We all know that Shaq is a big man… as one of the most dominant players ever to wear an NBA uni, he towered over most of his fellow players, and he used that size to play the game at a ferocious level. All good, of course. Yet when retired from the game, his body apparently didn’t get the message that he wasn’t working off all those calories like it used to.
In a recent interview with the Insider online magazine, O’Neal talked about recent efforts to lose a few pounds and get back to game-day shape…or at least as close as possible for someone who’s a little older these days.
Shaq said he had a long-standing and familiar plan for each day: “I was waking up and going to work, chilling, eating whatever. I wasn’t paying attention. I looked down one day, I was like, ‘Damn,’ My belly was way over my belt,” he said.
In a reference to his Inside the NBA co-host (and another guy who’s put on a few since playing days), Shaq joked that he had, “Charles Barkley Over The Belt Syndrome.” Of course Barkley was never a real physical specimen, not even during his playing days. We here at the offices of the ShaqFu Radio blog seem to remember his being known as the “round mound of rebound.” Check your NBA history. We’re pretty sure that’s a real thing. (grin)
Now that he’s officially turned the big five-oh – 50 years old! – the former superstar and NBA Hall-of-Famer says he’s been working hard on the diet, and getting good exercise, too. In an earlier interview with Men’s Journal magazine, Shaq says he’s already lost 30 pounds in the past year. Now he says he’s still working (and working out) to get into even better shape.
O’Neal says it all started after a checkup with his doctor last year. Apparently the doc asked one simple question: If Shaq wanted to die. Wow… powerful! “When they hit you with that three-letter word that starts with D and ends with E, it changes stuff up,” O’Neal told the magazine.
So what’s the big man – who wants to be a slightly smaller man – doing to make it happen? Well, the new diet is pretty strict, and there’s regularly scheduled time on the elliptical machine, too.
What’s to eat? Keep in mind that this is a guy for whom three meals a day is usually not going to cut it. Think five! O’Neal said he includes fruit in the first three meals of his day. For breakfast, he eats fruit, and then three turkey sausages and about four or five egg whites.
The retired NBA star said his second meal is just fruit, followed up by more fruit and a shake or smoothie for his third meal. He previously told Men’s Health that his smoothie recipe is made up of blueberries, bananas, and peanut butter. His recipe is similar to Tom Brady’s favorite smoothie recipe, but Brady uses almond butter instead of peanut butter and includes whey protein and walnuts for a total of 34 grams of protein.
The four-time NBA Champion told the magazine his fourth meal is just a salad, and his fifth meal is only lean chicken, fish, or steak. (We’re wondering how big is that salad?)
There’s a lot of ongoing controversy over what makes for the best diet, and obviously it’s different for different people, depending on body composition, etc. Shaq has the backing of sources like WebMD, which says about 25-30% of a person’s daily diet should be made up of fruit, and more from veggies.
Stay tuned to see how the big man makes out in being just a little less big. Of course he’ll always be Shaq…maybe in the future, just a little less Charles Barkley!