Anthony Hopkins on His 75-Pound Weight Loss: 'I Live on 800 Calories a Day'

Wonderwall, Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 10:53am (PDT)

By Kat Giantis

Turns out it's not just size-zero starlets who keep an extremely close watch on their waistlines. Anthony Hopkins cut out liver, fava beans, nice Chiantis and apparently just about everything else as he dropped a boatload of weight over the last couple of years under the watchful eye of his wife.

"I lost too much, 75 pounds in two years. But I gained a little back in Europe [while filming this year]," the Oscar-winning thespian, 72, explains to Cindy Adams. "My wife's no dictator, but she said I must stick to a regimen. So I'm in the gym six days a week, I power walk, live on 800 calories a day."

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For those of you who don't count calories, 800 calories is approximately four Snickers bars. It's also less than half of the recommended intake for a guy his age, so either Sir Anthony is in serious deprivation mode, or he's eating more than he thinks (let's hope it's the latter).

The actor, who is out stumping for Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," admits that he was once "addicted to bread, cookies, whatnot. I love all the bad stuff."

These days, he consumes "no pasta. No seconds. A sandwich occasionally. Now I'm a health nut. I can't get back into my wardrobe. I gave it all away to some mission. I tried tailoring the pants, but they look ridiculous."

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And the erstwhile Hannibal Lecter has a simple perspective on his healthy lifestyle, telling Men's Journal earlier this year, "I'm not a nutty, macrobiotic kind of guy, but I enjoy being alive."

In between totaling up his foodstuffs and working up a sweat on the Stairmaster, he enjoys the little things in life, like charming wife Stella Arroyave's gal pals.

"For seven years I'm with my third wife, who's 18 years younger and a nurturer. I'm a loner," admits Hopkins. "Very few friends. None actors. She has her Spanish lady friends around, and I love that. We have a ball. I'm not looking for women, but I do love the ladies."

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