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 transformation seems to have been in the works for a while. A video posted on the actor's Instagram a month ago—introducing Eagles lineman Jason Kelce as the original Fat Mac—had 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 sixty 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 you’re 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 vegetables—or one Big Mac—you start to see the Big Mac and realize it’s 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 was the fact 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. [I’m also] working out three times a week. Regardless of your metabolism, if you stop consuming so many calories, you will lose weight."
