Adam Richman, who eats for a living, lost nearly five stone – partly inspired by his desire to play in charity football game Soccer Aid 2014.

The Man vs Food host played in ‘The rest of the World’ team against the England side yesterday Sunday 8 June, which also featured James McAvoy, Sam Worthington and Olly Murs (who, incidentally, was taken out by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho).

Richman lost 30kg for the game, which has so far raised £4.2million for UNICEF.

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“Taking part in Soccer Aid was a big motivation to stay fit,” he said.

“I actually cried when I was asked to take part. If I was still 200lb (14 stone) plus, people would have said, 'Maybe you can be a mascot, but I don’t think you can play.' Now, I do intense workouts involving plyometrics, intense running, ball skills drills - I barely have enough energy to get into the shower at the end of the day!”

He shed the weight through eating 100-200 calories every two hours, drinking a “gallon of water” a day and consuming plenty of protein-based foods, such as lean meat and yoghurt.

“If you're a guy who's always been the fun-to-be-around teddy bear, then all of a sudden people are viewing you as sexy, it's nice,” he told British Cosmopolitan, for whom he also posed nude.

Richman’s new show, Man Finds Food, about unique and surprising foods found in the US, airs on the Travel Channel on 2 July.