Chris Pratt covers the July issue of Men’s Health UK to promote Jurassic World. He discusses his body makeover again. Are you tired of hearing about this subject yet? I’m not. Journalists love to ask actresses how they shed baby weight, and Pratt doesn’t seem to mind discussing his own weight struggles. Besides, this is a health and fitness magazine, so it comes with the territory. The magazine’s readers want to hear about how he went from 300 pounds to being ripped. Pratt’s not being obnoxious about his bod. We’re not seeing him preening, shirtless and glistening, like Joe Manganiello does in these features.
Pratt recently discussed the myth of the “happy plump man“ and how he associated being overweight with being funny (like one of his idols, Chris Farley). He covers that territory more here. He also elaborates on his previous claims that losing weight gave him more energy. Pratt reveals the seriousness of other health issues he was suffering. Considering how he ate up to 4 cheeseburgers in one sitting, I can see why he felt so awful inside:
Why he was unhappy: “I was impotent, fatigued, emotionally depressed. I had real health issues that were affecting me in a major way. It’s bad for your heart, your skin, your system, your spirit.”
His “happy plump man” complex: “I saw myself in an episode [of Parks and Rec] and in the matter of two moments very close together, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m getting fat.’ And then almost immediately I did something else and I thought, ‘Holy crap, I’ve never seen myself funnier.’ And I put the two together. I said to the creators that I wanted to get fatter for the role. They loved it. I announced it to the whole cast, and then it became a bit of a game: how fat can I get and how fast can I get that fat. I would eat three or four cheeseburgers at every table read [of a script].”
His turning point: “I’d gone back and forth, lost weight for Moneyball, got fat again, then trimmed down for Zero Dark Thirty, then gained it all back again for Andy. That’s when I saw Zero Dark Thirty and right after walking out I was like: ‘I’m going to get in shape and I’m never going to be fat again.'”
[From Men’s Health]
It makes sense that Pratt would make a final turn in perspective after seeing himself onscreen in ZDT. Marvel added to the pressure by sending a not-so-subtle fat inspector to Pratt’s home to check on his progress. That had to be rough. Even though Pratt wanted to lose the weight, having someone check on him must have been an indignity. Or perhaps he saw it as an added incentive, I don’t know. Pratt holds a rather unique male perspective on a topic that many women can identify with. It would be annoying if he humblebragged, but he’s telling it straight. And Pratt looks good.
Photos courtesy of Men’s Health/Patrik Giarrdino, Fame/Flynet & WENN
💖loved this actor since “Everwood”; hope he & his little family do well in the years agead😻
OMG I had totally forgotten he was in Everwood!!! How could I have forgotten that???
😻Bright✨loved his character💚
The actress who played Hannah is now April on Grey’s Anatomy. They were such a cute coupke.
He was never really naturally overweight though, so I imagine his weight struggle isn’t as difficult as it would be for someone who actually struggles to keep weight off.
That’s what I was going to say–he never seemed fat, just a little chubby–just had a little extra. Maybe he’s really tall, because I thought 300 lbs sounded like a lot more than he actually weighed.
He was fat.
HE wasn’t FAT.
Chris Christie is FATTT.
Sorry, I disagree. Chris Pratt wasn’t just chubby; he was most certainly overweight to the point of obesity.
http://www.celebitchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/wenn20025203.jpg
And I feel that people aren’t really naturally overweight or obese. It’s not an actual “natural” condition like being born with blue eyes or brown hair. Overweight and obesity with either resolve or increase in direct correlation with one’s diet, exercise, movement and willpower.
I think Pratt always has been on the heavier side in the limelight and certainly struggled with his weight and his relationship with food. No need to minimize his incredibly difficult journey by saying he’s had an easier time keeping the weight off. The willpower and dedication it takes to eat clean and properly almost every meal and every day for a physique like his is incredibly difficult and certainly very commendable.
Signed,
Lost 74 lbs last year and it’s a struggle
AGREED!!! Everything you just said +10000. I too have lost a ton of weight in the past year. People are always trying to qualify facts with opinions and the ‘but they weren’t that heavy to begin with’. These are excuses. EVERYONE can lose weight.
Almost missed the last line where you mention your own weight loss. That’s fantastic!
Yes, everyone can lose weigth, but it’s not equally easy for everyone. My friend gets stressed and forgets to eat and she looses a couple of kg in matter of days.
I have a thyroid condition and it’s awful. Really really hard. I am watching what I eat and I exercise, and I am losing weight, I lost almosr all of it, but sooooo slowly, it’s easly to get discouraged.
Congratulations on the weight loss! And I don’t think people realize how much of a struggle it is unless they have done it themselves. I lost 50 lbs about three years ago and I have to be pretty diligent about what I eat in order to maintain my weight. It has definitely been worth it to feel more fit and strong and have much more energy (and who am I kidding, I like the way I look a lot more too), but maintaining weight loss long term is far more difficult than losing the weight in the first place. People still ask me if I’m on my ‘diet’ – and I tell them that it’s not a diet, it’s how I eat now. If I went back to eating the way I used to (which doesn’t appeal to me at all), guess what, all the weight would come back.
“And I feel that people aren’t really naturally overweight or obese.”
Why use science when you have feelings?
Congrats on the weight loss, but keep in mind your circumstances are your own and stop projecting onto other people.
Genetics absolutely play a role. Lol happy for your weight loss, but your own experience doesn’t negate what has been scientifically proven time and time again. There are uncontrollable circumstances that contribute to weight gain and obesity, for some people. You probably just weren’t one of them.
Weight loss isn’t a zero-sum game. The same two people weighing the same amount, the same sex, go on the same exact diet, and exercise the exact same amount does not mean they will lose the same amount of weight. It’s silly and naive to think things are that simple.
My response is not just to you, but all of the illinformed people that posted here.
That was definitely at his highest. For most of the run of Parks & Rec, he was chubby, but not bordering on obese.
I think he worked incredibly hard to be where he is now – it may be easier for some than others, but it’s never fully easy for anyone. I appreciate that he’s honest about the struggles he faced too.
I mostly cut out processed food, but my vice is morning coffee with cream and honey. Before that I struggled with sugar cravings and flatululence. It was how I lived and it was awful. My weight yo yo’d also, of course. Now I’m my normal weight and rarely have either cravings or gas. I don’t get preachy about it to other people, it’s an individual choice and struggle, at least in the beginning.
What is “naturally overweight”? That’s not even a thing. Overweight and obese conditions are a result of eating too much and not burning off the calories. When a person chooses to course correct (as he did), then they move back into a healthy and appropriate weight for their body.
I’m glad he said these things, because they directly refute the HAES movement. It is NOT healthy to be overweight or obese. One only has to look as someone carrying around an extra 100 plus pounds to know this.
You can see health problems? Man, they should bottle those diagnostics.
Does that mean that people aren’t naturally skinny either? Serious question.
I am so sick if hearing this ‘you eat too much’ if you’re overweight stuff. I didn’t actually eat more in terms of calories before I lost weight, it’s just that my body stored all of it as fat. I actually eat more calories (and fat!) now than I did before my weight loss. A lot of weight loss is actually about what you eat. Now I’m not saying that it is always the case, but I think we can all agree that our bodies are all different and so are metabolisms. We all know a few skinny people who eat a ton of junk and never gain weight and by all accounts of calories in/calories out these people should be very overweight. Some of us get the short end of the stick there and have to watch what we eat all the time no matter how active we are.
> actually eat more calories (and fat!) now than I did before my weight loss
Can I get on my soap box now and vent about how absolutely horrible American food is? So, here is what Americans do – they process every good natural product, strip it of nutrients and yumminess, and then put horrible stuff like corn syrup in it trying to compensate for the lack of yumminess and sell it as “fat-free” and healthy. I don’t want fat-free and it is most definitely not healthy! And I don’t want 200 different brands of cereal, all of which are full of poison!
Done now. Sorry about that.
But there is also another well known fact, American food portions are huge. They are 3-4 times larger than Europeans. There is no getting around the fact that Americans overeat because they simply don’t know how much they should eat, they don’t know they are doing it wrong.
And it is with everything, restaurant food, cookies , drinks etc. etc.
There is actually some scientific evidence that your weight is affected beyond your control: the first is the ‘thrifty phenotype hypothesis’ which suggests that the environment around you can cause changes in your body out of your control, for example, poor fetal nutrition (i.e. the mum is starving/under-eating when pregnant) leads to increased incidence of obesity in later life due to irreversible changes your body makes in the fetus to ensure you survive.
The other is the ‘thrifty genotype hypothesis’ which suggests there are genetic dispositions to being overweight, for example the number of brown fat cells you have (good fat as they use more energy) as opposed to white fat cells (normally in cellulite).
Also as someone mentioned thyroid conditions and other hormonal imbalances will promote weight loss or weight gain.
Overall it can be summarised with total energy input must to equal to total energy output – input is very easy to measure but for some people this ‘output’ will vary considerably as their basic metabolic processes will vary, and these cannot always be changed.
This is not an excuse, but it will be easier for some to lose weight than gain it and vice versa. With Chris it’s a bit different though as he actually CHOSE to put on all that weight, rather than it just happening, so I have less sympathy for him that someone who seems to emotionally struggle and it creeps up (Britney, Jessica Simpson etc)
Sorry but I just did a science exam today and this was the subject one of the questions and my brain won’t switch off….
He looks good!!! He’s my type.
So very tired of hearing about his weight loss. Good for you dude, now move on!
He tells it like it is, a breath of fresh air with all the HAES bs that’s everywhere these days.
Yes, this!! It’s so sad that some people can’t even see how obese he was. People literally can’t see the fat anymore, which is bizarre and dangerous.
Jurassic World looks unfortunate.
I would love a fat inspector! Keep me in check!
Ha. Ha Vic, me too!
I like Chris Pratt except for his hunting ‘hobby’
I was going to write that exactly. Apart from it I actually respect the fact that he is bringing attention to an issue that is usually not talked about when men are concerned. And it also makes me question actors who gain/loose weight like “oh my god, they do it for the art” when there are consequences for their health. Usually the audience applauds but I take with a grain of salt.
And his blind USA # 1 USA#1 thing, other than a great guy.
I didn’t see that. I probably missed that interview ^_^ But if true, he is not the only American with that mindset.
What’s that about?
> What’s that about?
There was an article making rounds about a week or so ago , about Pratt and his family, the American flag, pledge of allegiance, living on a farm and the whole enchilada.
He taught his kid the pledge of allegiance, calm down.
His 3 y.o. kid, the fact that most Americans don’t even understand how wrong that is , is scary in itself.
These are the uncomfortable truths that people don’t tell you when they promote big bodies, dadbods, obesity and “healthy at every size.” I’m all for body positivity and diversity, but not when it’s pretending to be something that it’s not. I hate it when people say very large people are healthy. “How do you know they’re not healthy?” Logic. It cannot be easy to carry all that weight around, becoming impotent, fatigued, depressed. I applaud Chris for being so honest, hopefully he’ll inspire more people to make necessary changes in their lives. Not for vanity’s sake, but for themselves. We don’t see this problem in other countries, but America is in such denial over obesity that it’s SCARY.
Absolutely Annie! I struggled so much with my weight and now that I’ve overcome it I love seeing other people rediscover happiness and their bodies at a healthy place. but seeing the “pro-obesity” crowds (and HAES) are profoundly disturbing only because they are promoting everything BUT health/facts.
Yep. All my family are fat and they ALL have health issues because of this. But if you read interviews with fat activists etc apparently they’re all super fit and run marathons. This is size 24 (26?) Tess Munster standing up, she claims she’s perfectly healthy. http://i.imgur.com/gxG25PM.gifv
People on Reddit have dug up old interviews with Tess from before she adopted the “yay I’m fat” worldview. She used to openly admit that she couldn’t play with her son in the way she would like because she couldn’t get down on the floor very easily and got winded quick. How is that healthy – emotionally as well as physically? It’s not. Tess has limitations because of her weight, and denying them doesn’t help.
If you want to see a true mess, look at Ragan Chastain (and I say that with love). She decided to run/walk a marathon to show that fat people (Ragen is not merely overweight, she’s fairly obese) can be healthy. She would up having to walk it over a period of about 13 hours – the second to last participant was a woman in her late 70s, who finished 2 hours before Ragen did. It was basically a disaster. And now she’s allegedly training for an Ironman next year (and that’s going about as well as you’d think). On some level, it’s sad to see people who are putting themselves at risk because they can’t accept some limitations.
lol, yeah I;m aware of this person
As for Tess, I think these quotes come from her website. Old posts she kept on her blog, I read them quite recently. Can’t find them there atm, hmmm…
Great comment. I really hate it when people point out the health effects of obesity and get slammed for “fat shaming”. So many heavy people claim they are healthy, but the long term effects can be devastating. I have a friend who is obese and even though her blood work and heart are OK, she has knee and balance problems. She knows she’s at risk for other problems, wants to be healthy long term, and is worried enough to finally get serious about losing weight. She’s sticking with her program and is in it for the long haul.
Knee problems are very common in the US. From what I am seeing about 50% of people are needing knee replacements in their 60s. And the noticeable factor is their weight.
I have two overweight coworkers in their 50s and they are already having serious knee problems, to the point that they have to use canes and do physical therapy. They also can’t exercise, so it makes the problem worse.
I agree Annie, but here is my take on it. I gained quite a bit of weight around puberty and then gained another 20 lbs after night school. I was pretty strong and my weight didn’t hold me back from doing any daily activities. It wasn’t until I lost 50 lbs that I realized just how much fitter and stronger I could be and how amazing it is possible to feel. I was definitely in denial and I also didn’t think it was physically possible for me to be as small as I am now (size 6, nothing extreme) because I saw myself a certain way for so long. What’s interesting though, is how quickly I got used to my new size. When I look at old pictures I barely recognize myself. Now I was ‘only’ a size 14/16 at my heaviest, so I can only imagine the difference in comfort level and fitness when someone loses more weight!
But fat acceptance isn’t about saying being fat is healthy, it’s about saying that wheter or not someone else is healthy is none of my damned bussiness. It’s about letting overweight people live without being judged every second of their life.
That may have been the movement’s hopeful and commendable starting point but it has rapidly devolved into the HAES mess discussed above. I work with medical records all day long and I can literally SEE the correlation between people’s weight and their health conditions. No one will ever convince me that you can be “HAES” because the evidence is right in front of me, that you cannot. Maybe in your twenties and thiorties if you’re lucky, but just wait until you hit forty.
It’s an oddly similar thing with people who abuse cocaine too. Theyre fine, theyre fine, theure fine, and then they get a bit older and BAM! All kinds of cardiac complications.
This. And let’s get real now, if you think fat-shamers fat-shame because they are worried about said person’s health then… well, there’s a lot of dissapointment coming your way.
Agreed, Franca.
Actually, according to one source I read, it’s really only at the higher order obesity – not just overweight – is when it’s unhealthy. Underweight is far more dangerous.
This is the opposite of true.
I read a number of articles that researched longevity and I remember that actually to live longer you need to slightly under-eat.
From just general experience, nothing to do with research, If you look at people who live longer than average you have a lot of skinny Asians who don’t eat much and don’t eat much of meat. Also I think yogis have the same belief, which they came through observation.
Actually health at every size is about meeting people where they are and encouraging them to make healthier choices no matter what size they are, and size acceptance is about allowing people of all sizes to feel they good about themselves and creating a place where people aren’t made to feel ashamed about who they are or what they look like. And despite what you may think the ability to be healthy does not stop at a certain size or weight and no you cannot use your faulty “logic” to tell how healthy someone is or isn’t. Looking at someone won’t tell you what or how much they eat, if or what they do for exercise and it sure as hell doesn’t tell you anything about how their body functions (that’s kind of why we have tests to tell us that). There are a lot of very ill larger people as well as a lot of very ill thin people (yes thin people get sick too…SHOCKING!!!)
And can we please stop with the BS company line about being all for body diversity but what about health. People use health as their PC way to be d**ks about others weight the same way people call us thugs instead of the N-word. I hate when people smoke not because im thinking of their health but because I think its unpleasing. When you throw out a line about body diversity and then every other line drips with disdain for larger people your true intent comes to light.
If you don’t like HAES or Dad bods or any of that stuff fine it’s not here for you, but they exist for someone who needs them. For the person that needs the world to be just a little bit kinder, the person that needs to feel like they are seen, and if these things make someone feel like better and it gets them out in the world living a fuller life who the hell are you to come and piss all over it because you don’t agree. There will be a lot of things you don’t agree with or that don’t apply to you, but that doesn’t mean they don’t serve a purpose. Chris feels better having lost weight good, if he said he felt great heavier I’d say good as well. Its his body and only he can say how it feels.
We would all be better served worrying less about other peoples health and focusing more on our own.
Did anyone see him on Graham Norton recently? He was funnier than I expected, in a sort of goofy, ditzy way, seemed like he’d be a really hard guy to dislike. Good-humored and not mean-spirited, just out to have fun always. Also he looked daaaaaaamn good.
I remember they explained his weight loss in Parks and Rec by saying he “stopped drinking beer” and Ben was like “how much were you DRINKING?” I love that show.
Yes, that was so funny, such good writing. I love that show too!
Perhaps a bit off topic but I always felt that actors take big risks with their health and looks (which are important for actors) when they gain/lose weight for the roles. Is it really necessary?
I think there are several actors who never looked the same after the dramatic weight changes, and not in a good way. I cringe every time someone announces bulking up for a role .
But Oscars sure love actors messing with their weight.
Yep, Tom Hanks says it contributed to him getting Type 2 diabetes. Yo-yo-ing up and down in weight is so bad for your health.
I cringe too when people applaud an actor’s massive weight loss or gain. Sometimes it’s essential to a role (say, Fassbender in Hunger) but often it’s not (Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler). We shouldn’t be encouraging it. Makeup, effects, costume, lighting etc should be the first port of call when an actor needs to be transformed.
Love the Seattle fan wearing a Patriots shirt.
As for his weight, he said he was suffering impotency, that IS a health problem, especially in one so young. It is also really unusual for a guy to admit that. Being overweight caused him health problems
I love he is so down to earth and honest. Go Chris!!
oh damn, I just read the cat incident. I take my previous post back. Damn Pratt, you were my Evans´ replacement! Now I need to find someone else….did Aidan Turnet do something regrettable? 🙂