This beefcake just trimmed the fat.
Chris Hemsworth had to eat roughly one-quarter of his normal intake to slim down for his upcoming shipwreck movie, “In the Heart of the Sea.”
“We (had) to shoot the really skinny stuff where we drop down to 500, 600, 700 calories a day, (for) three or four weeks,” Hemsworth told “Entertainment Tonight” of his preparation for the role.
In the movie, which will be out in December, the hunky Aussie portrays a sailor who was marooned after the real-life 1820 whale attack that inspired Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”
Experts say it’s unsafe to eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day without a doctor’s supervision.
“One to two pounds a week is healthy” weight loss, said Keri Gans, a nutritionist and author of “The Small Change Diet.”
“But if you do it his way, you could definitely get dehydrated. I’m surprised he was able to learn his lines and act and perform because basically he’s starving himself. I’m also surprised he wasn’t irritable.”
He certainly was hungry. Five hundred calories a day is next to nothing. Federal guidelines say that people like the 31-year-old Hemsworth, who is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, need at least 2,400 calories per day.
“Basically, they starved him,” Gans said. “It shows what people will do for a movie role.”
The eating regimen for the film is the opposite of the star’s preparation for “Thor” in 2010, when he said he packed on 20 pounds by practically eating and working out all day.
Anyone considering following Hemsworth’s diet should be reminded that a Big Mac at McDonald’s is 530 calories and a grilled chicken club sandwich is 510 calories.
Clean your plate and you break your diet.
With Meredith Engel
