Jimmy Kimmel lost a ton of weight on this radical diet

Growing up in a big Italian family, Jimmy Kimmel says he has always struggled with portion control.

By 2010, Kimmel's 6'1 physique had ballooned to 208 pounds, and he wasn't happy.

The late night host decided to take control by going on an extreme diet called 5:2. Essentially, he gets to eat whatever he wants five days a week, but must eat less than 500 calories for the remaining two days.

"Something I've been doing for a couple of years now is starving myself two days a week," Kimmel recently revealed to Men's Journal. "On Monday and Thursday, I eat fewer than 500 calories a day, then I eat like a pig for the other five days. You 'surprise' the body, keep it guessing."

"On fasting days I'm pretty unpleasant to be around," Kimmel admitted to the magazine. "I mostly just drink coffee and eat pickles endlessly. For 'meals' I'll have some peanut butter and an apple, or the whites of hard-boiled eggs, or if I'm really hungry, a bowl of oatmeal. The rest of the week I'm a glutton - pizza and pasta and steak."

While some professionals like Dr. Oz dispute the diet, it has worked for Kimmel. The 48-year-old lost over 25 pounds, and now maintains a weight of around 182 pounds.

Just don't ask Kimmel about his exercise routine because it's pretty nonexistent: "I just hate it," he told Men's Journal.

Story by Aly Weisman and editing by Kristen Griffin