Chris Pratt on His Weight Struggles: ‘I Had Real Health Issues’

Before Chris Pratt became a superhero (and our 2015 Must List issue cover star), the Jurassic World actor hit an unhealthy weight and was unhappy with how he looked and felt. In Men’s Health U.K’s July issue, Pratt recalled how he announced to the cast of Parks and Recreations that he wanted to gain weight for the role.

“It became a bit of a game: how fat can I get and how fast,” Pratt tells the magazine of his Andy Dwyer days. “I would eat four burgers at every read. I became really fat and got up to almost 300 pounds.”

Pratt’s romance with now-wife Anna Faris didn’t help his waistline, either. “I’d fallen in love with a woman who loved to feed her man,” Pratt says. “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.”

While Pratt tells Men’s Health U.K. he’d never seen himself funnier than during his heaviest period, he recalls how he felt hovering around the 300 pound mark: “I was impotent, fatigued, emotionally depressed. 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 seeing himself in Zero Dark Thirty — a film for which he trimmed down — Pratt decided he wanted to stay slim.

“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,’” he tells the magazine.

Though Pratt calls meal time “lame” now that he’s sticking to a healthy diet, the actor has seen the benefit of cleaner eating: “All the time between meals, I feel great.”

This article originally appeared on EW.com