyes looked small and squinty because everything was puffy. You can kid yourself in certain pictures, say it’s just a bad angle, but I just wasn’t happy. I could see my midriff was thick.”

The actor turned his health around and built muscles he didn’t even have when he was younger Credit: Max Ellis

Jeremy had fallen into a very common trap, explains Scott.

“A lot of people aren’t clinically – they’ve just slowly added weight over 10 to 20 years and normalise feeling tired, stiff and less confident,” he says.

“The ‘dad bod’ becomes accepted because the change is gradual. Because you drifted there, you can also drift back with enough consistency, knowledge and support.”

Jeremy had tried the punishing diets and endless to lose weight. On Scott’s plan, he was shocked by how much food he was expected to eat – six meals a day, high in .

Jeremy, above with Lydia, says a brutally honest conversation with his wife was the wake-up call he needed Credit: Rex Jeremy has completed the 75-day Six Pack Revolution programme with the founder, personal trainer Scott Harrison Credit: Max Ellis

“That combination is completely changing your body composition,” Jeremy says, adding that “the fat just melts off”.

“Everything you eat goes into your muscles – not into love handles!

“After about four weeks, I could already see a massive difference. I’ve got muscle in my shoulders I never had before, because I’ve never eaten so much protein.”

Though it sounds like a lot of food to prepare, two of Jeremy’s ‘meals’ were snacks, and two were protein shakes.

Scott believes: “This is how the human body should be fed and keeps hunger under control, increases protein distribution across the day, reduces binge eating later, creates routine and removes decision fatigue and helps people stop feeling deprived.

“People often describe more stable energy and fewer cravings once they settle into the pattern.

“If you’re genuinely full and nourished, full of energy and loving what you see in the mirror, willpower matters less.”

Jeremy cut out white bread, rice, potatoes, alcohol and ultra-processed snacks, replacing them with lean proteins, vegetables and fibre-rich .

Instead of ordering pizzas or grabbing pub food late at night, Jeremy batch-cooks healthy dinners ahead of the week – and he says this was one of the biggest keys to success.

“If you’ve already got made at home, you’re having it,” he says.

“I’d make a big batch of spicy chicken or turkey burgers and then just have it with vegetables with seasoning – anything with tomato purée, chilli and garlic is going to taste fantastic.”

The actor says changing his eating habits also helped curb years of .

“When you’ve got , there are always multipacks in the cupboard,” he says. I could go through three or four packs of crisps in a night without thinking about it.”

Scott says: “Jeremy was just doing what loads of busy middle-aged people do.

“He would be skipping meals, under-eating during the day and at night, maybe relying on convenience food and quick-grab food.

“He was exercising, but exercising without changing nutrition doesn’t bring results. He was drinking a little too much, like we have all been guilty of.”

Giving up alcohol was Jeremey’s hardest hurdle, at least at the start.

Jeremy says his – a condition that can dampen the reward chemical dopamine in the brain – was a catalyst for his drinking.

He says: “I’m not addicted to alcohol, but I think that’s part of the reason I’m driven to an artificial dopamine high.

“Alcohol was that thing. I’d go to the pub several times a week and have three or more pints.

“I didn’t try to find a replacement drink. I just went to bed instead and reminded myself of what I didn’t want to look like to stay motivated.”

One of the simplest changes Jeremy made was to stop having oat milk flat whites.

“I was drinking up to four large a day,” he says.

“That works out at as much as 1,000 calories on top of my food a day. Now I have black Americanos that are next to no calories. It’s an easy one for people to forget.”

Scott also encouraged him to drink several litres of water a day.

But Jeremy admits: “I don’t think I ever succeeded in drinking that much! That felt hard too.”

Despite what the name of the programme suggests, it’s not all sit-ups and crunches. It’s a mix of strength training, either at the gym or at home, and cardio.

Jeremy did at least three 40-minute strength training sessions a week, one of which was with Scott, who tailored it to account for Jeremy’s back problem.

The benefits – not only to his physical, but – means Jeremy can’t see himself turning back.

“The difference is mainly my attitude, I’ve got my mojo back,” he says.

“Today, I did legs and shoulders. Tomorrow, I’ll do back and triceps, and then on Thursday, I’ll do chest and biceps. It doesn’t have to be rigid, but it’s a case of finding what you like doing and doing it consistently.”

There were no weekly weigh-ins on the sad step. Instead, Jeremy was told to take weekly progress photos.

“I think it’s more helpful than looking at scales because you might add two pounds of muscle and lose two pounds of fat, but still think you haven’t lost any weight,” he says.

“I looked at the pictures at the beginning and I hated what I saw,” he admits.

“I just knew that the only way to not look like that was to stick to the plan.”

Jeremy admits his back injury was the catalyst for weight gain, but he would have found another excuse.

“I was killing myself with over-eating,” he says.

“Weight gain, I think, led to a long time ago. If I hadn’t had the injury, I might not have got that big.

“Equally, I might have just accepted that I couldn’t do anything about my weight gain and passed it off as just and a ‘dad bod’ – but that’s not true.

“You don’t have to accept that “I’ve done this in ten weeks. It’s ridiculous, really. I’m in the best shape of my life and now it’s become a way of life for me.”