“I eat a cookie and think, ‘Oh my God, my six-pack is gone'” – Shaquille O’Neal opens up about his battle to stay in shape after retirement

Post-retirement isn’t always the smoothest ride, especially for someone whose entire youth life revolved around staying in peak condition. For Shaquille O’Neal, the once-unstoppable giant of the paint, the years after basketball weren’t just focused on business ventures or television gigs.

They were also about navigating a life without the game’s structure, which hit hardest in 2020 — a year he later described as one of the worst of his life.

Shaq’s fitness suffered

O’Neal never liked the feeling of being out of control, but 2020 made that inevitable. The weight started creeping in, and old habits took hold. He ate out of control and wasn’t sleeping much, either. His body began to feel the impact, and he had to take note.

“You know, the crazy thing is, I’m like a little kid every time I walk by a mirror,” O’Neal said. “Especially if I eat a cookie or something, I think, ‘Oh my God, my six-pack is gone.’ And then I go to the mirror and see, ‘Oh, it’s still there.”

But even that reassurance didn’t mask the truth — he was looking old. The weight gain was physical and emotional. He was grieving friends and family lost in a chaotic year. The pandemic exposed the stillness he wasn’t ready for. No arenas, no flights, no routines. Just silence.

And that mirror started to reflect something unfamiliar. The former MVP and four-time NBA champion knew something had to give. His joints weren’t moving the way they used to, and his energy wasn’t the same. He could feel his body slipping into a version he didn’t recognize.

Changing routine

The turning point came from Instagram. Scrolling through his feed, O’Neal saw a 70-year-old man with muscles on muscles, looking fit as ever. That image hit him hard.

“He was about 70, and his caption said, ‘Age is nothing but a number.’ And I was actually jealous,” Shaq admitted. “I knew it was time for me to get back right. And now that I’m doing it, I actually feel pretty good.”

He cut out the bread and the late-night snacks that once filled the quiet hours. He ate fruit, protein shakes, salads, fish, chicken, asparagus, and portion control in their place. No elaborate diets, no celebrity trainer reveals. Just discipline.

Six months of consistency carved away 25 to 30 pounds. The results weren’t subtle either — they reminded him of the days when he was dominating in purple and gold. His six-pack started to resurface. His energy returned. The mirror no longer made him wince.

It was a full-circle moment for a man whose entire career had been built on brute force and dominance. But now, in the quiet of his post-playing life, it was about reclaiming dignity. 2020 had shaken him.

It stripped away the distractions and the noise. It made him confront his mortality, his habits, and the version of himself he wanted to be moving forward. O’Neal might have once been Superman on the court, but in the real world, he had to learn that staying fit after 40 wasn’t about maintaining size. It was about reclaiming control. And after one of the darkest years of his life, that control was everything.