Shaquille O’Neal has been on a body transformation journey over the last several years, losing weight, smashing his fitness goals, and documenting his efforts to get lean in a series of thirsty gym photos. But back in his NBA rookie days, the assignment was the opposite.

In a recent conversation with Tom Brady and Jim Gray on the Let’s Go podcast, Shaq explained that while he weighed around 285 pounds when he left college and began his NBA career with the Orlando Magic, he was soon required to pack on some weight, leading to a “130-pound bulk” over his first season.

“They started Hack-a-Shaq with me early,” he said. “So I was lifting weights, and I was 300, and then 315. Phil Jackson came in, the first championship I was 345, then I had a great summer, came back 385 for the second one.”

He added that by the time he had left Orland for the LA Lakers, he weighed 415 pounds. But that changed when he signed with the Miami Heat. “And then when I got traded away, Pat Riley had me doing army drills, and I got back down to 325,” he continued. “It was up and down.”

This bulk was aided by his pre-game diet back then. “Every day before games, I would have two club sandwiches, fries, and a pineapple soda,” Shaq told Men’s Health in 2021. These days, at age 51, he’s more likely to be eating salmon, lean chicken or turkey than a club sandwich… albeit in pretty huge volumes. The guy is still 7’2″, after all.

Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.