Retired NFL Great Joe Thomas Shows Incredible Weight-Loss Transformation

Tackle Joe Thomas #73 of the Cleveland Browns blocks during a game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Dec. 23, 2012 Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

A former All-Pro offensive lineman now looks quite different from his football playing days.

Joe Thomas, a future Hall of Famer who played for the Cleveland Browns, once weighed more than 300 pounds.

But in a new photo, Thomas appeared to have dropped a significant amount of weight.

“Use the Retweet button as a round of applause for @joethomas73 incredible transformation,” wrote former teammate Andrew Hawkins.

The six-time All-Pro left tackle revealed how he lost all that weight. He retired after the 2017 season and said he stopped eating all the extra calories he had needed to maintain his playing weight.

“Facts: I think the first 25 fell off in a month, than I had to kick my butt to keep going. Swimming is the best from a cardio standpoint, and #keto w/ intermittent fasting is gold. I can eat 1500-2000 cals/day and feel full,” Thomas tweeted.

Thomas responded to a question from a Twitter user, saying, “If you’re a guy who struggles to keep weight on like I was, yes it helps a lot for the first 25 pounds. Then after that you gotta work.”

On March 18, he told NFL.com that one of his biggest goals after retiring was to lose weight, saying he was more eager to do so than “almost anything in retirement.”

“Back when I used to practice (llloooonnngg time ago) I used to drink 2 big glasses of whole milk and a sleeve of thin mint Girl Scout cookies before bed just to get enough calories in the day to maintain weight,” he also wrote on Twitter.

And he also wrote that he ate about 4,200 calories per day to maintain his weight “on inactive days.”

Thomas also offered advice to players who struggle to gain weight.

“Tip for guys trying to gain weight for football. When I was in HS, I would take an entire loaf of bread, make it all into PBJ sandwiches. Then I’d eat 1/2 a sandwich every hour and wash it down with a glass of whole milk. Guaranteed weight gain,” he wrote.

Study: Weight Loss Easier After One Year

A new study shows that maintaining a weight loss for a year may be a helpful way to retrain one’s body into accepting its new lower weight.

“This study shows that if an overweight person is able to maintain an initial weight loss—in this case for a year—the body will eventually ‘accept’ this new weight and thus not fight against it, as is otherwise normally the case when you are in a calorie-deficit state,” stated  Signe Sorensen Torekov, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

The study showed that after a year of weight-loss maintenance, appetite-inhibiting hormones GLP-1 and PYY were increased. The hunger hormone ghrelin increased after sudden weight loss, but it returned to normal after a year, the study revealed.