The wrestling legend now weights as much as he did in the ninth grade.
Hulk Hogan looks noticeably slimmer these days. He's down to 265 pounds, which is what he used to weigh in the ninth grade. And he's gotten to this point by making a dramatic lifestyle change, like quitting booze.
The legendary wrestler invited Men's Health to his home in Clearwater Beach, Florida, for its popular "Gym & Fridge" series, in which the 69-year-old reveals his diet as a wrestler is a thing of the past. It used to be that Hogan would chow down a whopping 12 fried eggs for breakfast, two hamburger patties, oatmeal and butter. Lots of butter.
It also used to be that the Hulkster would chug three Miller Lites and two Tylenols before a match -- and even more beer afterward.
"I wasn't aware, I wasn't educated as far as quality of food and how much quantity I should eat," he tells the fitness magazine. "I was just hungry all the time. The pre-match meal was probably three Miller Lites and two Tylenols. That was the pre-match meal. And then afterwards, the post-match meal was probably 12 Miller Lites. That's how it was."
Not anymore.
Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea, says he hasn't had a drop of booze in six months.
"I don't drink alcohol at all. I just don't drink, don't take Tylenols," he says with immense pride. "I don't do anything besides drink really good water."
As for why he cut out the alcohol, it's actually quite simple.
"I just got tired of it," he explains. "It got to be a way to kind of numb me a little bit because I had a bunch of crazy business problems and personal stuff going on at the time. I caught myself, after I would train, getting too aggressive once again with the alcohol and I just decided to stop."
Hogan, who earned global recognition as a WWF (now WWE) wrestler after making his debut with the Vince McMahon organization in 1983, has since educated himself, and he now thinks twice about what he puts into his body. But there's no denying that wrestling for over three decades took a serious toll on his body, resulting in dozens of surgeries. And, as he got older, he realized that slimming down would soothe his painful joints.
"About 15 years ago my body kinda shut down on me. I had several knee surgeries, and then after wrestling 40 years almost, my body shut down on me," he says. "I went in for one back surgery and it was turned into 10 back surgeries. Both knees needed to be replaced. Both hips were replaced. A couple surgeries on my face from getting my orbital socket broken a couple times. And it ended up being 25 or 26 surgeries, or a couple more, over a 10- or 12-year period."
"So it changed the game on me. It made everything different for me," he adds. "And I changed my whole lifestyle because at the time, being in so much pain and getting older and older I couldn’t carry that much weight. When you are sedentary and not wrestling or moving every night, it's easy to put weight on. So, I decided to drop weight and get down to about 265. Actually, the last time I weighed 265 was in ninth grade."
RELATED CONTENT:
