Chris Pratt ballooned to 300 pounds: "I was impotent"
"Jurassic World" star Chris Pratt smolders in July's Men's Health U.K. and gets candid about his former candy crush in the interview, admitting that in 2013 he rounded out at 300 pounds when he was still playing Andy on "Parks and Recreation."
"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," Pratt said. "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."
The association he made between fat and funny became dangerous because he consciously decided he wanted to get fatter.
"I announced it to the whole cast, and then it became a bit of a game: How fat can I get and how fast," he told the magazine. "I would eat four burgers at every read. I became really fat and got up to almost 300 pounds. 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."
After trimming down to film "Zero Dark Thirty" in 2011, Pratt said he again threw caution to the wind.
"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," he recalled.
Pratt partly blamed his blissful relationship with his wife Anna Farris, 37, for over-indulging. "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. 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."
But the extra pounds didn't translate into any happiness for the actor, who admitted to the magazine that he became impotent, fatigued and emotionally depressed and had other major health issues that affected him significantly.
Once "Zero Dark Thirty" hit the big screen, his former self became inspiration for his present and future self, and as dad to his two-year-old son, Jack.
"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.' "
His pledge to fitness coincided with his training regiment to become the ultra-ripped superhero Peter Quill (Star-Lord) in last summer's blockbuster "Guardians of the Galaxy." He swam, ran, biked, boxed and trained for a triathalon, and lost more than than 60 pounds. And he's still working with a trainer at least six days a week, he said.
The full interview can be found in Men's Health U.K.'s July 2015 issue.