Lena Dunham's breakup food diary that led to extreme weight loss

The actress has opened up about her extreme weight loss after her ex 'barely touched her'. Photo / Getty Images

Lena Dunham says she lost "a lot of weight" after her split from Jack Antonoff.

Lena has written a food diary for ELLE UK, and she told the publication: "It happened, like many things, at first slowly and then all at once.

"It started with a stomach infection that necessitated a diet of basmati rice and bottles of Pedialyte (didn't hate it).

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On the left: 138 pounds, complimented all day and propositioned by men and on the cover of a tabloid about diets that work. Also, sick in the tissue and in the head and subsisting only on small amounts of sugar, tons of caffeine and a purse pharmacy. On the right: 162 pounds, happy joyous & free, complimented only by people that matter for reasons that matter, subsisting on a steady flow of fun/healthy snacks and apps and entrees, strong from lifting dogs and spirits. Even this OG body positivity warrior sometimes looks at the left picture longingly, until I remember the impossible pain that brought me there and onto my proverbial knees. As I type I can feel my back fat rolling up under my shoulder blades. I lean in.

A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 10, 2018 at 10:34am PDT

"Then came the 2016 election, when we all either started or stopped eating en masse."

She added: "Sadness is the only thing that's ever made me lose weight.

"Two years ago, during the last gasps of my six-year relationship, I lost weight.

The Girls star dated the Bleachers musician for nearly six years until their split in December 2017. Photo / Getty Images

"Not a little weight. Not the kind of weight where your bras feel kind of generous and you marvel at your subtle but oh-wow-it's-definitely-there-now clavicle. No, it was a lot of weight."

The 33-year-old actress found it bizarre that she didn't pile on the pounds like most women do after a breakup.

She said: "At the end of that relationship, the weight was falling off in double digits but, as I explained to my closest friends, I experienced none of the heady triumph of the women showing off their formerly-huge jeans in a full page ad for weight-loss pills."

The writer also revealed that she "very quickly" found a new "lover" after their split.

She recalled: "When my boyfriend and I broke up, I very quickly took a lover.

"He was someone I had known from childhood and he was, in many ways, exactly as I remembered him: goofy and physical, boyish and sweet. I went from being touched barely at all to being the very definition of touch."

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Happy Labor Day from my chest tats to yours !!! (suit by @andieswim 💛) 📸: @secretagentm

A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Sep 2, 2019 at 10:13am PDT

Lena also did a stint in rehab and once she was weaned off drugs she started to feel "real hungry".

She said: "It took a week, but as the drugs left my body and I made peace with the fact that I was here to heal, not just to cut my own bangs and weep (just kidding: you can't cut your own bangs because they won't give you scissors). I got real hungry, real fast. If it wasn't nailed down, I ate it."

The 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' star says meat pies are her "ecstasy" and the only thing that can "comfort" her other than her mum and she claims the savoury treat keeps her "alive".

She spilled: "After one bite I am in ecstasy.

"After the second, I miss my mum, the only person or thing that can rival this pie for comfort.

"After the third I shed a tear. For all the bad bites I've ever taken. For all the things I've ever hated and finished anyway and all the delicious things I haven't allowed myself to finish. Loving this meat pie means I'm alive."