Dramatic physical transformations for movie roles have led celebrities such as Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey to gain or lose an extreme amount of weight in what is called yo-yo dieting.
This diet method is when people take their weight loss or gain to the extreme in order to alter their appearance for a professional role.
Actor Christian Bale, 43, is known for his varied transformations for his on-screen roles.
Yesterday, pictures came out of Bale’s most recent extreme weight gain to help mimic the physical appearance of Dick Cheney in the new movie Backseat.
Bale is known for gaining and losing weight for roles, especially when he notoriously shed 60lbs for the movie The Machinist in 2004 and then bulked back up more than 80lbs one year later to play Batman in Batman Begins.
But experts warn that the constant fluctuation of weight on the body can have severe health risks including cardiovascular disease, muscle loss and nutritional deficiencies.
Daily Mail Online spoke with Lisa Moskovitz, a licensed nutritionist and founder of NY Nutrition Group, and Mascha Davis, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, about the dangers of yo-yo dieting and how it can impact the body.
Christian Bale has made some of the most drastic changes to his body for movie roles. Left is a picture of him last week in Colorado. He is currently gaining weight for his role as Dick Cheney in Backseat. Right is him in The Machinist in 2004 when he lost more than 60lbs to play a role in the psychotic thriller
Renee Zellweger put her thin frame in jeopardy by gaining 30lbs for her role in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. She ate 4,000 calories per day to go from a size 6 to a size 14. Left is her in 2009 after she lost the weight and right is Zellweger while filming the movie in 2004
Yo-yo dieting is when people continually gain and lose a significant amount of weight.
It is common among actors to do so as they move from one professional role to another.
However, experts warn that even if it is a temporary state, it can have a lasting impact on the body.
‘A lot of people will do this over the short-term and think it is not a big deal,’ Davis said. ‘But this actually can have negative effects.’
These diets alter the normal functioning of the body because of how quickly a diet is changed.
Moskovitz said yo-yo dieting can lead to nutritional deficiencies, muscle loss, eating disorders and mood disturbances.
Dangers of LOSING pounds: How severe weight loss wreaks havoc on the body
‘A lot of these yo-yo diets are based off of extreme plans or extreme fads,’ Davis said.
And by ‘extreme’ she means people are cutting out a whole food group in order to lose weight quickly.
Food groups that are commonly left out during these crash diets include grains, dairy and meats.
‘Your body needs a certain amount of calories and nutrients to thrive,’ Davis said.
Actress Anne Hathaway cut out all food groups besides leafy greens in order to lose a dramatic 30lbs for her role in Les Miserables in 2013.
She won an Academy Award that year for Best Supporting Actress, but it was at the cost of starving herself and eating nothing for multiple days on set to appear malnourished.
Hathaway’s altered diet sent her body into starvation mode where it was trying to function on the little calories that she was consuming.
Davis explains that when the body enters into starvation mode, it can increase its cortisol levels.
These levels increase because they are triggered by stress that diets cause when there is a lack of nutrients.
50 Cent starred in Things Fall Apart where he played a cancer patient. To properly portray the role, the actor and rapper lost 54lbs by running on a treadmill for three hours a day. Left is 50 Cent this July at his normal weight. Right is 50 Cent during his movie role
Matthew McConaughey lost close to 55lbs for his role in Dallas Buyers Club in 2013. Left is him in 2017 after he gained back his weight. Right is when he was filming the movie in 2013
So the high cortisol levels will attack the leftover protein in the body that is stored in the muscles and bones.
If continued for a long period of time, Davis warned it could cause an increased risk for a person getting type 2 diabetes.
A change in exercise while crash dieting can also impact the body and how it functions.
Matthew McConaughey lost 55lbs during his role in the Dallas Buyers Club in 2013.
He was able to do this with a combination of a lean diet that consisted of fish and vegetables with an extensive workout routing.
In addition, if some of the weight you lost with that crash diet was in the form of muscle, you are less likely to gain that back as quickly as body fat.
Lisa Moskovitz, licensed nutritionist and founder of NY Nutrition Group
Actor and rapper 50 Cent also combined working out with dieting when he lost 54lbs to play a cancer patient in Things Fall Apart.
He stuck to an all-liquid diet which cut out the important grain food group and also worked out for three hours a day on a treadmill.
High intensity workouts combined with a lack of nutrition can send a body into consuming muscle mass in order to keep functioning.
‘Extreme weight fluctuations can definitely take a toll on lean muscle mass, especially if your exercise routine is not consistent during both high and low weights,’ Moskovitz said.
Gained muscle is broken down as glucose to send to the brain in order to keep the body energized.
Once the actor or actress starts eating regularly again, the body will hold onto the fat more because it remembers what it was like to be malnourished.
‘The body resets itself to hold onto the weight more,’ Davis said.
So people tend to see themselves gain the weight quickly with extra pounds tacked on.
‘If some of the weight you lost with that crash diet was in the form of muscle, you are less likely to gain that back as quickly as the body fat,’ Moskovitz said.
Dangers of GAINING weight: How over-eating cripples your metabolism
Gaining weight for a role can also have a large impact on the body.
Renee Zellweger gained 30lbs for her role as Bridget Jones in Briget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
She packed on the weight by eating close to 4,000 calories per day.
This was done by eating Big Macs, pizza, chips and other food that is known to be high in calorie and unhealthy for the body.
Moskovitz and Davis don’t recommend gaining weight quickly for a role because it forces the celebrity to pack on the calories and add fat to their body as opposed to muscle.
As the body takes in more calories, it experiences an increase in blood sugar because it is not normally used to the amount of food it is digesting.
The body also begins to store the excess calories as fat because it is not burning as much as it is taking in.
Anne Hathaway lost 30lbs for her role in Les Miserables in 2013. Her significant weight loss paid off for her because she one an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the movie. Left is Anne Hathaway at her normal weight in 2017 and right is her in Les Miserables in 2013
‘An increase impacts the pancreas and increases inflammation,’ Davis said.
The pancreas is responsible for breaking down the food in the body and secretes insulin to be transported to the muscle cells.
So as the sugar counts in the blood go up, so does the amount of insulin produced in order for the body to try and keep a balance.
And Davis warns that this can lead someone becoming insulin resistant, which causes prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Insulin resistant means the glucose levels in the blood are so toxic that the pancreas has to keep releasing more insulin to keep up.
The cells eventually stop responding to the insulin and causes the body to no longer be able to easily absorb glucose into the bloodstream.
Why yo-yo dieting is the worst of all, according to experts
The most concerning part of yo-yo dieting is people that fluctuate their weight for a long period of time.
Christian Bale has played multiple roles that forced him to drastically alter his body and muscle mass.
His shocking drop in 60lbs for The Machinist in 2004 was then quickly added back one year later for Batman Begins.
The actor was able to accomplish this quick weight loss by eating only one can of tuna, an apple and a couple cups of coffee a day.
Now, Bale is focusing on gaining weight again for the new movie Backseat where he stars as Dick Cheney.
‘[Yo-yo dieting] can predispose the body to increase visceral fat around the belly and organs,’ Davis said.
Being fixated on the scale can have psychological effects like depression
Mascha Davis, registered dietitian
Visceral fat is a gel-like fat that forms underneath the skin of the stomach and wraps around major organs such as the kidneys, liver and pancreas.
Storing high amounts of visceral fat can lead to an insulin intolerance, glucose resistance and type 2 diabetes.
It can also can cause heart disease or high blood pressure for the person.
‘It absolutely can affect cardiovascular health as well as take on toll on other organs in the body,’ Moskovitz said.
‘Not to mention it can have an impact on muscle and bone loss overtime.’
When the body is constantly in limbo from gaining and losing weight, it stops bouncing back to its normal levels.
Instead, the metabolic pathways in the body can be damaged or altered because their levels have been changed so drastically over a person’s lifetime.
Besides physical effects, experts warn their are also psychological damage to crash dieting over a long period of time.
‘Being really fixated on the scale can have psychological effects like depression,’ Davis said.
These diets give both celebrities and regular people an unrealistic expectation of what diets they need to do in order to achieve a specific physical appearance.
‘It’s totally unrealistic to stick to it for more than a few weeks,’ Davis said.