Once upon a time, McElhenney went in the opposite direction, gaining 60 pounds over the course of 7 months, because he thought a fat Mac would make for a funnier Mac. Well what's funnier than fat Mac? A fat Mac that's all of a sudden a jacked Mac. So that's what McElhenney did. He went Christian Bale and changed his body again. All in the name of comedy? Hell no. The truth is: I have more dedication to the paycheck, McElhenney explains.
Everyone, from strangers on the internet to LA Dodgers second-basemen Chase Utley, was impressed.
We brought McElhenney into the Men's Health offices to answer some of his online fans' questions. We mostly just talked about his body.
On getting jacked
Im not going to get into the medical science. Let me just tell you something. Increased levels of testosterone is just a cross I have to bare.
On how to get jacked
Im gonna break it down for you because its actually quite simple. And anybody can do this. Anybody on the planet can do this. First things first: if you have joblike a 9-5 jobquit that. Do you like food? Forget about that. Because youre never going to enjoy anything you eat. Alcohol? Sorry. Thats out. So what you need to do you have a chef, right? like a personal chef?so make sure the chef makes you a lot of chicken breast. And make sure you keep your caloric intake at a certain level. And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a weekjust to monitor all your testosterone levelsbecause testosterone is important to building muscle. Youre good friends with the trainer from Magic Mike? Aaron Babaian. So you want to give Aaron a call. And you want to make sure hes at your house and takes you to the gym at least twice a day, because youre gonna want to do your muscle-building in the morning and then your cardio in the afternoon. Now, do you have a family? Like a significant other or kids? Yeah, forget about them. Youre not going to have time to deal with them.
So thats really all you have to do. And make sure you have a studio pay for the entire thing, because it could become exceptionally expensive. So I think if you just do all those things, then you too can have an absolutely unrealistic body type such as me.
On looking more jacked than Jaguars QB Gardner Minshew
I suppose we do look rather similar. Though, I do think I have 22 years on him. But I think Ive got a better body than you do, and youre a professional athlete. So work on it. Yes your face looks significant younger. But that body. Is that a body type of a professional athlete? Im starting to think I can play quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars
On no longer being jacked?
Im gonna give you a little lesson in biology: the abs are always there. Theyre IN there. Theyre just behind a bunch of tacos and tequila. I was enjoying myself on vacation. The abs are there. And the second I want to those abs to come back, all it takes is 3-4 months of starving myself.
After 13 long years of cultivating mass, Mac is officially ripped.
Rob McElhenney, who plays perennially un-ripped karate master/bartender Ronald "Mac" McDonald in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was spotted at the Los Angeles Pride Parade back in June looking shockingly yoked alongside Danny Devito.
Everyone, from strangers on the internet to LA Dodgers second-basemen Chase Utley, was impressed.
So how did this happen? Well, first of all, through God all things are possible, so jot that down. But McElhenney's weight loss transformation seems to have been in the works for a while. A video posted on the actor's Instagram in Mayintroducing Eagles lineman Jason Kelce as the original Fat Machad people noticing that the Philly funnyman was busting out of his trademark "Beast Coast" t-shirt.
McElhenney's newfound six-pack is the exact opposite direction of the last time he changed it up for Always Sunny, when the comedian casually packed on 60 pounds pretty much because he thought it'd be funnier to play a fatter version of Mac (Note: it was). The 41-year-old gained the weight between the sixth and seventh seasons of the FX sitcom, putting away four 1,000 calorie meals a day.
"When youre four months in it and you have to muscle down 1,000 calories for the third time or fourth time in a day and you have to either eat three chicken breasts, two cups of rice and two cups of vegetablesor one Big Macyou start to see the Big Mac and realize its a lot easier to get down," McElhenney told The Wrap . "And then every once in a while I would eat three donuts. And every day one of my meals was a high-calorie protein shake."
Maybe even more impressive than his high-calorie diet was the fact that the actor simply lost the spontaneously-gained weight when the joke came to its conclusion . "Losing it is easy," he said. "You just stop eating so fucking much. [Im also] working out three times a week. Regardless of your metabolism, if you stop consuming so many calories, you will lose weight."
In a September Instagram post, McElhenney explained very sarcastically the diet and workout routine that helped him lose the weight and get ripped. He wrote:
"Look, its not that hard. All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, dont eat anything after 7pm, dont eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just dont eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from Magic Mike, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span. I dont know why everyones not doing this. Its a super realistic lifestyle and an appropriate body image to compare oneself to. #hollywood "
If you're inspired by Fat Mac's transformation into Jacked Mac, here's how to eat less without even realizing it .