Kumail Nanjiani Wrote A Refreshingly Honest Caption About How He Got Jacked

You probably know comedian Kumail Nanjiani from HBO's Silicon Valley, the Dave Bautista action film Stuber, or his Oscar-nominated work in the movie The Big Sick, which told the true story of his relationship with wife Emily Gordon.

He's also starring as Kingo in the upcoming Marvel film The Eternals, alongside the likes of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, and Salma Hayek.

This will be the comedian's first superhero movie, and fans have noticed in recent months that he seemed to be hitting the gym hard.

For example, here he was next to Madden at the D23 Expo in August.

Because of my commitment to journalism, here is that same pic but zoomed in on his bicep.

Well, on Monday, as people were just going about their normal lives, Nanjiani decided to fuck everyone up and post the following pictures to Instagram.

Safe to say, he succeeded in shaking people to their very cores.

Questions were asked.

Even the Queer Eye guys were overwhelmed.

But, once people were finally able to drag their eyes off the photos and down to the caption Nanjiani wrote, they discovered a refreshingly honest explanation of the sheer amount of work and money that goes such an extreme physical transformation.

Nanjiani explained that when he got the Eternals role he wanted to transform how he looked, adding that he'd "worked way too hard for way too long" to achieve the goal.

But, he added, "I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world."

"I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before," he explained. "It would have been impossible without these resources and time."

He then thanked not one but five (five!) different personal trainers he had to work with to gain all that muscle, as well as a catering company that had made all his nutritious meals for the year.

It's no secret that it takes a lot of effort to get swole enough to be in a Marvel film. Chris Hemsworth's stunt double Bobby Holland Hanton told BuzzFeed in 2016 he had to eat an astonishing 35 times a day to achieve the same muscly size as the Thor actor.

But the prevalence of such big superhero bodies in popular culture in recent years has also come at a cost: Male body image issues are on the rise, even among young kids.

The BBC reported in 2015 that health experts were worried about muscle dysmorphia, or so-called "bigorexia," among men. "Muscle dysmorphia is a preoccupation with the idea that one isn't big enough, isn't muscular enough," Rob Willson, chair of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, told the BBC.

"We're seeing an increased pressure on men to look muscular, create a 'V' shape, and have a six-pack," Wilson said.

So, amid all this, some fans found Nanjiani's honesty very refreshing.

Last year on Instagram, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney made a similar point about just how much money and work it took to achieve his ripped physique — and just how unrealistic it is for most people.

"Look, it’s not that hard," he joked. "All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, don’t eat anything after 7pm, don’t eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just don’t eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from Magic Mike, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span."

"I don’t know why everyone’s not doing this," he added, sarcastically. "It’s a super realistic lifestyle and an appropriate body image to compare oneself to."

The last person Nanjiani thanked in his Instagram caption on Monday was his wife, Gordon, "for putting up with [him] complaining and talking about only working out and dieting for the last year."

"I promise I’ll be interesting again some day," he said.

Still, she seemed pretty happy with the result.

"Worth it," she wrote.