TOWIE star Ferne McCann has always been a fitness fanatic but she says she has had to take a break after her addiction to exercise landed her in hospital.

The 23-year-old was working out with her mum and brother last month when she collapsed and had a fit while stepping out of the gym's Jacuzzi. Ferne was rushed to hospital and although she had no serious health issues, doctors told her that her exercise routine was simply too intense.

"I was lucky," she told the publication. "If I'd passed out in the pool, I could easily have died. After 30 seconds I came around, but then felt myself jerking around uncontrollably," she told Now! magazine.

The main reason for her collapse was a lack of iron, but Ferne took the health scare as a sign to stay out of the gym for a while. 'It had been two hours of exercising a day. It had been too much and it started to become an addiction," she admitted.

She might have been relieved after getting the all-clear from doctors, but Ferne says she was disappointed by some of the results – in particular her pregnancy test! "When my friends heard I'd fainted they all thought I was pregnant…but then I took a test and it was negative. I was extremely disappointed," she said.

The reality star says she wasn't trying for a baby with her long-term boyfriend Charlie Sims, but that she'd had a sneaking suspicion a pregnancy could have been the reason she'd been feeling under the weather.

It seems that her negative pregnancy test hasn't been the only thing troubling Ferne recently, though. The star appeared content and healthy at last month's National Television Awards after her stint in hospital, but her tweets the next morning showed a different side.

Despite looking gorgeous on the red carpet, Ferne admitted on Twitter that she was feeling depressed about her looks, writing, "Do you think if I had work done to my face it would make me beautiful? I can't stop looking at other beaut girls on insta. Feeling blue."

Now though, Ferne says her tweet was written during a low moment after reading some negative comments about herself online. "I stupidly got sucked into what trolls had been saying and was having a bad day," the star confessed.

"Charlie is always telling me I'm beautiful just the way I am, but I honestly don't think anyone is 100 per cent happy with how they look."

We hear ya, sister!