on PinterestThe actor credits cutting gluten from his diet with helping him lose weight for his role in director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film “The Odyssey.” Getty Images
- Actor Matt Damon has credited a gluten-free diet with helping him lose weight.
- The star said it helped return him to his “high school” weight.
- However, experts say there’s nothing magical about a gluten-free diet.
- Eating a healthy, balanced diet including grains is still best for most people.
During an episode of the “New Heights” podcast, actor Matt Damon revealed how he got in shape and shed pounds for his new movie, “The Odyssey.”
Speaking with hosts Travis and Jason Kelce, the star said that director Christopher Nolan wanted him “lean but strong.”
To achieve this goal, he said he made one big change: cutting gluten out of his diet.
Gluten is a family of proteins called prolamins that are found in various grains, such as wheat, barley, and rye.
Some individuals need to exclude gluten from their diet due to Celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Some, like Damon, also claim that avoiding gluten helps with weight loss.
“I used to walk around between 185 and 200,” he told the Kelce brothers. “I did that whole movie at 167.”
Damon further noted that he hadn’t been that weight since high school.
“So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet,” he said.
Can cutting gluten really help you lose weight?
Shelley Balls, a registered dietitian and nutritionist for Flawless Bloom, said, “Unless you have celiac disease or a non-celiac gluten sensitivity, I don’t recommend you follow a gluten-free diet because you will be eliminating a bunch of potentially healthful foods, spending more money on gluten-free foods, sacrificing enjoyment of food, and it makes eating in social situations more challenging.”
Noting that weight loss still requires a calorie deficit, she said there isn’t currently any research indicating that a gluten-free diet causes weight loss.
“[H]owever, it can help decrease your intake of refined grains that are more inflammatory, which can be an obstacle for weight loss,” she said. “…But you don’t have to go gluten-free to cut back on refined carbohydrates.”
Balls additionally noted that if you are living with Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease where your immune system reacts to gluten, a gluten-free diet might actually cause you to gain a few pounds as your body begins to better absorb nutrients.
Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, host of the Media Savvy Podcast, creator of BetterThanDieting.com, and author of “Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You from Label to Table,” did acknowledge the actor’s success, saying, “I think it’s great that Damon found an approach that worked for him while training for a specific role, especially since he did it under doctor and trainer guidance and paired it with a disciplined workout routine.”
She said, however, that she was disappointed that he didn’t consult a dietitian who could have given more balanced and realistic dietary advice.
“[I]t’s important to recognize that what works for one person in a short-term, goal-specific context isn’t a universal solution,” said Taub-Dix.
Echoing Balls, she
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