As Jason Kelce strode to a dais on Monday to announce his retirement from the N.F.L. after 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, he appeared to be playing the role of traditional masculinity to perfection.
During the show, the 36-year-old former Philadelphia Eagles center responded to one fan who asked if he’s going to “shed pounds” in retirement since he will no longer have to maintain the caloric intake needed to play as an offensive lineman.
The fan noted that they were impressed with NFL legend Alan Faneca’s weight loss transformation after retirement and how he even ran a marathon, wondering if Jason would do the same.
“Yeah I’m not doing that,” he said immediately. “I don’t know how Alan’s doing it. I’m not running on pavement. I tried that already with the 5K, not gonna make a living doing that. My knees are already messed up enough.”
But I’m gonna slim down. My goal is 250 lbs,” he noted, adding, “This last week I got down to like 285 because I knew I was doing this and then I had cake like three days in a row.”
Jason continued to admit that he is never going to become the type to completely cut out his favorite foods or stop enjoying a drink now and then.
“There’s different ways to do this. I personally don’t subscribe to doing extreme diets like going all the way vegan or all the way carnivore or keto.
F— no I’m not doing that,” he explained. “I downloaded MyFitnessPal and just started tracking calories. I feel like as long as I maintain my protein intake — so I keep my muscle — and just limit the calories, you’ll start to lose weight. So that’s the plan.”
