Actor Chris Pratt says he yo-yoed for years after he packed on the pounds for his role as the lovable Andy Dwyer on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” But when he caught a glimpse of himself on the show, he knew it was time to lose the extra weight, Pratt told Men’s Health UK.
“I was impotent, fatigued, emotionally depressed,” he said. “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.”
Pratt who stars as the incredibly buff Peter Quill on “Guardians of the Galaxy” said he had a very real struggle with his health.
“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,” Pratt said. “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.’”
At one point, Pratt said, he weighed in at 300 pounds two years ago and would eat three to four hamburgers at every “Parks and Rec” table read.
“I saw myself in an episode and in the matter of two moments very close together, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m getting fat,’” he says. “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.”
Pratt credits his weight loss to exercise and an extreme change in diet, one that he says affected his marriage to Anna Faris.
“We were drinking a lot of wine and having fun. I was her little Hansel out in the woods and she was fattening me up to put me in the fire,” he said of his relationship with his wife, whom he married in 2009. “It was like Momma Bear and Papa Bear. She would eat a little bit, I would eat all of mine and the rest of hers.”
Pratt will be putting his new body to good use as he promotes his upcoming movie, “Jurassic World,” out on June 12.