Shawn Mendes says he used to trade sleep for 2-hour workouts out of fear that his fans would stop liking him if he wasn't in perfect shape

• Shawn Mendes spoke to British GQ for a new interview and said that pressure to be the "pinnacle of fitness" led him to wake up two hours early so he could exercise.
• The "Wonder" singer said he got into this fitness routine out of fear that if he wasn't physically fit, he'd lose fans.
• Mendes credited girlfriend Camila Cabello with helping to change his perspective and be more comfortable with his body.

Shawn Mendes opened up about the pressure he was under to have a perfect body, which led him to sacrifice sleep so he could wake up early and exercise.

"Some days I would have three hours of sleep, [because] I'd get up two hours early just to be able to work out," the 22-year-old singer told British GQ in a new interview.

Mendes said the constant need to be the "pinnacle of fitness" negatively affected him, and he'd think to himself, "If you don't work out, you're going to lose fans."

The "Wonder" singer, who rose to fame as an internet personality on the now-defunct app Vine, also said that his 2019 Calvin Klein campaign exacerbated his concern.

He credited meditating, journaling, and girlfriend Camila Cabello with helping him to come to terms with his physique.

Regarding Cabello, Mendes said that her classy and "empathetic" reaction to public scrutiny about her own body "really changed my view of mine. It really changed my life."

"Taking that extra few hours of sleep, instead of waking up to pump iron, is a better choice sometimes," the singer said.

Mendes also previously discussed his diet and exercise routine in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone.

"I eat tons of carbs," the "Treat You Better" singer said.

"I just work out a lot, dude. I go to the gym every morning, and I'm obsessed with fitness and just staying active. But I'm not the best to talk about when it comes to diet. If there's fries in front of me, I'm definitely not gonna say no."

• Read more:
• Shawn Mendes says he'll never be able to write a song that adequately depicts his relationship with Camila Cabello
• 'The Kissing Booth 2' star Jacob Elordi explains why he changed his fitness routine: 'It was so much working out and I hated every second of it'
• 'The Batman' star Robert Pattinson says he refuses to exercise while quarantined: 'If you're working out all the time, you're part of the problem'