Shaquille O’Neal has revealed a stunning weight loss secret — and it won’t make pleasant reading for his NBA TV partner in crime Charles Barkley.
O’Neal this week said during an appearance on Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast that Barkley, his Inside the NBA co-host, was the inspiration for his body transformation.
“I like to create crazy motivation,” he said.
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“I was looking at myself and I had that Charles Barkley retirement body.
“I didn’t want my stomach to be over the belt anymore. So I was just like, ‘Let me go ahead and get slim’.
“After that [picture] went viral, now I’ve got to live up to it.”
As reported by The New York Post, that comment referenced a now-viral video last month showing O’Neal in the gym showing off a six-pack.
He’s only just getting started too. O’Neal says since his journey began last year, he has shredded more than 25kg — the equivalent of more than two gold bricks.
He said recently a six-pack of abdominals was not something he had “seen in 20 to 30 years.”
“I was 401 pounds. Now I’m 365,” Shaq shared.
“I’m trying to take it back to 345. I want to have muscles everywhere, and I want to do an underwear ad with my sons [for] Fruit of the Loom, baby.”
Shaq added that he “wants to become a sex symbol.”
As for what his workouts entail? “Just cardio — 30-40 minutes — then chest, arms, biceps, triceps,” O’Neal told GQ in March. “A simple old man workout. I can’t do all that CrossFit stuff.”
At the time, O’Neal said he no longer had “Charles Barkley Over the Belt Syndrome any more” after becoming more disciplined with his fitness regimen.
The Basketball Hall of Famer said he began taking his health more seriously after a doctor’s visit that discovered he had sleep apnea. He also said he was dependent upon painkillers, but not addicted.
“Certain days when I couldn’t move, I just popped one or two, just to get me going. But I’m off that now,” O’Neal said.
“I had to really get checked out. When they hit you with that three-letter word that starts with D and ends with E, it changes stuff up.”
O’Neal last year revealed he had completely overhauled his diet as a result.
He said he cut out bread, late-night Oreos, and cakes, switching to eating “fruit, protein shakes, salads, fish, chicken and asparagus or other vegetables” in “very small portions.”
O’Neal also told Men’s Journal he had lost his motivation for fitness after experiencing a number of personal losses in 2020, including his sister, Ayesha Harrison-Jex, and good friend and former Lakers teammate, Kobe Bryant.
“My sister passed away before Kobe. And then Kobe passed away and then I had 28 other people pass away. [2020] 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 said.
When O’Neal shifted focus to fitness, he said he “just started to eat better” and began to “make better decisions.”
“My problem is, I’ve always been a sandwich guy. Sandwich for lunch, sandwich for dinner, sandwich for snack. And when all of that was going on last year, I couldn’t sleep. So, I’d wake up at three in the morning and make a sandwich, five in the morning and make a sandwich,” he explained.
In addition to tweaking his diet habits, the 15-time All-Star also adopted a strict gym routine.
“I do 20 minutes of cardio, I’ll do some chest, bis, tris, sit-ups, back and then I’m gone. Thirty to 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,” O’Neal said.
“Next thing I’ll try is jogging.”
O’Neal also took another shot at his Barkley: “An hour a day will keep the Charles Barkley belly away,” he said.
— This story originally appeared on The New York Post and has been republished with permission
