(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Gerard Butler has joked that he last ate a good meal a year ago.

There has been much buzz about how much weight the Scottish actor has lost recently but he says it is all in the name of art.

The 41-year-old's new slimline physique has divided many with some saying that he has gone too far.

But Gerard says he's not as small as he may appear in magazines or on screen.

"If I wear a long shirt, everyone says, Oh my god, he lost so much weight,'" he told E! Online at the Diesel runway show during New York Fashion Week yesterday.

"But this is how I look. I just used to be a lot bigger. But now I'm surfing. I'm doing a surf movie so I have to slim down. I don't know maybe I'm sick or something!

"I ate my last meal in October and I run about 40 miles a day."

Although he quickly clarified that he was "joking" about the extreme weight loss methods he did admit that he has been working out hard.

"It's just doing a lot of cardio and extremely watching what I eat," he explained. "I stopped lifting big weights and I'm doing yoga."

"It's not hard to be in shape it's hard to be in really good shape. I generally train for a role and give everything to that and then you stop and then you do it again."

Gerard also denied rumours that he is dating Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville, insisting that he is a single man. (C) Cover Media