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Home » Lose Weight » Former NFL Linemen Reveal The Surprising Struggles Of Losing Weight After Spending Years Getting Paid To Be A Massive Human – BroBible

Fans know me more for losing weight than they do for anything I did in my entire career.

That quote comes courtesy of offensive tackle Jordan Gross, who played 11 seasons with the Carolina Panthers before retiring in 2014. He shared that thought with ESPN, which conducted interviews with nine former NFL linemen about life after football. When I first read it, I found it impressively depressing, but after digging a little deeper, I found it was actually strangely inspiring.

Making a living as an NFL lineman is inherently insane, as you have to constantly eat an absurdly large amount of food in the name of job security. If youve ever tried eating a 5,000 calorie lunch, you know that its certainly no small feat, but if youve been consistently eating 5,000 calorie lunches every day for over a decade, its harder than you thing to suddenly find yourself switching to a normal life and the diet that comes with it.

Gross somehow managed to radically alter his food intake and lifestyle to become a healthy, non-football playing person, and while many of the other guys at his position end up doing the same, anyone whos tried to lose weight knows its not as easy as just telling yourself to eat less foodespecially if youve conditioned yourself to consume as much as you possibly can.

Joe Thomas looks like an entirely different person compared to his appearance during his time on the Browns but the transformation basically required him to reboot his brain, as he said:

Youre training yourself to have an eating disorder the way you view food when youre in the NFL and to try to deprogram that is a real challenge If I went two hours without eating, I literally would have cut your arm off and started eating it.

These guys are essentially forced to be at least 300 pounds, because if you lose a solid chunk of weight, you can also risk losing your job. Many of these players are told their worth can practically be measured in calories and weight, which is an excellent recipe for creating body image and self-esteem issues, which is something former Falcon and Buccaneer Joe Hawley says he constantly struggled with:

I always had this insecurity of being big when it came to dating life; talking to women and going out being a 300-pound man. I didnt want to be that big, but I had to because I loved football and that was my job.

Its straight-up not normal to be this big. Thats not fat-shaming. Thats reality. It is not healthy to force giant meals down your throat every two hours for the sake of your job. But thats what the life of a lineman is like.

One of the wildest discoveries to me is how Thomas says he had to essentially rewire his brain to not eat when he was full. When playing in Cleveland, he had to be constantly chowing down. The man probably hadnt felt an ounce of hunger since he entered the league when he retired. I have a habit of eating ice cream every night and it would take a whole lot for me to stop that, so I can hardly imagine how tough it was for Thomas.

The worst part? Theres not much glory in being a lineman. Headlines are always about the quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs. Occasionally, cornerbacks, safeties, tight ends get some time in the spotlight. But linemen? Not so much. At least theyre finally getting some attention here.

Excerpt from:
Former NFL Linemen Reveal The Surprising Struggles Of Losing Weight After Spending Years Getting Paid To Be A Massive Human - BroBible

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Home » Lose Weight » Former NFL Linemen Reveal The Surprising Struggles Of Losing Weight After Spending Years Getting Paid To Be A Massive Human – BroBible