Pulling a Matthew McConaughey? Chad Michael Murray recently went on an extreme diet to lose weight for an upcoming role. At a roundtable interview for his current film Cavemen on Wednesday, Feb. 5, the 32-year-old actor told Us Weekly about his dramatic weight loss.
"I played a homeless heroin addict for a film called Other People's Children," Murray said of his role in the Liz Hinlein-directed drama. "I lost 25 pounds for it, and I was really in a dark place for about a month. It was taking your work home with you. It's heavy."
The One Tree Hill alum, who looked noticeably thinner in a black leather jacket and slim pants at the Hollywood premiere Wednesday, told Us that it was important to him to shed the pounds in a healthy way.
"I wanted to do it organically in a healthy way, I really did. I didn't want to just cut down to water and crackers," he explained. "Every day I didn't consume anything that wasn't from God's green earth. Pretty much oatmeal, egg whites, salads, chicken, tuna — that's pretty much it. You find ways to dress it up and make it wonderful. After a week, you can't tell the difference. You actually look forward to egg whites — can't wait."
What was his diet and workout routine like? "I'd have some oatmeal and do an hour and a half of circuit training and weights," shared Murray, who's currently dating actress Nicky Whelan. "Come home and have a really healthy lunch like egg whites and a banana. Continue on, have some coffee, and do a five-mile jog at night."
"If you eat really clean, your calorie intake is only 1,400, 1,500, 1,600 calories. But I was burning 3,000 a day with just the training alone. I did that for three and a half weeks and just dropped right off," he said of the weight. "I just like testing myself. I like having a test and saying, 'Will power, can you beat this.' It's not forever. I just have to eat that way for three and a half weeks. Film is forever."
Once he reached his goal, the Other People's Children crew rewarded Murray with one of his favorite guilty-pleasure foods: hot wings. "They gave them to me [when we] wrapped. Deep-fried, hot sauce, fantastic, waiting for me," he told Us. "It was actually really, really sweet."
But putting the weight back on after filming hasn't been easy as the actor thought it would be. "That's the hard thing. I'm struggling to put it back on," he said. "I haven't been able to train much for the past seven months because I've been working back to back."
