Paul Hollywood has turned to his bike to lose weight after putting on more than 50lb while filming the latest series of the Great British Bake Off.
The celebrity chef judge on the hit TV show since 2010 has revealed that he has turned to cycling to shed the pounds - although he won't go so far as to pull on Lycra.
Indeed, the 56-year-old who trained as a sculptor before joining his father in the family's bakery business, admits that he looks a “right berk” in the specialist cycling gear.
Paul told the Daily Star: “I got into cycling this year. I really do enjoy going out and taking a blast down the road. But I look awful in Lycra. I felt like a right berk – I really did. I want to be able to just ride in jeans and trainers and not wear a helmet and look cool. It is unbelievably bad.”
Although he is clocking up the miles in his bid to slim down, Paul does have another gripe about cycling - he says his bike seat should have greater padding.
He said: “I would have baked a load of bagels to put on the bike seat if I knew how hard it was going to be. The seat on some bikes feels like it’s cutting you in half.
"Why can’t they be made with the foam another half inch thicker? Something with a bit of give. It’s embarrassing when you get off the bike and you go to the pub for lunch and you realise you look like you have haemorrhoids because your bum is sticking out with the pads and bumps.”
The Bake Off judge is better known for his love of motorcycles and last year he had hoped to build a motorcycle garage for his beloved bikes at his farmhouse in Kent.
However, the local council claimed it would be an eyesore and forced the plans to be dropped. Plans showed that he had wanted to build the 39ft by 26ft structure in a field next to the £1million farmhouse.
A release date for the 2022 series of the Great British Bake Off is yet to be confirmed. Cinemaholic is reporting that 12 episodes of the show were filmed between April 2022 and August 2022, which means that new episodes could be aired from next month.
