Celebrity Jon Favreau Loses 85 Lbs. with His Wife's Help "This is not the weight my body wants to be," he told his wife one day By Oliver Jones Oliver Jones Oliver Jones is a former staff writer at PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2013. People Editorial Guidelines Published on November 21, 2007 03:35PM EST Photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic; As Jon Favreau inched closer to his 40th birthday, he was also pushing 300 lbs. Ready for a change, the star turned to his wife Joya, a doctor of internal medicine. “I finally said to her one day, ‘I think at my age – I was pushing 40 at the time – that this is not the weight my body wants to be.’ And she said, ‘Well, you can lose weight,’ ” Favreau, 41, tells PEOPLE. “I went to Joya because she has always been my partner.” Losing about 5 lbs. a week, according to his wife, Favreau went from 290 to 205 lbs. by following a diet she prescribed. Pleased with his results, the actor admits, “I would feel weird if I ate the way I used to.” That doesn’t mean he can’t watch himself “get fatter” again – Amazon.com has released DVDs of all five seasons of his show Dinner for Five, in which he hosted and indulged in 49 gourmet meals. “It’s a lot easier looking at yourself fatter than it is looking at yourself thinner,” Favreau admits. To read more about Favreau’s slim down success, pick up the Dec. 3 issue of PEOPLE on newsstands now.