Matt Damon's Gluten-Free Diet Helped Him Lose 18 Pounds

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Matt Damon is opening up about his weight-loss journey. In a recent appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast New Heights, the 55-year-old actor revealed that he went from around 185 pounds to 167 pounds for his new movie The Odyssey, which releases in July. To learn how he did it, including if his weight-loss plan could help you slim down, keep scrolling. 

A look at Matt Damon’s weight-loss journey 

On Wednesday January 8, Damon told the Kelce brothers he was in “really good shape” for his 2026 film The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan. 

“I lost a lot of weight. He [Nolan] said he wanted me like lean but strong. It’s a weird thing,” Damon continued. “I used to walk around between 185 [lb] and 200 [lb]. I did that whole movie at 167 [lb]. And I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.”

How did he do it? 

“I literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten,” the actor shared. “I’m done. I’m gluten-free everything…I found a gluten-free beer [and] it’s been so long since I’ve had gluten, I can’t tell if it’s good or not. So, that’s a good sign.”

In going gluten-free, Damon joins the ranks of other stars who have lost weight with a gluten-free diet, including Carnie Wilson, Kim Kardashian and Russell Crowe.

Making the change takes focus and consistency, the actor acknowledges. “You know, it’s like just part of your day. It’s part of your job, right? And it’s like yeah, you get really routine about it and really kind of build your day around all that stuff,” he told the Kelce brothers. “That’s kind of the physical side of getting ready.” 

Prior to this, Damon had undergone a different weight-loss journey for the 1996 film Courage Under Fire. That time though, he told Express in 2022, “I went too far. I got sick and I wouldn’t do that again because it was just too much. At the same time it helped the performance.” 

“I didn’t have to act at all—I was a wreck. I was getting dizzy spells and hot flashes. I didn’t say anything to anyone for a while because I was afraid I might be really ill,” he continued. “The doctor told me later I could have shrunk my heart permanently. I am 5 feet, 11 inches, and went down to 135 pounds from my usual weight.. It didn’t do me any good.” 

To achieve that weight back in 1996, he told the outlet he “had to run about 13 miles a day, which wasn’t even the hard part. The hard part was the diet.” 

“All I ate was chicken breast. It’s not like I had a chef or anything, I just made it up and did what I thought I had to do. I just made it up and that was incredibly challenging,” he continued. “I had to be thin and went on an unsupervised diet, which could have killed me.” 

Could Matt Damon’s gluten-free diet work for you?

Going gluten-free means avoiding gluten—the protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Eliminating gluten requires cutting out most bread, pasta and baked goods, but gluten is also lurking in hundreds of other foods, like salad dressings, sauces, soups and many processed foods, so reading labels becomes incredibly important. 

When you eliminate gluten, two things often happen: inflammation decreases, which can help with weight loss, and you naturally eat fewer processed foods and add more slimming whole foods to your plate.

Taking steps to remove gluten from your diet also means you focus more on what you’re eating—and that’s a good thing.  “I’ve had patients tell me they never read food labels before, but now they check everything. That increased awareness usually leads to healthier food choices overall,” Hussain Ahmad, MD, told First for Women in April of 2025. “The people who lose the most weight are the ones who fill their plates with vegetables, lean proteins and some gluten-free whole grains rather than just swapping in gluten-free versions of their favorite treats.” 

For more celebrity weight loss, keep scrolling!

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Andy Richter, 59, Opens Up About His Weight-Loss Journey and Choosing Health on His Terms

Orlando Bloom Lost 30 Lbs on Tuna-Cucumber Diet That’s a ‘Nutrition Disaster’