Coronation Street star Colson Smith has admitted he was "self-harming" with food before losing weight.
Colson, who plays Craig Tinker on the ITV soap, has completely transformed his appearance over the past 18 months by shedding the pounds.
Colson, 22, is now set to release a documentary about his weight loss journey and the reasons why he decided to change his life - reports the Manchester Evening News.
Bored of Being the Fat Kid is set to be released next week, on June 2, and will see him tell the story in his own words.
He says leaving home at a young age to move to Manchester for Coronation Street caused him to develop unhealthy food habits.
Colson said: "I got myself into a really unhealthy position where, I say in the documentary, food was a self-harm to me.
“It was my comfort and I didn’t realise how much damage I was doing to myself with it. Now I’ve changed all of that without realising that I’ve changed.”
“I respect myself. I had no respect for myself and now I do."
Colson hasn't revealed exactly how much weight he's lost but said he had "always been the fat kid" growing up.
He said: “Growing up in life, in work, in every kind of situation, I was always the fat kid.
“That’s just who I was and it’s kind of the identity I ended up with.”
However when he reached 21 Colson said he decided to "mix it up" and change how people saw him.
He said: "The reason I decided to do it now is because I thought it was right for me, we tied in that it could be right for Craig and it was just something I wanted to do.
“I knew from day one that I was going to do it. I think when you tell people you’re going to do it they’re like ‘yeah, not a chance’.
“But I was always confident in myself that I knew what I was doing.”
But despite his success Colson said he found it difficult when people started to notice his shrinking frame.
He said: “When you lose weight I guess it’s something that everyone can see. When you’re fat, nobody says to your face, ‘you’re fat’.
“A friend would never turn round and say ‘you need some help here,’ but when you start to lose some weight, people congratulate you.
“Now I’m not the sort of person who wants to draw attention to themselves. I don’t particularly enjoy being in the public eye but I know what I want to do for my job and I know you get the acting for free and everything else comes with it.”
“When people started to realise and I started to get the attention and be congratulated, I found that difficult because I was being congratulated for not looking the way I looked.”
He says he eventually realised he should say thank you and keep chipping away to reach his own goals.
But there’s one thing he won’t be doing.
He said: “I put one picture on Instagram and I went, ‘I’m not f*****g doing that again’."
*Colson's short film, Bored Of Being The Fat Kid, is released Wednesday June 2 on his Youtube channel
