For many professional athletes, retirement is more than stepping off the field; it’s a lifestyle transformation. Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center, officially announced his retirement this past week during an emotion-charged press conference. True to his no-nonsense approach on the field, Kelce has a clear strategy for his health. Since hanging up his cleats, Kelce, 37, has launched a late-night show with ESPN and been a guest on Jimmy Kimmel. His podcast with little bro (and Kansas City Chiefs superstar) Travis, "New Heights," earned a $100 million deal with Wondery, and he’s even cameoed on Wrestlemania. And maybe most surprisingly, his hairy, dadbod physique has become iconic-even if he is down about 15 pounds from his old playing weight of 295 pounds.
Kelce's Retirement Announcement and Health Strategy
Jason Kelce officially announced his retirement this past week during an emotion-charged press conference. While Kelce is stepping away from the football field, his podcast, New Heights, will continue to keep fans updated on his life. True to his no-nonsense approach on the field, Kelce has a clear strategy for his health.
Initial Weight Loss and Motivation
During a June 2024 interview with GQ, the former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman said he's "almost 20 pounds down right now" and is aiming to shed an additional 20. As for why Jason-who shares daughters Wyatt, 5, Elliotte, 4, Bennett, 2, and Finnley, born in March, with wife Kylie Kelce-has been motivated to lose weight as of late? He has turned his exercising into a rivalry with former Eagles teammate Beau Allen.
Kelce exited the league with his fair share of impediments: a twice-reconstructed right knee, surgeries on his hand and groin and broken toes. But he's "still able to fully enjoy life," which he considers a "blessing." Even so, he's determined to lose more weight for his children's sake. "Another 20 pounds hopefully will make (me) much more adept at playing with children," he said.
Target Weight and Physical Improvements
“I weighed 295 for the majority of my NFL career, and I look forward to losing some of those pounds,” he told GQ in June 2024. “I feel like for some reason, 250 to 260 feels like I'll be still big and be happy with the way I look without having a six-pack. Sharing at the time that he was about halfway to his goal weight, he admitted it was hard to imagine weighing even less. “I'm about 277. I'm almost 20 pounds down right now,” he continued. “It’s hard to imagine another nearly 20 pounds coming off, being honest with you. But my back already feels better. My knees already feel better. He was one of those players that got forced to play offensive line. Because of his athletic makeup and stature, that was a position that he was most geared for to play in the NFL. He's always had to really try to maintain a heavy weight. So for him, once he got done playing, it was natural to want to get down. He's always looked forward to getting down and losing weight.
Read also: Momoa's Diet and Fitness
Diet and Calorie Tracking
“I personally don’t subscribe to doing extreme diets,” he said in Episode 80 of his New Heights podcast. “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. You understand calories and diet and exercise more because you need to gain weight [for football]. You end up getting really good at knowing how to lose and gain weight, because you already had done that before. He can look at a plate of food and he can know if he's eaten more calories than he's burning off or less, and if he's had the right amount of protein, or if he need more protein if he want to maintain muscle-you just get used to that process. And he think that's why he's a big proponent of anybody that wants to lose weight or gain weight, of understanding macronutrients and understanding serving sizes, because a lot of it is just establishing what a normal amount of food is, or what the amount of food is that you need. He think there's a lot of different diets, and every diet works at the end of the day if you follow it.
Competition with Beau Allen
“Beau Allen reached out and said, ‘Do you wanna do a competition on who can lose the most body fat percentage but still gain muscle?’" he told his brother Travis Kelce on a March 2025 episode of their New Heights podcast, adding that he and his old teammate even got scans to measure their body compositions.
Training Regimen
Kelce has never been one to shy away from a challenge, on or off the gridiron. Determined to slim down to 250 lbs from his last recorded weight of 285 lbs, this former star is committed to taking the same disciplined approach to his health as he did during his playing days. He love lifting heavy weights, so he still do that. He still squat heavy, he still bench heavy, and actually kind of tweaked his back early in his retirement deadlifting too much. But he don’t know-it’s hard to stop lifting a certain way, and he know that he need to get more joint-friendly. He hasn’t made that jump quite yet. Joint health in general, he’s on borrowed time on all his joints and that’s just the way it is for anyone who plays that long in the NFL. There’s still a right amount of stressors that you want to put on your joints to preserve them. So now the real thing he’s trying to do, he still want to go out and run. He just want to do it the right way, where he want to run on grass as opposed to asphalt. Or he jump rope so he’s still getting his ankles to absorb impacts. He think that doing the right amount is the goal now. He guess he’d rather do that than all of a sudden go way too light, because he know a lot of guys have done that. Then all of a sudden, they almost end up losing the ability to even run. He do different blocks. He could be doing a hypertrophy block for a month. Then there might be an explosive block, even though he might start doing them less, which would be your hang cleans and your Olympic movements, your box jumps. But he do like lifting heavy weight, you know? Like, putting 500 pounds on a squat bar and squatting. He still like putting 315, 405 on a bench press bar and repping out. It makes him feel good. He's definitely doing less of the Olympic movements, and that'll probably continue. Right now, he's doing a 6-20 block, and this is an ode to his strength coach that he had in college, Paul Longo. There's three different upper body days, there’s a chest-and-tris day, bis-and-back, and then a lower-body day. So it's kind of a bodybuilding-type workout, which he don't necessarily prefer. He like doing more of the total-body workouts on lifting days. It's something that he's done since college, where you do six reps of one thing, they do 20 reps of that same thing with a lighter weight of about half as much. Then you go back to doing six reps, then back down to 20, and you get a really good pump. And you also the six reps allows you to push heavyweight, so you're building a little bit of strength.
Speed and Agility
“No joke, I used to be very, very good at that,” Kelce told the camera. “I mean, I was still pretty quick. The coordination used to be much better. I haven’t done it in over a year. “Running is just a controlled fall,” Kelce yelled. After completing a sprint, Kelce said he “didn’t feel faster,” but the speedometer said otherwise. “Are you f***ing kidding me?” he said with a laugh. Kelce ran another sprint and hit a new personal best of 19.72 miles per hour. “I’ll take it,” an out-of-breath Kelce said. “In season, a number that I would routinely try and hit once every month or once every two months, I would try and hit 500 pounds,” Kelce explained. “This is where the psychological thing is.
New Career in Broadcasting
For Kelce, retirement has left him "more busy than (he's) ever been," as he shared with TODAY.com in June 2024. At 36, the father of three is beginning his second career, this time venturing into broadcasting. For the 2024 NFL season, Kelce is set to take on a role at ESPN. The network announced in May that Kelce would be joining its "Monday Night Football" pregame show, "Monday Night Countdown."
Read also: Achieving the Aquaman Physique
Kelce Lookalikes
In his 13 years playing in the NFL, the last thing Jason Kelce ever expected was a fan base that was excited to look just like him. “It’s been very strange,” he says. “You know, I've been compared to other people my whole career. Even in college, I used to get Zach Galifianakis a lot. Any white guy with a beard, pretty much I get compared to. This has been unique the last couple years, when all of a sudden, all these people are being compared to me.” This is life for Jason Kelce, who’s ascended to new levels of popularity two years into his retirement. This final point was especially clear about Kelce in the leadup to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. That’s when he, in partnership with Marriott Bonvoy and Courtyard by Marriott, teamed up with 25 of his best lookalikes to spread out around the Big Easy, giving superfans the challenge of finding the real Jason Kelce in exchange for a night in Courtyard’s Super Bowl Sleepover Suite. The stunt is all part of an ultra-busy schedule for a former lineman who’s reaching, um, new heights in his second life. And he was happy to discuss all of this with MH-as long as we didn’t ask whether he planned to pull for Travis or his old squad (the Eagles) on game day. That was no problem, since we wanted to know about his still maniacal approach to training post-football, the eating habits that have driven his weight loss, and his take on all the lookalikes. He think the very underrated thing that you need to have is a thick group of eyebrows. Your eyebrows need to be bushy. Me and my brother both have very thick eyebrows, and it's a telltale sign to be a Kelce. And then the other thing is, when you smile, your eyes need to disappear. You need to look like you're some type of dog that can't really see out of its eyes. And then also, you know, have some girth. He’s still pretty wide. For some reason during the playoffs, my diet has gone to crap, so I’m back up to like 280 [pounds]. He’d love to get down to 262, 250 here in the next few months. We’ll see what happens after I get done in New Orleans.
Other Celebrities' Weight Loss Journeys
Jelly Roll
"I did this publicly for a reason," Jelly Roll said on his wife Bunnie XO's Dumb Blonde. "What I want the world to know and I want the people to see, he continued, "is that I didn't become successful because of my weight, I became successful in spite of it." “I started at 540 pounds and I was 357 pounds this morning,” the singer born Jason DeFord told Pat McAfee in April 2025 during the ESPN host's Big Night Aht live show. The 6-foot-1 artist admittedly needed to overhaul his relationship with food to get where he wanted to go. "I've always said that I believe obesity is directly connected to mental health," he explained on an October 2024 episode of On Purpose With Jay Shetty. "I'm learning, I'm being very diligent with it,” he said. “My mantra is ‘something is better than nothing,’” he told People in a June 2025 interview. Surgery is “not the end,” he advised.
Kelly Clarkson
Yep, the talk show host is standing a little taller these days. Informed by doctors she was pre-diabetic, "I dropped weight because I've been listening to my doctor-a couple years I didn't," the singer explained to People. The mom to River and Remington is also enjoying exploring her new life in NYC. “Walking in the city is quite the workout,” she added. “And I’m really into infrared saunas right now. Not in her tool kit: The weight loss drug du jour. "My doctor chased me for like two years and I was like, 'No, I'm afraid of it. I already have thyroid problems,'" she explained on a May 2024 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. "Everybody thinks it Ozempic. It's not." Rather, it's another unnamed medicine, she continued, "Something that aids in helping break down the sugar-obviously my body doesn't do it right."
Oprah Winfrey
You get some health advice! And you get some health advice! Because now that the media legend is feeling better than ever, she's dishing out her best tips. While Winfrey hasn't named the weight loss medication she's using, she told People in December, "The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for," she explained of adding that particular tool to her arsenal. Her goal with the special, Winfrey explained, was to “start releasing the stigma and the shame and the judgment-to stop shaming other people for being overweight or how they choose to lose or not lose weight-and more importantly to stop shaming ourselves."
Andy Cohen
"I did, this summer, lose a good chunk of weight by micro-dosing a GLP-1," the 57-year-old revealed in September 2025 during an episode of his SiriusXM Andy Cohen Live radio show. "I was really unhappy with my weight. My doctor and I talked about this last year, had recommended a GLP-1 a few times to not only address what I was feeling about my weight, but treat plaque in my arteries and high blood pressure.
Read also: Aldean's Wellness Transformation
Tyler Hubbard
"Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing but what you actually need is redirection in order to see growth," he wrote. Enter: nutritionist Sean Torbati. Now, "I’m eating the right food & Hot yoga 1-2 times a week which is so good for my mental & physical state," the dad of three explained.
Danielle Brooks
"I weighed almost 300 pounds when I made Till," she said on the March 19 episode of the daytime talk show. "I had taken all those steroids, I was on all this stuff, and one of the things that's helped me drop the weight is Mounjaro. “I’ve worked with a dietician, made huge lifestyle changes, started exercising with a trainer and yes, I used science and support (shoutout to Mounjaro!) to help me after my 2nd pregnancy,” she wrote on Instagram in March 2025. “And I’m so glad I did because I feel great.”
Whitney Way Thore
The reality star knows she's fabulous with or without your compliments thank you very much. Bottom line, she continued, "Thank you for the compliments, but I really don't like obsessing over my body and I don't like it when others do it either."
Valerie Bertinelli
Well aware that she's hot in Cleveland, L.A. "This is a 150lb body on a 5'4 frame," the Food Network host wrote, sharing a 2014 bikini photo. "I don't weigh myself anymore because this is considered overweight by who's [sic] standards, I don't know. Fully removed from the pressures of dieting, "I now, finally, know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman," she continued. "So please remember, who you are and what your character is, should never be overshadowed by what size you are or how much you weigh. You are enough. As for anyone that might not agree, she summed up, "F--k ‘em."
Post Malone
Man, the musician feels just like a rockstar since dropping 55 pounds. "I've had a lot of people ask me about my weight loss and i'd suppose, performance on stage," he acknowledged in an April 2023 Instagram post. His inspiration, he continued, was the daughter he welcomed in 2022: "i guess dad life kicked in and i decided to kick soda, and start eating better so i can be around for a long time for this little angel. next up is smokes and brews, but i like to consider myself a patient man."
Kelly Osbourne
Why, yes, she did feel the pressure to snap back after welcoming son Sidney in November 2022. "It became my mission," she told E! News of dropping 85 pounds in that initial postpartum period. Not that she's recommending her strict AF approach. "It was a lot of work," she said. "It was miserable. I was hungry all the time, but I'm really happy with the results."
John Goodman
The Roseanne alum has hit a lot of highs and lows throughout his health journey. "In the old days, I would take three months out, lose 60 or 70 pounds, and then reward myself with a six-pack or whatever and just go back to my old habits," he explained in 2017. "This time I wanted to do it slowly. Move, exercise. His sensible approach-lots of walking and a Mediterranean diet heavy on fish, vegetables and nuts-has helped him maintain a 200-pound weight loss. "It's a life of rehab," he admitted to Men's Health. “No carbs,” he told Entertainment Tonight of his winning formula that also included a lot of daily cardio. “I have cheated a couple times, but basically no carbs, not even a cracker. No bread at all. No pizza, nothing. No corn, no beans, no starches of any kind. And to wash it all down, “I don’t drink anything but water,” he said. “No coffee, no tea, no soda.” Being a big teddy bear of a guy was part of the package when John Goodman starred on Roseanne in the 1990s, at one point “pushing 400” pounds, as he told David Letterman in 2010. “I just got tired, sick and tired of looking at myself,” Goodman told ABC News in 2016. “You’re shaving in the mirror and you don’t want to look at yourself.
Tammy Slaton
A huge loss has led to some pretty big gains for the 1000-lb Sisters star. "Like being able to buckle a seatbelt and not have to use an extender. It's big for me. Now, continued the reality star, "I'm more or less like giving myself a pat on the back for achieving something and doing it. Getting the weight off and living. That's what I'm doing. I can finally say I'm living life." “I’m down 500 pounds now, around 500,” the 38-year-old said in a confessional on an April 2025 episode of her show. “When I was at my heaviest, I was 700-plus pounds. “Tammy has consistently demonstrated her dedication to making sustainable lifestyle changes to maximize the benefits of her surgery,” Dr. Eric Smith told People in October 2024. “I've emphasized the importance of making small, daily adjustments to ensure not only her continued progress but also her long-term success.
Brittany Cartwright
Raise your glasses high to this healthy take from the Vanderpump Rules alum. While the Jenny Craig brand ambassador is hoping to see some results now that she's recommitted to the meal plan, "I'm also just trying to maintain and be the best version of myself for my son," she explained to E! News in February. "I just think it's important to show him a healthy routine," said the future star of The Valley. "Working out is so important to me and for my mental health. "I'm really proud of my journey," the star told People in 2023. "Fitness has become a part of my lifestyle. And with all the work she's been putting in, she continued, “I might have to drop a Hottie Bootcamp sometime soon." A little sample: A heart-pounding mix of deadlifts, jump-roping, forward lunges and mountain climbers. "This s--t burn like a motherf--ker," she said in one video. "But I know you see them thighs popping."
Shay Mitchell
When the world shut down in March 2020, mere months after the Pretty Little Liars alum gave birth to her first daughter Atlas, "I felt the least motivated I ever have," she shared with E! News. Workout plans were tossed out the window along with her long-held "everything in moderation" way of eating. After four straight weeks kicking off her mornings with lemon-infused warm water and a 30-minute sweat session ("It included HIIT, it included cardio, it included strength training," she said of the varied full-body routines) and recommitting to healthy meal choices ("If I want pizza, I'll have pizza and dump some spinach on it") she was a convert. "I was like, 'Hoooooly…' you know," she admitted. "I've been active my entire life. I have never lifted a 40-pound weight, lifted a 50-pound."
Lexi Reed
Though the fitness influencer does a fair amount of sweating, it's never about the small stuff. The social media star-also known as Fat Girl Fed Up online-revealed in a December Instagram that she didn't quite hit her goal of getting under 200 pounds. "I have to keep reminding myself progress is progress, no matter how small," she noted. "I just know I worked really hard this week. But it's OK, because I didn't gain all that weight overnight, I'm not gonna lose it overnight either. Because she knows all of her health goals are within reach. "I will get to wonderland," she said. "Whether it's next week or next year, we're gonna get there, eventually. "I got a nutritionist back in April. However, they cautioned, don't assume you're going to nail that metaphorical aerial on your first try. "It took three weeks before I saw any change," the Love That Story author admitted.
Dylan Sprouse
Used to wear a shirt in the pool as a kid so I decided in my late twenties I wanted to change my body and become a meat head," the actor, wed to model Barbara Palvin, captioned an Instagram post that April. Between hitting the weights and the kettlebells, it was "a long slog," he continued, "but I'm proud of the progress I've made and I ain't done yet."
Rebel Wilson
Sometimes you're hitting every high note, sometimes you're admitting life isn't always pitch perfect. The extra stress leading to extra pounds, "It makes me feel bad about myself," Wilson admitted, "it shouldn’t…but it does."
Chris Pratt
Saying buh-bye to his favorite beers? Fine. Committing to “three to four hours a day of just consistent, ass-kicking hard work," as he described his P90X, kickboxing and running sessions to Men's Journal? “I was peeing all day long, every day," he explained. “When people heard that I was cast in this movie, I think most people’s reactions were ‘Huh? Paul Rudd as a superhero? So he knew what he had to do. The ageless star "took the Chris Pratt approach to training for an action movie," he shared. "Eliminate anything fun for a year and then you can play a hero.”
Jessie James Decker
The Just Eat author has turned to her tried-and-true South Beach diet to feel more herself after the births of her older children. "I saw results instantly," she told E! News of the protein-heavy plan. But first she soaks up every second of the postpartum period. "I always tell mothers, like, that should be the last thing on your mind," stressed Decker, mom to Vivianne, Eric Jr., Forrest and February 2024 arrival Denver. "After you have a baby, please do not think about trying to lose weight. Just feed your baby. Love on your baby. You have a newborn. Your body is trying to heal. You will know when your body is ready.
Paul Rudd
But completing an ambitious bucket list is really what drives him. "A lot of my life goals outside of acting have to do with the outdoors-I know I want to climb big rock walls in Yosemite, and so, I want to get fit for that," he explained.
Olivia Munn
"I go and pick up my child," she told E! News of her "sweet angel" daughter. Staring into Kingsley's eyes "allows you to be grateful versus kind of nitpicking yourself," she explained of her strategy. "And so that is one of my hacks that I do because no matter what you put out there, it's hard not to be self-critical."