Liam Payne thinks it's "important" to have someone to confide in about "everything"

Asked what's helped him cope, he said: "Friends that are there for you... [talking to] one of my managers that I'm quite close with. I think a lot of guys struggle to talk about what the hell is going on a lot of the time.

"And for me and him, actually we're quite heart on our sleeves sort of people, so we talk a lot about different things. But I think if I didn't have that, someone to share that with, I think I would have struggled a hell of a lot more.

"I mean, we literally talk about everything. We're probably too honest with each other!

"But I think it's important that everybody has that person."

The former One Direction hunk admitted it was nice to have a period of time where he didn't have to worry about what he looked like, but reassessing his eating habits to be more healthy again as helped him to feel better.

He told the UK's Glamour magazine online: "I think the only thing that's really helped me through that is just learning to work out again and learning to put boundaries in for myself in terms of what food I'm eating.

"As a pop star, I think you're always quite weight conscious. My job has always been about having to work out, doing underwear modelling and all that sort of thing, it makes you quite body conscious at times. It was nice to be able to just sit and eat pizza and chocolate, I really enjoyed that.

"But getting myself back into the habit of working out and then having a cheat day put in place, so that there was more boundaries in line, I think has definitely helped me.

"I'm quite fortunate that I don't put a stack of weight on, although I have gone up rather a lot in size over this time. But I think it was more about routine for me than anything."

And Liam has looked for "small victories" in every day.

He added: "And I always say, having a small victory before you get into bed at night time. Or life just gets depressing.

"Whether that small victory is making sure you've spoken to a family member, you've worked out, or whether you did learn to do something today, just something small.

"There's one task that you literally can't be a**** with, you should get done just on the day, so that you feel good about yourself when you get into bed."