I’m A Celebrity’s Fred Sirieix has spoken out about his weight loss while in the jungle, adding that they were all ‘becoming smaller by the day’.
The 51-year-old First Dates host lasted 17 days on the reality show, alongside Josie Gibson and Nigel Farage, and saw Made in Chelsea star Sam Thompson named champion.
During the experience, he was forced to eat mostly rice and beans, something many I’m A Celebrity graduates have grumbled about in the past, with some even yearning for actual food while the cameras weren’t filming.
And now Fred has revealed just how much the jungle cost him.
‘Back training today for the first time since I got out of the jungle,’ Fred posted on Instagram beside a photo of weighing scales.
‘While I was in there I trained everyday for 20 mins. Basic stuff – #301 push ups #100 squats #100 reverse squats. A set on the minute for 20 minutes.’
He went on: ‘The low calorie diet of rice and beans really takes its toll on the body after a while. We were all getting smaller by the day.
‘I lost quite a bit of weight but not as much as I would have done if I did not exercise. Keeping active and staying strong never made more sense!
‘But today was hard. I pushed through. I know what I need to do – build my muscles up again. It will take a little time.
‘I’m still about 73.8kgs which is 3kgs less than when I left for Australia. The stomach shrinks to cope with hunger and so now I eat much less as a result 😳🤷🏻♂️😂.’
Fred captioned a photo of himself naked in the bush, ‘Oh! And I recently learned that I was Torso of the Week. That made me really pleased.
‘The photo and headline took me back to the time when I was a teenager. I was very skinny. Not really attractive. I knew it. I felt it.
‘It was embarrassing me at times. It was not easy to work through the lack of confidence associated with a negative body image. But I did it. Anyway here I am. Talking to my young self. And now I’m TORSO OF THE WEEK 🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
‘None of this means anything really. What matters is – are you happy?’
While the I’m A Celebrity contestants’ meals were limited, Fred frequently found himself cooking for the others, whether they liked it or not.
At times, his advice to This Morning star Josie sparked tension in the camp, with Fred later telling hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly: ‘She doesn’t know what she’s doing in the kitchen. She’s just making it up as she goes along. So I think there’s a lot at stake with the food.’
‘And it’s not just what you’re cooking at the moment which of course is going to be good, because the produce is incredible, it is what you can do the next day with the leftovers or the bones and are you able to recycle everything.
He continued: ‘You really need the calories, and the calories, you’ve got to find them whenever you can. So I think we missed out on quite a few good meals.’
Fred’s jungle workouts with JLS vocalist Marvin Humes drew a lot of attention as he showed off his remarkable abs.
‘Fred can be shirtless in the jungle any day,’ one viewer, @ar1anatours, wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
‘Fred’s quite the looker ain’t he?’ @united_boy2002 agreed.
I’m A Celebrity is available to watch on ITVX.
