How Did Mark Wahlberg Gain Weight for His Role As Father Stu?

Mark Wahlberg has always been known for delivering his best cinematic transformation on-screen and for giving out the secrets of how he stays fit for his health and film career.

But for writer and director Rosalind Ross’s latest film Father Stu, Mark Wahlberg did just the opposite. He gained 30 pounds to play Father Stuart Long, an amateur boxer turned priest, and now his audience wants to know how he gained so much weight for this role.

---

How did Mark Wahlberg start preparing for the role?

Wahlberg had a total of six weeks to gain 30 pounds. For the first two weeks, he started with around 7000 calories and then, by the final four weeks, he increased it to 11,000 calories. Initially, he enjoyed all the weight-gaining meals, but within a few weeks, it became tiresome for him.

You’ll be surprised to learn that Wahlberg drank a glass of olive oil as part of his weight gain routine. The actor shared,

“I gained 30 pounds and transformed from being a fighter to a guy who was bound to a wheelchair, suffering from a muscular degenerative disease.”

Mark Wahlberg was turning 50 by the time the movie was finished, and he ate around 11,000 calories a day. He said,

“The drastic weight gain took a toll on me over the last few months of completing the film.”

---

What was Mark Wahlberg’s diet?

Mark's diet was all healthy, including proteins and a high quantity of carbs. The artist shared,

“It was a dozen eggs and bacon, a porterhouse steak, two baked potatoes, two bowls of white rice, and a glass of olive oil. The initial two weeks were just high in proteins. The second two weeks were all about carbs. The last two weeks were starches and sodium, just to get as bloated as possible.”

---

What workout regime did Mark Wahlberg follow for the movie?

Mark Wahlberg never gave up on his morning workout routine. Though he had to gain a lot of weight, he never missed his morning workouts. He used his workouts to help him get hungry enough to eat the necessary amount of carbs and calories.

He lifted heavy weights just to get hungry so he could eat the appropriate amount of food required for his character in the movie. He also took weight gainer shakes as additional food to gain the right amount of weight.

But Wahlberg confessed that none of it was fun. He said,

“There’s nothing worse than when you are full from your last meal and you have to eat again. I would wake up after a meal and then have another meal. It was not fun”.

Mark, a fitness fan who loves showing off his abs and workouts on his social media accounts, discussed the challenges of gaining weight for the role when he was a guest on the famous show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

However, in the end, it was worth all of the dedication and hard work he did for Father Stu, as it was Wahlberg’s way to share his faith with the entire world.

The popular star also admitted that gaining so much weight has gotten even more difficult now that he’s older. He was trying to get the movie made for six years, and they only had 30 days to complete it. So, he did it all for the sake of the movie.

---

About the film

In the film, Mark Wahlberg plays Stuart Long, a boxer whose career is destroyed because of an injury. He then moved to LA for a fresh start and stardom, where he met a Catholic school teacher. Coupling his relationship with the after-effects of an accident, he sets out to become a priest.