Matt Damon had worked intensively to transform himself for his new role in The Odyssey, which has paid off.In a recent podcast of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, the 55-year old-actor revealed that he had totally cut off gluten from his diet after realising its bad effects.Matt mentioned that cutting gluten had changed his life.He referred to the change as “life-altering” as he had undergone a remarkable body transformation for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic film, “The Odyssey”.“It’s just a complete, complete lifestyle change,” Damon said of, as Poehler labelled it, “getting jacked in your 50s.”“There’s no planning it. Any other time I tried to do something like that, it was always like, well, ‘My time, my workouts’ … and this was like … just put your foot on the gas and that’s it. And that’s the only way to do it, and eat a little less,” he said.While the former Saturday Night Live star asked him whether he regrets and had any “desire” for gluten, Matt stanchly answered “No, because of what it does to me….. I didn’t know.”Amy then reflected on the fact that many people are still unaware about food sensitivities in their generation while growing up.Damon admitted saying, “We didn’t talk about it, and I didn’t realize the level to which it was affecting me. Like it’s completely changed my life these last couple years of not eating it … it’s a bummer. I’m a big fan of bread and beer, and pasta and pizza and all that stuff, but … how I feel is just [so much better].”
Rigorous workout
The Academy Award winner Matt then later described his rigorous workout regimen that he followed in order to perform the legendary Greek hero Odeysseus in Nolan’s highly anticipated adaptation of “The Odyssey”.During an appearance on brothers Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, he revealed that he had dropped to 167 pounds for the role which is his lightest weight in the decade.“Yeah, I was in really good shape,” he shared. “I lost a lot of weight,” as he noted that filmmaker Christopher had a specific idea for how he wanted Matt to look for the role of Odysseus.“He said he wanted me…lean but strong,” Damon explained. He credited elimination of gluten to be a key factor behind his transformation.“I literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten,” he said. “I used to walk around between 185 and 200 pounds. And I did that whole movie at 167 pounds.”“I haven’t been that light since high school,” Damon added. “So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.”He said that he hadn’t felt this light since high school. Damon also acknowledged the guidance and support that he had got from his personal trainer who helped him in staying focused throughout the demanding process.“Trainers are like, ‘What are we doing?’ And they can kind of do anything,” he said. “It’s just having kind of a clear goal and setting it.”According to the New York Post, for the 1996 war drama “Courage Under Fire,” he shed between 40 and 50 pounds in about 100 days, which is a drastic weight loss. Matt later revealed it nearly came with an extreme cost.
