Lewis Capaldi has claimed he piled on the pounds after going vegetarian and substituting meat for pizza and chips.

The Scottish pop star has revealed he was shocked when he put on the weight after shedding two stone in 2018, though he hasn't ruled out trying to go meat free again.

According to the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column, Lewis said: ''I lost two stone at the end of 2018, and I thought, 'Now I'm slimmed down a bit I'll be a vegetarian, I'll keep the weight off and I'll be doing good for the environment.

''But, oh my God, I got so fat and put all that weight back on as I was substituting meat and veg for the vegetarian option which was pizza and chips.''

During the coronavirus lockdown, the 'Before You Go' hitmaker - who last week took over Deliveroo's Instagram to host lunch - has also taken up running, but insisted it's ''horrible''.

He added: ''I go on runs, I've been running every morning and it's been horrible.''

The 23-year-old singer revealed at the start of the year that he planned to lose some weight and release new music.

He teased: ''It's gonna be a good year; going to try to lose some weight. I'll probably want to release the first single to my second album by the end of 2020.''

Lewis recently joked the follow-up to his record-breaking debut album, 'Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent', could be inspired by memes.

Meanwhile, the 'Someone You Loved' hitmaker shared seven unreleased songs - which weren't included on his first record - with fans on social media, despite admitting he wasn't sure if he was actually allowed to air them.

He said: ''This is a song that's never been heard before from me. We did this on the same day we did 'Someone You Loved'.

''Am I allowed to do this? I think so. I'll just f***ing play it any way.

''We wrote this song first -- it's half-finished, so the words are all over the shop and stuff.

''And then we decided to stop writing this song and instead write 'Someone You Loved.'''