Comedian Eric André opened up to Men’s Health about his recent weight loss and newly shredded physique. This isn’t the first time he’s “disguised” himself for “The Eric André Show.” Yet, this transformation felt like one of the toughest.
“It took me six months. It’s a full-time job,” he told Men’s Health. “If you see any middle aged person with abs, know that they’re either psychotic or unemployed because it’s a full-time job.”
In Season Four of the eponymous program, which aired in 2016, André attempted to become “as skinny as possible,” but he didn’t succeed, he said. The next season he gained weight, “eating pizza and peanut butter sandwiches and pina coladas.”
His highest weight was 218 pounds after Season Five, and his lowest was 173 in Season Six, which started airing this month. To shed the weight, he worked with three personal trainers for intense 90-minute sweat sessions every morning except for Sunday, his rest day.
“It was a little bit of everything. It was strength training and HIIT,” he said. “Chest and triceps on Monday, Barry’s Bootcamp on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday, Barry’s Bootcamp on Thursday, back biceps and shoulders on Friday. I would do abs for 10 to 15 minutes and walk for low intensity at night.”
He also worked with a nutritionist, who helped him eat 1,800 to 2,000 daily calories, which he logged on a calorie-counting app.
“I was eating nothing but fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables,” he said.
The diet eventually felt grueling.
“If your only carbs are Japanese sweet potato and sourdough bread and you can’t eat after 6 o’clock in the evening, and you’re drinking a gallon of water, and you can’t drink any alcohol and you can’t have hot Cheetos — you start losing your mind,” he said.
André did have cheat days, but he would “check in with my trainer and log my cheats.”
“Logging my cheats would actually make me feel better about them,” he said. “If I knew exactly how much I cheated, then I would know how much my weight was going to go up.”
Originally, he said his goal weight was 184, but he didn’t like how he looked on camera and set a new goal.
“I looked at myself in some camera tests, and the abs weren’t popping. The camera adds 10 pounds. It’s totally true,” he said. “I remember my heart sinking. I haven’t weighed 173 pounds since high school.”
After the season wrapped, André said goodbye his strict dietary and exercise habits. He started with some overindulging.
“I ate a whole pizza. The day I wrapped, I woke up. I went to Russ and Daughters and ate a bagel,” he said. ” Then, I went back to sleep.”
After a “drinking bender,” he said realized he needed to “behave” and didn’t drink for almost two months and even skipped caffeine. But a vacation to Portugal ended his dry spell.
“I drank my weight in wine,” he says. “When I got back, I stepped on the scale, and I undid all six months of work.”
Now he weighs between 190 and 195 pounds. After his recent experiences with attempted weight loss, then weight gain, then shredded abs, André is over it.
“I will never do a body modification again. Starving myself Season Four ended in failure because I was so exhausted that I couldn’t write,” he recalled. “Getting fat was the most fun — it’s great at first, but then you’re miserable. … Then in Season Six, I got in shape. But getting into shape after the age of 21 is so much work that I snapped at the end.”
New episodes of “The Eric Andre Show” are premiering Sundays at Midnight on Adult Swim.
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