In fact, Chris was turned down for the part of Duke in GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (2009) for not being an action hero. He nailed the audition for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) in the first 20 seconds. By the time Chris read for his part, even director James Gunn admitted he couldn’t visualize the actor with enough charisma to play the lead role due to his chubby face and body.

With a multi-million dollar film, Chris has been committed to getting in the best shape of his life for three to four hours a day under the supervision of celebrity personal trainer Duffy Gaver and nutritionist Phil Goglia. One could argue that not everyone has access to a team of experts or the luxury of time to recover from long, grueling workouts. Nonetheless, Pratt’s example teaches some fundamental lessons that could help one set fitness goals and achieve them much sooner.

1. Your fitness goals need to be time bound

The lack of a plan and an appropriate deadline makes most people feel like they have all the time in the world to achieve their goals. Not holding ourselves accountable is one of the main reasons people usually quit in the third or fourth week after trying to make a healthy change.

In an interview, Chris made it very clear that you can’t just transform in a month. It lasts 6 to 8 months or even longer depending on your body. If you look back, eight months is not a long time. When you look ahead, it feels like a lot. Nevertheless, time flies whether you do something during this time or not. So who do you want to like in eight months?

2. Clear your head to make room for your commitments

Making a big change in life takes a strong sense of purpose. For Chris Pratt, it was a multi-million dollar film and a chance to build a brand new image in Hollywood. What obstacles to living a fuller life do you want to overcome?

Your sense of purpose should be deeper than just wanting to look like a certain fitness model. It will keep you going when the workout feels too hard or the healthy food tastes bland.

3. Save time and money for professional advice

In 2012, Chris Pratt worked very hard to qualify for the role of a seal in Zero Dark Thirty . He ate too little and exercised way too much, eventually having to have shoulder surgery because he didn’t have the right coaching.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with too much and don’t know where to start, it’s worth your money to book a few sessions with a nutritionist to create a diet plan, or have your fitness assessed by a personal trainer to help start with a manageable training plan.

4. drink more water

It’s surprising how people tend to underestimate the importance of hydration, even though it’s a convenient starting point for cleansing an unhealthy body. Those who are beginning to incorporate exercise into their daily lives especially need to drink more water to avoid cramps and fatigue and to keep their joints lubricated.

Pratt had to drink an ounce of water for every pound he weighed, as prescribed by his nutritionist. Considering his starting weight was 290 pounds, he had to be drinking 2 gallons of water almost every day!

5. Natural whole foods is the way to go

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of ​​revising your eating habits to subscribe to a specific diet, then simply add more natural and unprocessed foods to your daily meals. This means cutting back on cereals, sweets, and refined grains.

Chris swears by the Paleo diet. He lost a lot of weight by eating 4,000 calories of unprocessed foods, which included lean meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, local vegetables, fruits and seeds. Chris restrained himself from being in starvation mode once he reached his goal weight.

6. Get rid of your weakness

Most people struggling to get fit either consciously or unknowingly develop an over-reliance on any type of comfort food, drink or ingredient that interferes with the natural fat burning process. It could be too much white bread, candy, fruit juices, diet soda, ketchup, frequent cups of coffee with milk and sugar, or too many processed additives containing trans fats.

Find out that a major correction is needed in your daily diet. Pratt’s weakness was beer. What is your?

7. Start strength training to build a solid foundation

The instinctive response to losing weight fast is to spend an hour a day on the elliptical trainer or treadmill. Of course, everyone needs some form of cardio as part of a healthy lifestyle. However, if you’re really out of shape and have a lot of weight to lose, chances are that after the initial drop in pounds, your body is becoming too weak to handle the daily stress of cardio overkill.

Three to five weight training sessions a week not only gives your metabolism a boost, but also helps you stay injury-free. It will make your joints and muscles strong enough to endure the start of your cardio sessions.

Duffy Gaver had Chris Pratt follow the tradition of bodybuilding parts for the first two to three months of training. They focused on strengthening different body parts each day, although the body part splits changed every other week. Chris had already built a strong foundation while training for Zero Dark, Thirty He probably put on some decent muscle mass quickly.

New men and women in strength training, perhaps consistent strength training for at least six months to change body composition in terms of muscle to fat ratio and improve athletic ability over the long term.

8. Intensity makes a big difference, but it may not be for you just yet

Whether we’re talking about a high-intensity interval workout, CrossFit, P90X, or insanity, there are many strenuous workout formats that produce an intense post-burn effect by boosting your metabolism for the next 24 to 36 hours, thereby getting you to more to do in less time. However, this may not be the ideal option if you’re out of breath with lunges, 20 push-ups in a row, or after a 30-second sprint. Without a solid base for lean muscle, you could burn yourself or injure yourself just getting started with HIIT.

So skip the boot camp sessions in the beginning and learn to train on your own while focusing primarily on form and technique. Regular strength training ensures that you can gradually increase the intensity of each cardio session. The long term plan should be to do shorter but much more demanding cardio workouts to eventually accommodate more advanced methods of metabolic conditioning. CrossFit and P90X didn’t become a part of Chris’ routine until the later part of his training schedule, when he got much closer to his goal of achieving that defined, shredded look.

9. Forget the scales, worry about your symmetry

Getting fit should be about a lot more than watching the pounds slip off the scale. Stop doing millions of crunches or checking your weight every few hours. Progress can be seen by the changes in inches all over the body. It can also be seen in the thinning of your face, improved sleep quality, better posture, an increase in the repetitions of various exercises that you can do with ease, or improvements in sprint time.

Spot reduction may be a myth, but you can always lift weights to achieve more balanced muscles all over your body. Compound movements and bodyweight exercises performed with confidence will uncover weaknesses that you will want to focus on and correct.

10. To maintain your “new body” for life, you need a new lifestyle!

Old habits may die hard, but you just can’t dwell on an inactive, lazy lifestyle for too long and hope for continued results. To maintain your long-term fitness goal, you must continually set short-term goals to keep yourself motivated. So explore and experiment. This is the fun part of the process of making a change happen. When regular cardio became a burden, Chris made sure to stay active by swimming, kickboxing or mountain biking. If nothing else works for you, just walk more often and more consciously.

Losing fat and gaining muscle legitimately might be a tedious process, but it’s worth it. Dubbed Man of the Year 2014 by GQ Magazine, Chris claims he was through Fat Pratt . He insists he’s forever committed to staying lean and ripped because it offers him a sense of absolute control, aside from blessing him with a seismic 2014.