Ed Sheeran has embraced a healthier way of living, resulting in a noticeably trimmer figure.

In a candid conversation with Men’s Health UK published on December 18, the 34-year-old musician reflected on a decade of poor lifestyle choices. “From 20 to 30, I didn’t lead the healthiest life,” he admitted. Despite professional success, Sheeran recognized that his personal life lacked balance. “I believe that wellness is closely linked to mental health and overall well-being. I consistently felt terrible about myself, often waking up, glancing in the mirror, and feeling disgusted,” he expressed.

The catalyst for Sheeran’s lifestyle change was fatherhood. Together with his wife, Cherry Seaborn, he shares two daughters: Lyra, aged 5, and Jupiter, aged 3.

He vividly recalled an experience soon after Lyra’s birth: “Lyra was just two weeks old, and my best friend visited. We shared a bottle of wine, and after barely drifting to sleep, Lyra woke up. I realized, ‘I can’t keep drinking if this is how I’m going to feel.’ I wanted to be fully present for those nighttime duties. This desire coincided with my aim to be a responsible father and to feel better about myself, both physically and mentally.”

Throughout 2025, Sheeran has been dedicated to his wellness journey. “At the beginning of the year, I noticed I had gained a significant amount of weight last year. So, I decided to hit the gym hard with a goal to lose a stone,” he shared during a SiriusXM’s Radio Andy appearance on September 24. […]

He added, “I didn’t want to pick my kid up and have my back f***ed and stuff like that, and then also that feeds into professional life. You’re less resilient in your thirties. I was losing my voice more. I would pull muscles in my leg, I pulled a muscle in my back when I was playing live. I wanted to feel superhuman on stage.”

Sheeran has lost approximately 30 pounds over the past five years by lifting weights, doing reformer Pilates and running.

“In my mind, I always thought, ‘I don’t want to look like Arnie,’” he said, referring to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s former bodybuilding career. “[Then, I looked at my trainer Ali Thomas], when you see him he’s so small, but he can deadlift way more than I can. I looked at that and thought maybe I’m wrong about weights.”

Sheeran and Seaborn, 33, started doing Zoom training sessions with Thomas during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

“I didn’t feel f***ed while I was doing it. You’d do eight reps and you’d have a break and then you’d do eight reps and then you’d have a break,” Sheeran said. “So it was a bit more of a relaxed thing getting into it.”

Ed Sheeran recalled having a hard time early in his career when he noticed he didn’t look like every other male artist. “I’m self-conscious anyway, but you get into an industry where you’re getting compared to every other pop star. I was in the One Direction wave, and I’m like, ‘Well, why don’t I have […]

Sheeran’s reformer Pilates routine has also been integral to maintain his energy while on tour.

“Reformer is definitely tied into touring. After the show last night, the last thing I want to do today is bench press and deadlift,” he quipped. “So this is a really gentle way to still have the same level of exercise and feel like I’ve burnt calories, but I’ve also stretched.”

In addition to lifting weights and doing Pilates, Sheeran will switch up his workouts even further.

“Same as food, same as drinking, you have to have variety,” he said. “There are some days that I run, some days that I swim, there’s some days that I will do weights. Then, there are some days I will do reformer.”