Peter Kay says he spent 48 years chasing weight loss: do you recognise these 5 everyday pitfalls?

A national favourite has been rethinking food, fame and ageing, while mapping an arena run that stretches into 2026.

In Salford, the stand-up star opened up about decades of dieting, a blunt moment of self-awareness, and the routines now keeping him steady. He also laid out an arena schedule that will take him across the country after a record-breaking London residency.

A lifetime chasing the scales

Peter Kay, 52, told an audience at The Lowry that he felt as though he had spent nearly all his life trying to slim down. He spoke candidly about joining multiple programmes, bouncing between plans, and counting points and syns more times than he could remember. The goal kept shifting. The appetite never seemed to switch off.

After years of yo-yo attempts, Kay says he changed his focus from dieting for size to eating for health.

He described how, over time, humour masked worry. Age sharpened his thinking. He wanted to protect his energy for family, for work, and for the long months on the road ahead.

The moment that forced a rethink

Kay recalled a night at the cinema when he slipped out under the pretext of a toilet break and bought a hot dog. He caught his reflection in a movie poster and felt a surge of shame and stubbornness at once. He binned the food. Then, almost in the same breath, he rescued it and ate it anyway. The scene stuck with him. It revealed how often emotion, not hunger, was steering his choices.

A small act — throwing away a snack, then fishing it back — became a mirror for years of automatic habits.

From pram pies to hidden biscuits

He traced his appetite to childhood routines. He said family treats were normal, often generous, and sometimes secret. Pies appeared at school. Biscuits hid in the tumble dryer at home. He learned to look for them. He learned to expect them. Those patterns felt funny in the telling, yet they also set tracks that took work to leave.

What his story echoes about everyday traps

Many readers will recognise familiar patterns in his account. The specifics are his, but the traps are common. These are the sorts of pitfalls people report when weight becomes a lifelong project rather than a short plan.

• Serial dieting without changing routines at home or work.
• Secret eating that feeds a cycle of guilt and repeat behaviour.
• Using quick snacks to soothe stress, boredom or nerves.
• Keeping high-calorie foods within easy reach, then relying on willpower.
• Labelling lapses as failure, which makes the next binge more likely.

Shifting the focus away from perfection and towards consistent, small routines can cut the sting of lapses.

Why secret eating matters

Health services describe binge eating as repeated episodes of eating a large amount of food quickly, often in private, with a sense of loss of control. Shame can follow. People can feel fine in public and overwhelmed alone. Kay’s cinema story illustrates the loop in miniature: desire, impulse, guilt, repeat. Breaking that loop tends to involve planning, not just grit. Practical steps include regular meals, removing triggers from the house, and asking for support when patterns feel stuck.

Back on stage, stronger routines

Kay stepped back from touring in 2017 for family reasons. He returned in 2021 for charity shows, then in 2022 announced a new arena run. The diary since then has been relentless. A monthly residency at London’s O2 Arena from December 2024 to July 2025 set records. That schedule demands stamina. He now talks about food and rest as part of the job, not just an afterthought. Crowd energy helps. The discipline behind the scenes helps more.

What fans can expect on tour

The stand-up is taking his Better Late Than Never tour to arenas across the UK and Ireland through April 2026. Cities on the route include Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, with more stops along the way. The material evolves from night to night, but the theme of getting older, getting wiser and getting back on the road runs through the set. The pace remains brisk.

What this means for readers wrestling with food

Kay’s account blends humour with a clear-eyed view of habit. The weight-loss groups gave him structure. The insight came when he recognised patterns that sabotaged that structure. People often find change sticks when they build predictable meals, keep tempting foods out of reach, and plan for social moments where impulse strikes. Small wins compound. Slips happen. The response to the slip shapes the next day.

Helpful ways to test your own triggers

You can run a simple seven-day check-in. Note when you feel the urge to snack. Write down the time, place, feeling, and what you ate. Patterns usually appear after a week.

• Time: Is it late evening, or the commute home?
• Place: Does it happen at the cinema, the sofa, or the car?
• Feeling: Are you tired, stressed, or bored?
• Food: Is it always something sweet, crunchy, or salty?
• Plan: What could you change in advance to make the next trigger easier?

If the pattern feels bigger than you can manage alone, many people speak to a GP or a registered dietitian. Support can include guided self-help, talking therapies and structured eating plans. These options aim to reduce secret eating, reduce guilt, and make meals regular and calm.

Changing the environment — not relying only on willpower — often turns a fragile plan into a steady routine.

The bigger picture

Weight intersects with work, family and public life. For a touring comic, long drives, late finishes and green-room snacks become daily hurdles. For readers, it might be shift work, childcare or the nightly scroll. Kay’s story underlines that age can bring perspective. Many people decide to protect energy for the things they value most. Food choices then shift from short bursts of control to a calmer, longer run.

Fans heading to the arenas will see a performer who has faced down old habits and put new ones in place. The show carries the rhythm of that change. It is funny. It is brisk. It is also rooted in a very ordinary set of choices made one day at a time.