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Tom Grennan says therapy helps with his body dysmorphia

2025-08-19 19:00:17

"I'd have a binge with eating and then I'd be like, 'I need to train now to make sure these calories or this food isn't put on to me - which is an unhealthy way of being."

Feelings of guilt often follow eating binges, he admitted. For example, when one biscuit turns into half a packet, he said, he can be left thinking: "I'm gonna be fat. I'm gonna be so unfit."

With reference to how he viewed himself and his own body, the Little Bit of Love singer continued: "I'm at home in the mirror going to my missus, 'I'm fat' and she's like, 'are you alright? You're not'."

He said he had been "scared of going back" to an unhealthy lifestyle. "I always think I need to stay at this point."

The singer from Bedford has previously spoken on the same podcast about how being physically attacked on a night out when he was younger changed his life and sent him mentally "spiralling".

In the latest episode, the 30-year-old revealed he was in "a good place with it" right now, regarding his body dysmporhia, after having had therapy which he finds helps to "actually love yourself more".

According to the NHS website, body dysmorphia - or body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) - is "a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about flaws in their appearance. These flaws are often unnoticeable to others."

It affects both men and women of all ages but is most common in teenagers and young adults.

"Having BDD does not mean you're vain or self-obsessed," it continues. "It can be very upsetting and have a big impact on your life."

Symptoms can include worrying a lot about a specific area of your body and spending a lot of time comparing your looks with other people's, as well as either looking at yourself in the mirror a lot or avoiding mirrors entirely.

People with body dysmorphia also go to a lot of effort to conceal flaws with clothes and make-up, or pick at their skin.

Grennan also played in this year's Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford

TV and radio presenter Kemp shared some of his own experiences with Grennan on the pressures of body image and around weight in show business.

"I can't look at a picture of myself if it's on the day because it will upset me for the rest of the day," the One Show host noted.

"I'll be judging everything, and it won't be about what I'm actually doing, it'll be about how I look. And I don't want to live like that."

The former model recalled witnessing one extreme example of such pressures for one young woman at a fashion show in Milan. "We were doing the rehearsal, and she fainted on stage," he remembered.

"We tried to give her food, because she needs to eat, but [she was] straight up refusing," he added. "I saw that on a regular basis."

Kemp also recounted how someone in a pub recently told him he looked "a lot fatter on telly".

He said: "I fluctuate a lot, but that's just because sometimes you'll be working more, like anyone."