Jennifer Lawrence Has A Trick For Staying Healthy While Dining Out

Jennifer Lawrence loves food — and she isn't about to apologize for that. But she's also an actress with some of Hollywood's biggest franchises on her résumé. That means keeping a sleek action-ready physique. So how does Lawrence pull it off?

She trains hard, of course. But since 2016, she has been vocal about the impact her X-Men trainer (and later friend) Dalton Wong has had as he helped her set up the perfect system. Lawrence can still enjoy all the foods that she loves without living in the gym between her hours on set. Wong's approach is all about balance, and he outlines it in his 2016 book The Feelgood Plan.

Wong's book offers a whole lot of advice. But when it comes to food — especially the delicious sort of food most people go out to order — he has a very specific system. It's called the Rule of Two and he offers a handy chart to help people stay on track. It's the same rule Jennifer Lawrence uses.

The Rule of Two essentially states that there should be two courses to your meal. Your goal and your hunger level decide what those courses are. This might sound a little confusing, but Wong's chart is very straight-forward:

If you're hungry, have a starter and a main course. If you want to lose weight, have a starter and then another starter as your dinner. If you have a sweet tooth, eat a main course and share a dessert. If you have a sweet tooth and want to lose weight, have a starter as your meal and then share dessert.

If you're used to American-sized portions, this might not seem like enough food. But as USA Today reported in 2014, American portions weren't always as big as they are now. Before WWII, American portions were more in line with restaurant portions in many European countries. But after the war, portion sizes started going up as agriculture boomed.

When you love the kind of food that Jennifer Lawrence does, those big portion sizes are a problem. In 2014 Bustle did a write-up of the foods Lawrence talks about most, and of course, they're favorites that most Americans can agree with: Pizza, fries, ice cream, and cookies. All of them are delicious. None of them are healthy.

Most eating plans would advise you to cut out these items, but not Wong's!

"I would rather give you something you want, like a little bit of dark chocolate, than have you not eat it and crave a whole chocolate bar," Wong told Cosmopolitan in 2016.

This philosophy fits right in with his Rule of Two. Indulge your cravings with starters or a shared dessert. Don't fight the urge to eat. Just keep your portion sizes reasonable, and eat for your hunger — not your plate size.