Ender crisps for Kat and Alfie

EastEnders co-stars Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie have started a joint diet because they reckon the show has made them fat.

The pair, who play Kat and Alfie, are on a mission to fight the flab after piling on the pounds behind the bar of the Queen Vic.

Bosses on the BBC show were reported to have ordered Wallace to shift some weight.

Richie told Now magazine: "Me and Jessie are doing low-carbs. Every day we arrive at work saying, 'What have you had?' We're always discussing what we've eaten.

"We'd both put on weight from being behind the bar and doing scenes together. Jessie would get out a bag of crisps and I'd say, 'Go on then, give us a bag...'."

The 39-year-old star said the couple had decided agains the Atkins diet because it is too time-consuming and expensive, and because Wallace couldn't live without bread or crisps.

Instead Richie eats cereal for breakfast, a baked potato for lunch and no carbohydrates for his evening meal - and he can already see the results.

"I've probably lost close to a stone in eight weeks. It's coming off nice and slowly. I weigh myself in the dressing room and write my weight on the wall," he said.

"Jessie's doing really great as well. She's dropping weight left, right and centre. She's actually looking fantastic at the moment."

Richie denied EastEnders bosses had told them to lose weight but admitted there was a huge pressure on TV stars to keep slim.

And he rushed to defend Wallace, 30, against criticism that she was chubby: "Jessie's a very sexy woman. If that wasn't the case, she wouldn't keep winning all these 'sexiest woman' awards."