Sylvester Stallone says he reached 2.6% body fat for Rocky III while living on canned tuna and 30 cups of coffee a day He didn’t just want Rocky Balboa to look different in Rocky III, he wanted his appearance to reflect what happens when fame surrounds someone with so much praise that they start believing their own hype. “I wanted Rocky III to look symbolically different, like a guy who’s been protected and become vainglorious, narcissistic.” Stallone says constant praise can change the way a person sees himself. When everyone around you tells you how great you are, you can start accepting it as the truth because nobody wants to tell you otherwise. “After a while you actually accept that as truth, instead of going, you know, you don’t look this good.” “I wanted to literally transform to another person.” He says he went from around 18–20% body fat to just 2.6%. And the routine he describes sounds extreme. “It was a bit dangerous. I only lived on, what was it, canned tuna and about 30 cups of coffee a day.” “The hard part when you’re directing at the same time, you go, ‘And your name is? Where are we? What’s say, what are we doing today?’ There is that kind of brain gap.”