Shaq Talks Losing 55 Pounds: ‘I Was Getting Chubby and Couldn’t Even Walk Up the Stairs’

“I got a couple people involved—it’s all about eating right. I got some blood work done, a friend of mine called me and said, ‘You’re fat,’ and she gave me this guy’s name, and he did some blood work, and you know, ’cause I was the athlete—I wasn’t a salad eater,” he told Turner in December 2022. “I won’t pay attention to any of that. I don’t care about none of that. I didn’t know what the difference between a carb and a protein, at 50 years old I never knew. So, he was saying you can’t do this, you can’t do that, more vegetables, my iron’s low. And once I just started changing those certain things, it dropped.” 

Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about his third annual fundraiser with the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club. Dubbed The Event and presented by Pepsi Stronger Together, the Oct. 7 show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas promises performances from big names and its proceeds going towards children in need.

Watch the interview with Shaq above.