Shaq Diesel Shares His Simple Diet Secrets That Brought Back The Six-Pack

How has Shaq been able to lose 25-30 pounds while bringing back his six-pack abs that he hasn't seen in 20 to 30 years? The Big Aristotle tells Men's Journal that it's been really quite simple: a change in his daily eating habits.

Shaq says, like many of us, 2020 was spent eating, not exercising and the pounds just started adding up.

"My sister passed away before Kobe. And then Kobe passed away and then I had 28 other people pass away. was a really bad year and I didn’t want to do anything. So, when you don’t want to do anything, but you need to stay out of trouble, there’s two things you can do: eat and Netflix," he told the magazine.

The 7-foot-1 Diesel says that it was sandwiches that caused most of his issues. He was making sandwiches for most of his meals and then one day, after seeing a 70-year-old man on Instagram with "muscles everywhere," he decided to make a change.

"No more bread, no more late-night lemon Oreos, no more Entenmann’s cakes, none of that. I’ve been doing this for six months and just eating fruit, protein shakes, salads, fish, chicken and asparagus or other vegetables," he explained. "Very small portions and eating that everyday has helped me lose 25-30 pounds. I started to see stuff that I haven’t seen in 20 to 30 years—like a six pack. And I haven’t had one of those since I was on the 2006 Miami Heat."

As for exercise, the Hall of Famer who played in 1,200 NBA games, says it's also quite simple. "I do 20 minutes of cardio, I’ll do some chest, bis, tris, sit-ups, back and then I’m gone," he says. "30-45 minutes a day, plus cardio––so about an hour a day. I still got the bad hips and the achy joints, so I can’t be jumping and running around. Next thing I’ll try is jogging."

And then it's time for some Icy Hot. Yes, they're a sponsor. The guy is an absolute genius who already had a sponsor for a rehab product before he even started working towards losing weight.

And, yes, Shaq has a great Icy Hot story that he told earlier in the year on the John Kincade show.

“I had a thigh bruise and the Lakers trainer put some (Icy Hot) on my thighs. And I was having a great game. But my boys were starting to get real hot. And then i’m running and they are getting too hot. I had to call a time out and tell the trainer ‘hey man, my balls are on fire.”