Jodie Marsh has insisted that she did not have any chemical assistance in achieving her new look.
The former glamour girl revealed her new muscles yesterday after qualifying for the Natural Physique Association British championships. Marsh's transformation is part of her new TV series for DMAX.
Marsh explained on ITV's This Morning: "The whole thing is for a television show, but actually I wanted to do this anyway, I just offered them the chance to follow it because I thought it'd be fascinating.
"My trainer Tim Sharp approach me three years ago and said I can get you fit. So for the last three years I've been doing body building just to keep in shape and all along Tim had said to me, 'You should do a competition', because I had adapted to it so well and my body had changed so quickly.
"I've been body building for three years but I was given eight weeks by the Discovery Channel to actually get in shape for the competition because prior to that I had put on a stone of fat, so I had to lose the stone of fat and then get ripped for this competition."
Speaking about the reaction to the pictures published yesterday, Marsh told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that she was not the "16 stone beast of a man" some thought she appeared.
"When I tense you can still see all the muscle and definition and it's there, but I'm just really toned and really fit," she said. "Obviously those pictures you can't tell how big I am but sitting here next to you, you can see that I'm small and petite and a size six. I'm 5ft 2in, eight stone, I'm not huge.
"I do three hours of cardio a day, two hours weights a day, an hour of abs a day, an hour of posing and routine practice a day... these are all your muscle poses, and then you have to do a routine to dance music which incorporates all the body-building poses. It's really hard - the posing is harder than any weight training in the gym! Because you have to hold it for so long and you have to tense every single muscle in your body at the same time."
Asked if she had used any chemicals to achieve her muscles, Marsh responded: "No, absolutely not! And for the TV show you'll see that I had to be tested - all of these shows are natural body builder shows and if you get caught taking any substances you are banned for life and you're not allowed to compete, so this is 100% natural and I'm really proud of that.
"I'm a vegetarian and most body builders live on fish and chicken - so I've lived on egg whites and protein shakes. I have seven protein shakes - it's a special designed one that doesn't have any carbs in it."
Marsh said that her new look had made her feel better about herself, explaining: "This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life but also the best thing. I feel sexier and amazing - I'm buzzing every day - I can't believe it's my body, even when I look at pictures of myself.
Pictured above with trainer Tim Sharp and This Morning's Coleen Nolan
"I'm single... but the body-building men are gorgeous, I have to say... when I walked into my first show I didn't know where to look, there are these gorgeous men with the best bodies you have ever seen in your life and my eyes were falling out of my head!"
Marsh, 32, added: "I'd never seen so many fit men on one room. I had my eye on all of them - I took about five phone numbers!"
Jodie Marsh: Bodybuilder will premiere on DMAX in January.
> Jodie Marsh poll: What do you think of her new muscles?
> Jodie Marsh: FHM pinup to professional bodybuilder - pictures
