BEST KNOWN FOR his role as Winston Bishop in the hit Fox sitcom New Girl, Lamorne Morris is personified on-screen and off as the class-clown type. That’s because he is—there’s rarely a moment where he’s not cracking a joke. Even in the gym, the only thing that really gets him motivated is “talking shit.”
Coming off of filming for in the fifth installment of FX’s Fargo, Morris was in rare form. He plays Witt Farr, a reliable North Dakota deputy sheriff. For Morris, that meant forming a big, husky build for the role. Now, between tapings for his podcast, The Lamorning After, he’s been putting work into the gym to get back in shape. And boy, did he: he dropped more than 40 pounds, plummeting his body fat percentage from 30 to 13 percent in just four months. We sat down with him in early June to get some insight into how he did it.
MEN’S HEALTH: What inspired this transformation?
LAMORNE MORRIS: For Fargo I put on weight. The image I had in my mind [for the role of Witt Farr] was Carl Winslow from Family Matters. I was snacking a lot. Plus, the food scene in Calgary is mwah, so I was enjoying every minute of it. When I got back I realized: here we go again. I’m out of shape. And, it’s not fun chasing your kid around when you’re out of breath all the time.
One of my best friends, Glen Powell, is always in shape. So he’s always talking shit (jokingly, obviously). We’re always competing back and forth, but he we have the same trainer. We go to the same gym, at Ultimate Performance Fitness. Eddie Baruta is our guy. He body shames me. Every morning I get a text from him, asking me, “what do you look like? Send me a picture.”
Morris and his trainer, Eddie Baruta, at UP Fitness.
When we’re training we he does that everyday, and still does it every once in a while we’re not training. He’ll ask me, “did you eat like shit today? How much alcohol have you had? Why are you doing this to yourself?” He’s always watching. So, when I got back from Fargo, I got back with him.
The goal for this go around was just health, to be honest with you. It wasn’t necessarily to look a certain way, although I’m surrounded by people like Glenn Powell and Billy Magnussen, who are always shredded. We go on vacation for my birthday and we get on a boat, and I’m thinking it’s going to be all about me. Then these two assholes take their shirts off and every woman in attendance doesn’t care that it’s my birthday anymore. Then, they say, “hey Lamorne, we’re jumping in the ocean.” And I’m like, shit, I’m already a terrible swimmer, so this is going to also be embarrassing. Then, the whole trip gets ruined based on the fact that I don’t do enough sit-ups. All of a sudden, I’m over in the corner doing squats for no reason. That’s when you realize you got to get the body as well.
MH: What changes did you have to make to get that body?
LM: Well, it starts in the kitchen. I got a lot of help from David Allen, a nutritionist here in L.A. We cut a lot of stuff—carbs as much as I could, sugar completely for a very, very long time.
The key was cooking for myself whenever I could. But, I’m always moving around a lot. So [when I’m eating out], I would order some of the most basic foods you could find. And, I’m not going to lie to you—it was miserable at first, but I kind of got used to it. Then you start figuring out these little cheats and hacks where you could add some flavor and do things like that. I’d season the best I could, keep salad dressing on the side of the salad, lightly marinate meats—things like that.
My favorite [snack] was cutting sweet potatoes and adding a little salt, little pepper, a little cinnamon, and baking that in some coconut oil. And that’s better than going out and buying Doritos. Doritos are my favorite—Doritos, if you’re listening, please make some sort of healthy Dorito.
One tricky part was alcohol, because I am still a social drinker. My trick with alcohol is, if you ever want to go out, have one drink. But make that drink the most expensive one. Instead of like ordering cocktails, like an old-fashioned or in a negroni (my two go-tos), I would find the most expensive tequila they have. Get a shot of that because you’re not going to be wanting to buy those all night. And, just sip that shot all night. People think you’re partying, just dropping dollars.
MH: What was the hardest part about changing your diet?
LM: I would probably say sugar was the hardest thing to cut. You don’t realize how much stuff has sugar in it and and how it affects you. I’d seriously get withdrawals. I felt like Chris Rock in New Jack City. I was like ‘help me, I’m gonna die.’ I’m waking up in cold sweats. I’m not exaggerating when I say I had dreams about Snickers—I really did.
I’m not gonna lie to you, it took me a while to get strict with it. Initially I would cut it for two days and then I would go, ‘oh I’m two days clean!.’ Then, I’d relapse a little bit to celebrate. I would have like a little bit of something and then before you know it, I’d really only taken two days off of sugar. So I’d try again. Once I got serious, I’d say it was probably about a week after cutting it that it got easier. I wasn’t having weird headaches or cravings or anything like that.
MH: What does your workout routine look like?
LM: Three to four days a week I’m in the gym with Eddie. With him it usually starts with a lot of banter back and forth. We talk a lot of shit. We start with some stretching before jumping into traditional strength training. There’s not a lot of gimmicky stuff. It’s stuff anyone can do: bench presses, push ups, dumbbell presses, etc.
Morris in the gym.
We’ll do some leg days, too—which I hate. Those people that say, “I love going to gym”? Fuck that. I do not. But, I’m 40 and I wanted to make sure that I stay healthy for the rest of my life. My goal was to be in the best shape of my life at the oldest age I’ve been. And, I’m in better shape now then I was in high school, which is weird.
We usually end the workout with some sort of sprint, some sort of burst of cardio. Sometimes that’s the AssaultBike, sometimes it’s the sled on the track. Fun fact: I beat Glenn on the track every single time. I just want to put that out there. I beat him in pull-ups and I beat him in on the track.
MH: You workout with Glenn a lot. Who else would be a dream workout partner?
LM: I want to work out with Kevin Hart. He’s super funny in the gym, and I always wonder how does he get anything done? That’s similar to me. I just talk shit all day in the gym and it’s shocking that I get any work done.
And the Rock, obviously. He’s in inspiring shape. I don’t want to be that big, though. I want be able still to wash my back in the shower.
MH: What advice would you give to people looking to make similar health changes?
LM: For me, it all started with the why. I lost my father last June. My father was very athletic, but he had some other issues: diabetes and alcohol problems. When he died, it was a big wake up call to get my life together. I want to be around for my daughter. I want to be around for my friends and family.
Once it becomes important to you, you find a way to get it done. For me, it was getting a trainer to push me. Eddie and I have such a shorthand. He knows the only way that I’ll work out is if he’s shaming me or talking shit to me. So it’s about finding the right trainer.
Plus, just picking an activity that you can go and just do on a regular basis that doesn’t involve you sitting down. It’s about being active, and that should be fun. Whether it’s pilates, or yoga, or playing basketball.
MH: What’s the goal now?
LM: Well, while training I got asked to do an another movie called SNL 1975. I played Garrett Morris. Garrett Morris was about 155 pounds, which was a smaller than me. When I got that call, I might have been 185 pounds. And so, I knew that I had to lose weight to play this character. But it was too small for me—I told Eddie I got skinny for this character, and now I want to bulk up. Obviously keep the definition, though.
I get to eat a lot more now. I basically have three meals a meal.
MH: What are you going to do with this new body? Will we be seeing you in a DC or Marvel movie?
LM: Let’s just say I will be going to one of those locations that you just named. I’m not going to say anything…I’m just saying I’ve knocked on their doors for long enough.
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