Hamza Yassin has lost a stone while competing on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
Hamza Yassin has lost a stone while on Strictly
The ‘Countryfile’ presenter admitted to dropping an "unheard of" amount of weight while training nine hours a day for the BBC One Latin and ballroom competition with his professional partner Jowita Przystal.
The 32-year-old broadcaster said: "I've lost a lot of weight already, around 6.5kg [1.02-stone], which is unheard of really.
"But if you're training nine hours a day you kind of get that. It's hard.
“Everything just aches and aches. With the foxtrot my knees ached, then it was my knees and my lower back for the jive, and this week it's a hard dance."
"These guys [the professional dancers] have been doing it for 12 to 15 years and we have to come to their standards in four days.
"We [the celebrities] are never going to get to their standards, but we still have to learn the basics and do a show and perform and deliver it on a Saturday.
"It's kind of crazy, but I'm absolutely enjoying it."
Hamza - who is competing alongside Jayde Adams, Will Mellor and Matt Goss, among others - confessed the gruelling days get “tough” by mid-afternoon, but Jowita helps him to get back on track.
He said: "It does get tough sometimes. Jowita's fitness levels are out of this world, but by about three or four o'clock I'm flagging, so she has to pull out all the stops to bring my energy back up again."
The ‘Animal Park’ host compared days “stuck” in the dance studio to days spent in a classroom.
Hamza added to BBC Radio Scotland: “It’s a little bit like school
“You're stuck in a studio listening to the same song a million times and you're trying to do the steps and everything. But it's enjoyable, because if you have a good partner then time flies. Some days we look at the clock and we haven't even eaten lunch and I say, 'Wow, now I understand why I'm hungry.' "
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