Inside how Dave Bautista lost over 60lbs to transformation from WWE legend to svelte movie star

Dave Bautista is a WWE legend known for his muscular, chiseled muscles. Or at least he was.

The 55-year-old Glass Onion star now sports a slimmer, more streamlined and trimmer look after shedding more than 60 pounds for his latest film The Killer’s Game, in which he plays a hitman.

He’s lost so much weight that he looks like a completely different person than he did at the height of his wrestling career – or when he played Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Dave – who recently shared a throwback photo of himself as a teenager – retired from his wrestling career in 2019 and decided to focus on his acting career and losing weight to avoid being cast in a role similar to Drax the Destroyer.

He changed his diet, but found it wasn’t working so he started doing jiu-jitsu.

“It’s how I lose weight,” Bautista explained on Live with Kelly and Mark earlier this summer.

“I was struggling to lose weight, so I took a trainer with me to Budapest, my buddy Jason Manly, while I was filming Dune,” he said.

He added that the duo “would spend hours doing nothing but wrestling. And so I started losing weight and I thought I would just keep it up so I could get my brown belt.”

Bautista admitted his cardio workouts came at a cost. “I was losing weight and I sacrificed a lot of muscle. But I’m okay with it because I just feel better,” he told Kelly Ripa.

But despite his incredible transformation, the Wrecking Crew actor explained that, like many people, one pesky body part has been resistant to losing weight.

“There were certain places that I couldn’t get rid of no matter how much weight I lost,” he said.

“This little bit here,” he said, pointing to his stomach, “and even down here,” he added, pointing to his chest, “and even in my face, I was just retaining fat.”

“When I was younger, I just dropped it. I couldn’t get rid of it,” Bautista added, to which Mark Consuelos cheekily replied, “Just get another tattoo.”

In an interview with YouTuber Chris Van VlietBautista explained the truth behind his weight figures over the years.

“The heaviest I’ve ever been is 370 pounds. When I started with Deacon (his wrestling character), I was about 325 pounds,” he said.

Today, the 55-year-old Glass Onion star sports a slimmer, more streamlined and more intelligent look after losing more than 60 pounds for his latest film The Killer’s Game, in which he plays a hitman, seen here in 2005

‘For most of my wrestling career I weighed about 290 pounds. Now I weighed about 240 pounds.

“And a year and a half ago I went on Knock at the Cabin, and I was 300 pounds,” he said of his role in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller.

“It makes me super thin, it’s probably the lightest I’ve been since I was 19,” he said.

As for his diet, the wrestler-turned-actor is largely vegetarian, adding eggs and fish for protein.

And not only does that diet help him lose weight and keep it off, it’s also a miracle cure for his allergies and asthma.

“Before I started this diet, I suffered from asthma and allergies, and it was very difficult for me to lose weight,” he said Men’s Health last year.

He’s lost so much weight that he looks like a completely different person than he was at the height of his wrestling days – or than when he played Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy, seen here in 2012.

Dave retired from his wrestling career in 2019 and decided to focus on his acting career and losing weight to avoid being cast in a role similar to Drax the Destroyer, seen here in 2017.

He added that he consumed a lot of calories during his wrestling career until he discovered he was allergic to dairy.

‘The change has made it easier for me to lose weight and I suffer less from allergies and asthma.’

And as for WWE, Bautista says he will “never come back,” saying he is one of the few wrestlers who left the sport “on his own terms.”

He added: “I will go back and appear on the show, but I will not wrestle anymore,” he said, adding that the days when you could make a living from abusing your body are over.