McConaughey reveals weight loss secret

Actor dropped nearly 40 pounds for 'Dallas Buyers Club'

By By Breeanna Hare CNN
POSTED: 6:35 AM PST January 11, 2013    UPDATED: 6:59 AM PST January 11, 2013 
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(CNN) -

With New Year's resolutions still hanging over us, Matthew McConaughey had a bit of timely advice when we caught up with him at the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles Thursday night.

We started chatting about his weight loss for the upcoming "Dallas Buyers Club," and McConaughey explained that dropping nearly 40 pounds wasn't that tough.

"It wasn't as difficult - once I made up my mind to do it - as people said or thought it would be," McConaughey said. "I got past being hungry. I think the secret (to losing weight) is don't take meetings at Pizza Hut. Don't put yourself under that temptation."

That said, once he wrapped up his diet he knew precisely the temptation to indulge in: a perfectly prepared cheeseburger.

"I've put on 20 pounds, 25 pounds since I finished that film," the actor's previously told CNN. "And I ate a cheeseburger first thing!"