When you see Chris Pratt, complete with six pack and guns playing Star-Lord, it’s easy to forget he made his name as the chubby and loveable Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation.
Pratt has expressed his enjoyment of gaining and losing weight for movie parts, but also talked about his battle with keeping weight off, as reported by Looper.
For his most recent part in the Marvel hit, he was given a pretty strict warning from producers that if he got fat, he could get fired.
Chris’s chubbiness for his role of Andy was deliberate for the part, but he had to lose a lot of it so he could come across as a believable baseball player in Moneyball.
The fluctuations didn’t stop there as Chris had to become even more ripped to play a tier one operator for Zero Dark Thirty in 2012, before ballooning by 60 pounds for his part alongside Vince Vaughn in Delivery Man.
Speaking to Vulture, Chris said:
I just like to gain weight and lose weight.
It’s a rollercoaster. I just want to do this. I want to touch God.
One of the main ways that Chris lost his weight for his Star-Lord role was to go ‘cold turkey’ on alcohol.
Due to the empty calories in drinks, it’s easy to put on weight, so Pratt didn’t drink for seven or eight months.
While trying to get a ripped physique for Zero Dark Thirty, he tried to starve himself while training with a vigorous exercise routine.
Of course this failed in the long term as his body had no fuel to run on, and he ended up having to get shoulder surgery and wore himself down.
Soon, with proper training and advice, Chris found the ‘sweet spot’ of following a plan with a good diet and strict exercise meaning he would put an end to his yo yo dieting.
Dropping 60 pounds in six months took three to four hours a day of working out with a former navy seal as a trainer.
He was doing heavy lifts, swimming, mountain biking, cardio, rowing, cross-fit and calisthenics, for four to six workouts per week.
Oh yeah and he competed in the 70.3 mile triathlon Ironman.
The guy is a machine.
