While many may believe that it’s peer pressure that leads them to it, Karan Tacker disagrees. “Pressure kabhi banta nahi hai, pressure log le lete hain. I am an actor, and I have the pressure of my profession. But even with that, I’ve been working here for like 15 years and I have never used anything,” he insists, adding, “I don’t know at what point, anyone who wants to be an actor started thinking that body banane se kaam milta hai. In fact, whatever body we might build, when we get a role, we do need to shred it down, kyunki body kisi ko chahiye hi nahi aaj ki taareekh mein. You have to look as regular as you can. There are very specific projects that require you take your shirt off. Other than that, you’re just playing real people and nobody really cares about ki tumhari shirt ke neeche abs hain ki nahi hain. I don’t know at what point did the norm become that actors need to have a body. I feel like that becomes a hindrance more than anything else.”

For the actor, working out is more a “mental game than a physical game”. “Going to the gym helps me achieve my mindset on a daily basis to attack life and its challenges. My body looking good is a side effect of exercising, that’s not the only agenda. The idea has always been that you want to achieve a fit mind and a fit body. That fit body doesn’t necessarily need to have like abs or have a chest or arms to it. You could be doing Yoga or running every day, and you could be extremely fit. You don’t need to look muscular to look fit,” he says.

Karan admits that his 15-year long fitness journey has only been “trying to figure out what kind of food items suit me”. “I pretty much eat my normal home food. My belief is that it has to be a sustainable attempt in terms that if you are following a diet, it has to match you for the rest of your life. You can’t be like I’m gonna eat absolutely clean and torture myself for three months and then I’m going to go back to pigging out. You got to strike a balance. That’s one thing that I feel like I’ve stuck a decent balance with. I exercise every day, but I enjoy my life also thoroughly,” he asserts.

For the actor, fitness is a journey that should be enjoyed: “Anything that goes up quick, comes down quick, figuratively and literally. So, just enjoy fitness and wait for things to turn around over a period of time. I see people who come to the gym and unki shaklon pe likha hota hai ky kyun aa gaye hum yahaan. Every fitness journey doesn’t need to start inside a gym. You have to find what works for you and it’s got to be an enjoyable experience.”