Love Island’s Amber Gill says she struggled with mental health in lockdown

She recently revealed that she lost one stone in just six weeks without having to resort to extreme dieting.

And Amber Gill has opened up about her mental health struggles amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, admitting she felt really ‘overwhelmed’ in the first lockdown.

The 2019 Love Island winner, 23, took to her Instagram stories on Saturday night to ask her 2.7million followers how they were doing during the third national lockdown.

Answering her fans’ responses, she revealed that ‘didn’t want to do anything’ at one point during the pandemic and was having an ‘awful’ time.

She explained: ‘I was so overwhelmed during the first lockdown, I couldn’t do anything. 

‘I got to the point my brain was fried. I couldn’t even meditate. 

‘I couldn’t even take a photo or video for Instagram. I didn’t want to talk, I didn’t want to do nothing. It was awful.

‘But if you just take baby steps and take one day at a time.’

One of her dedicated fans said they related to her feelings, admitting that they were ‘feeling rubbish’ and asked the TV star for ‘any tips’ to improve their mood.

Amber responded by reminding the fan that there is no problem with feeling ‘a bit s**t’ during the Covid crisis and reminded them to ‘listen to themselves’.

She continued: ‘I don’t think there’s a problem with feeling rubbish at the moment, especially if you live in the UK, you have every right to feel a little bit s**t. 

‘But my tips would just be to listen to yourself, if you want to rest, rest, don’t force yourself to be productive.’

Another fan admitted that the third lockdown was not good for their mental health, with Amber sympathising and revealing she ‘knows how they feel’.

The Newcastle native, who frequently uses her social media to speak candidly about important issues, described the ongoing pandemic as ‘absolutely horrible’.

She also slammed the way the Government is handling the crisis, saying she thinks that travellers providing a negative Covid test result on arrival in the UK should have been introduced sooner.

Amber, who recently spent Christmas in Dubai, explained: ‘I know how you feel it’s just absolutely horrible. I just think the way the Government is handling it as well is like what’s upsetting the most. 

‘Like why is in only now that people need a negative test result to get back into the UK. That’s just one drop in the ocean.’

The body confident star, who has just launched her own exercise app Amber Flexx after she lost a stone, said her fitness drive has helped her combat these feelings.

She also insisted that she didn’t want to be ‘one of those celebs’ when she started her fitness plan, saying she instead wanted to be a ‘different voice’ for people.

Amber assured her followers that she doesn’t believe in ‘cutting’ certain food out of her diet and doesn’t normally like rushing to the gym.

She explained: ‘I wanted to do Amber Flexx to be a different voice. I’m not that person that gets up at 5am in the morning and I don’t believe in cutting anything out of your diet.

‘I didn’t guilt myself out of anything. The main goal in life is to be enjoying life. What is fun about eating s**t food that you don’t like?

‘For me it was small steps, so swapping things out for healthier choices and finding meals that I loved.’

The media personality recently revealed how she achieved her dramatic transformation in just six weeks without having to resort to extreme dieting.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline to promote her new fitness app, she previously discussed how exercise has helped her mental health. 

Amber revealed it was her online haters who ‘noticed’ her changing figure before she noticed, as she recalled being fat-shamed by her TikTok followers in November. 

When asked if the cruel comments affected her body image, the reality star responded: ‘I’ve always got horrible comments but I don’t ever let it make me feel self-conscious.

‘I’ve always been quite a body confident person, I think there’s power in everyone being unique. 

‘But I also don’t lie to myself when I know I’m not feeling motivated and taking care of myself the same way I was before.’

She added: ‘I was just trying to survive lockdown, I lost my productivity and I wasn’t speaking to my followers on Instagram like I used to. 

‘It wasn’t about how much I weigh on the scales, whether I’m curvy or not, or what people say, it was about how I felt in my mind.’  

For Amber, she decided to eat healthy and exercise to improve her wellbeing, not to prove anything to others.

Reflecting on her weight gain in 2020, she said: ‘As lockdown went on, I ended on putting on some weight by accident, subconsciously, from being in the house and not being the best cook.

‘After I moved from Newcastle to London, it was very strange for me not being in my home city, so I fell out of my former lifestyle choices.  

‘I wasn’t training or eating properly because I didn’t have my mum in my ear saying “oh, you might have put weight on”.’ 

According to the Love Island star, she even burnt an egg when adapting to life in her own London apartment, and she didn’t immediately recognise her changing physique after living in baggy loungewear. 

She concluded: ‘I needed to do it for my mental health. I think it’s the struggle of being indoors as much.

‘I don’t think as humans we’re supposed to be and not communicating with other people, all of that was put on top of me, so I did it for myself and no one else.’ 

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the current pandemic, Amber took the power back into her own hands by embarking on a six week plan to get herself ‘back into shape,’ before Christmas.

After following her new fitness system Amber FLEXX, which is based on cardio combat moves, she was able to shed the ‘quarantine 17’ pounds and an astonishing six inches off her waist.

Amber has also been following a balanced eating plan devised by TV dietician Jo Travers, which allows her to eat all of her favourite foods as she doesn’t believe in fad diets.   

She added: ‘I’ve been eating really good things, I’m not doing any of these crazy diets that people go on, because I just wouldn’t be able to manage it, especially for six weeks. 

‘I’ve never been the type of person who’s been into dieting, although I am a pescatarian so I don’t eat red meat, I don’t believe in depriving myself.’