Mark Wahlberg says it ‘wasn’t fun’ eating 11,000 calories every day for transformation in new film

‘I would wake up after a meal and have another meal,’ said the actor

Mark Wahlberg has opened up about the extreme diet he adhered to in preparation for his role in the recent film Stu.

The Boogie Nights star was at one point eating 11,000 calories per day in an effort to gain weight to play the part of boxer-turned-priest Father Stuart Long in the forthcoming biopic.

He had previously shared photos demonstrating the extent of his physical transformation on Instagram.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Wahlberg described the process of weight gain, saying: “Unfortunately, I had to consume, for two weeks, 7,000 calories [per day] and then for another two weeks, 11,000 calories. And it was fun for about an hour.

“It’s just such a hard physical thing to do,” he continued.

“Losing weight, you just kind of tough it out, you just don’t eat [as much], and exercise, and this, even when [I was] full I would wake up after a meal and have another meal. I was eating every three hours. It was not fun.”

The actor added that it becomes harder to gain and lose weight for roles as you get older, “as the metabolism slows down”.

In Stu, Wahlberg also plays the character during the height of his boxing career, for which he had to get into extreme shape.