Body positivity campaigner explains why Channing Tatum talking about Magic Mike physique is so powerful

The star said his chiseled body shape was ‘not natural’

A body positivity campaigner has praised Channing Tatum for talking “honestly” about how difficult maintaining his physique for Magic Mike was.

Alex Light, who previously struggled with disordered eating and now campaigns against diet culture, posted a TikTok video highlighting an interview between Tatum and Kelly Clarkson.

The Lost City star, 42, spoke to Clarkson on her talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, in February and described his appearance in Magic Mike as “not natural”.

Clarkson displayed a shirtless photo of the actor during his time on Magic Mike, to which Tatum responds: “That might be the reason why I didn’t want to do a third [movie], because I have to look like that.”

Asked if he works out every day, the actor replied: “No, but it’s hard to look like [that] even if you do work out – to be in that kind of shape is not natural.”

In terms of his diet, Clarkson asked: “Do you have to eat so well?”

Tatum replied: “’Well’ is not even, that’s not even healthy – you have to starve yourself. I don’t think when you’re that lean that it’s healthy.”

Pressed about his workout routine at the time, Tatum said: “Truly, I don’t know how people that work a nine-to-five actually stay in shape because it’s my full-time job and I can barely do it.

“But it is [hell], if you work out twice a day, you have to eat completely right at a certain time. It’s a specific thing.”

Light, who authored and released her book You Are Not A Before Picture earlier this year, said Tatum’s answers were “why we just cannot compare our bodies to celebrity bodies”.

“For many of them, achieving these kinds of bodies and maintaining these kinds of bodies is literally a full-time job,” she continued in a TikTok shared this week.

“A lot of the time, like Channing Tatum said, and like Zac Efron said a few weeks ago, it’s not healthy. It’s not something to aspire to.

“I love that now, some celebrities are being honest and transparent about this rather than the years we’ve spent reading that celebrities get their shape by drinking lots of water and doing a weekly hike.”

Light referred to Baywatch star Efron’s interview with Men’S Health last month, in which he spoke candidly about the negative impact the physical training required to achieve his physique in the movie had had on his health.

The 34-year-old revealed that he did not believe his Baywatch body is actually “attainable”, adding: “There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d.”

Efron also said the punishing workout and meal routine resulted in insomnia and depression, which he said was attributed to taking diuretics, which rids the body of salt and water.