Taylor Lautner Is Fittest Male Star of 2009

It’s not uncommon for actors to lose or gain weight for some movie role, albeit said modifications are not as drastic as, say, in the case of Christian Bale and Taylor Lautner. The latter, for instance, gained about 30 pounds of muscle between “Twilight” and “New Moon,” and, for it, has just been named by readers of FitSugar the fittest male celebrity of 2009.

As we also reported earlier this year, for his transformation in wolf in the much-hyped vampire saga “New Moon,” Lautner hit the gym and started on a new diet so that his character be more believable. The results did not fail to show, as fans of the film got to see in several scenes where Lautner (Jacob Black in the flick) is not wearing a shirt.

“Actor Taylor Lautner left the competition in the dust this year, getting 45 percent of your votes for the fittest male celeb of 2009 poll. Though some of you expressed dissent that there was a 17-year-old in the celeb pool, the ‘Twilight’ actor earned more than double the votes as Ryan Reynolds, his closest competition. The release of ‘New Moon’ made it a big year for Team Jacob, and Lautner packed on 30 pounds to reprise his role as Jacob, the werewolf,” FitSugar says.

Other male stars in the run for the title included the aforementioned Ryan Reynolds, whom fans saw in this year’s hit “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” as the deadly Deadpool, and who has always been in an extraordinary shape. David Beckham and Taye Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal and “High School Musical” alum Zac Efron were also in the competition, though they clearly did not stand a chance to Lautner. Another “Twilight” star also in the run was Kellan Lutz.

“Lautner’s motivation to be fit doesn’t stem entirely from a movie role, either; he’s also an accomplished martial arts artist. From ages 6 to 13, Lautner studied karate and was ranked number one in the world for NASKA’s Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons and Traditional Forms. Growing up, Lautner played team sports, and says that if it wasn’t for acting he would have focused on a serious career in football,” FitSugar further says of the winner for its most recent poll.