Mark Wahlberg has revealed that he consumed a diet of 11,000 calories in a bid to quickly pile on the pounds for a movie role.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show on Thursday, July 15 to promote his upcoming drama Joe Bell, Jimmy Fallon asked the 50-year-old The Departed actor about another of his latest projects - a movie titled Stu.
The usually ripped actor put on around 20 pounds over a period of around four weeks in his portrayal of a real-life former boxer who later became a priest.
Check out the interview here:"Unfortunately, I had to consume, for two weeks, 7,000 calories, and then for another two weeks, 11,000 calories," he shared. "And it was fun for about an hour. It's such a hard, physical thing to do."
He added: "Losing weight, you just kind of tough it out - you just don't eat, and exercise. And this, even when you're full, I would wake up after a meal and have another meal. I was eating every three hours. It was not fun."
When Fallon asked the actor whether he felt it was more difficult to gain and lose weight now that he has reached 50, he said: "Absolutely. Once the metabolism slows down, it gets really difficult. I'd been trying to get this movie made for three years. We only had 30 days to shoot it. And so I wanted to really make it happen."
The actor, who was also aided by a fat suit and prosthetics, looked unrecognizable in images taken of him in character back in May.
At one point, Mark was eating around eight meals a day, about every three hours, his personal chef Lawrence Duncan explained to E! News.
Lawrence said: "We meet with a team of doctors who do his bloodwork and a nutritionist who gives us a full breakdown of what his body needs, what his body’s lacking and basically come up with a meal plan accordingly.
"We do good carbohydrates, dark green vegetables, and then, just switch up the protein throughout the day and, at least, a dozen eggs a day.’