Christian Bale, 45, has undergone a number of body transformations over the years. To play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho the star sported a slender but toned frame, and for the role of Batman, he showed off a bulky shape.
The Machinist in 2005 saw the star at a dangerously low weight, as he dropped 25kg for the part. He weighed in at just 54kg.
In the same year, he stacked on 45kg for his character in Batman Begins, and was almost unrecognisable.
For American Hustle and VICE, Christian was forced to undertake an unhealthy routine, admitting he ate “a whole lot of cheeseburgers”.
So what are the health implications associated with such drastic weight fluctuation?
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Registered dietician, Jo Travers, told i: “What Christian is doing for these roles is a form of yo-yo dieting, which is unhealthy.
“The trouble is after you lose weight and then gain it back again, there is a certain amount of muscle breakdown, so the body tends to gain the fat without gaining the muscle back.”
Jo also explained how Christian’s method to eat foods high and fat in sugar to put on weight is one of the worst ways to do so.
She said: “When you eat a lot of carbs in one go, it spikes blood sugar level, and then the body responds by releasing loads of insulin to bring the blood sugar level back down. But instead of taking the sugar out of the blood and putting into the cells where it can be converted into a useable form of energy, it stores it in fat cells around the middle.
The study analysed more than 6,700,000 people in the Korean National Health Insurance System who did not have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, or a history of heart attacks at the time the study started.
All the participants had at least three medical exams between 2005 and 2012, during which doctors recorded their weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and total cholesterol.
An average of 5.5 years later, the people with the most fluctuation in these numbers were found to be 127 percent more likely to die, 43 percent more likely to have a heart attack, and 41 percent more likely to have a stroke, compared to those with stable measurements.
In an interview with CBS’s Sunday Morning, Christian said he’s putting an end to his weight fluctuations.
He said: “Yes. I keep saying I’m done with it. I really think I’m done with it, yeah. Gotta be.”
