Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Tuna High-Protein Diet Speeds Up ‘Grey’s’ Star 40-Pound Weight Loss For ‘Texas Rising’

Jeffrey Dean Morgan lost 40 pounds by eating tuna. And in contrast to the typical weight loss winner, Morgan doesn’t feel particularly proud of his methods, reported People.

The slim-down success resulted from the need to lose weight for Morgan’s role in Texas Rising, which is a mini-series on the History Channel. Jeffrey plays a character Erastus “Deaf” Smith with consumption (tuberculosis), and that meant he needed to look unhealthy.

But Morgan is candid about the danger of his high-protein, low-carb diet.

“I lost over 40 pounds,” said the 49-year-old actor of his motivation for the weight loss.

When Jeffrey began his high protein tuna diet, he weighed 175 pounds. And although he was advised to only shed 10 pounds, he continued his weight loss.

“I got there and I was probably about 175, I left I was about 135. I ate a can of tuna fish a day. I did it in the most unhealthy way I could. I didn’t consult with a doctor or anything. We had said maybe we should lose, like, 10 pounds and then I just kept going and going. And by the end of the movie I just looked like hell.”

Now that the diet is over, will Morgan try the method again if he wants to lose a few pounds?

“I don’t ever want to see tuna again,” he said firmly.

In addition to helping him with his goals of weight loss and looking unhealthy, Jeffrey discovered that the drastic diet diminished his energy level, reported the Huffington Post.

A former star on Grey’s Anatomy, Jeffrey now recalls how he felt at the end of his diet.

“By the end of the movie, I was just [moving] like a snail,” admitted Morgan.

The show premiered Monday night and garnered 4.1 million viewers.

And Morgan isn’t the only actor to lose significant amounts of weight for a role or go on a special diet.

As the Inquisitr reported, Anne Hathaway became the center of a weight loss controversy, with some insisting that she was starving herself because she looked so frail playing Fantine in Les Miserables.

Although some observers speculated that she had anorexia, her spokesperson said that she was following a rapid weight loss diet only for her role.

“[Anne needs to] look more frail as she is playing a prostitute who is dying of tuberculosis,” said the rep of the reason for her drastic diet.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]