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Chris Jericho is a master of reinvention. Since making his pro wrestling debut in 1990, the 51-year-old Winnipeg native has cycled through in-ring personas the way Gunna cycles through sneakers. Between the ropes, he’s been a high-flying lion tamer, a futuristic raver, a bubbly-sipping blowhard, a suit-clad smooth talker, a psychotic clown, a Broadway crooner, and a guy who just really enjoys making lists—all while also touring the world with his rock band Fozzy, authoring a quintet of bestselling books, and hosting a hit podcast.

But Jericho pulled off perhaps his wildest metamorphosis yet earlier this spring. In March, after a few years of wrestling with a relatively bulkier frame, Jericho reemerged on AEW Dynamite looking positively ripped in a way his fans hadn’t seen in ages—or possibly ever. To understand how the wrestling legend made the dramatic transformation happen, GQ called Jericho at his home in Florida to talk the near-death experience that changed his life forever, the hardcore diet he continues to follow, and why he thinks intermittent fasting is a load of BS.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: When AEW first started, you showed up with a noticeably bigger physique than you’d ever had in WWE. At the time, you cited guys like Bruiser Brody and the more powerful builds you saw in Japan as your inspiration for bulking up.

Chris Jericho: In 2018, I left WWE and I went back to New Japan [Pro Wrestling] for the first time in 20 years to headline the Tokyo Dome. While I was over there, I realized that the Japanese appreciate bigger, more blockier physiques. To them, it equates to a more powerful main-event presence. So when I came back the next year to headline again, I pulled a De Niro in Raging Bull, and I gained some weight just to be blockier—and it worked.

When AEW started in 2019, I was still in that mindset [of getting bigger]. I didn't even realize that I was creeping up. I went to the doctor towards the end of 2019, and it was the first time I'd been on a scale for a while. It said I was 240. I was like, “240? That can’t be right!” I remember saying to the guy, “Do I look like I'm 240?” And the guy's like, [awkward shrug] “I don't know.” That was the first time I had to realize, “Holy shit, I'm 240 pounds. That's big.”

So I started to go back down, but then the pandemic happened and threw everything off. AEW was still on the air—we were still working in Jacksonville every Wednesday in an empty arena, just trying to do whatever we could to keep the ball rolling. I wasn’t really thinking too much about staying up to all hours of the morning and eating and drinking. The world was all kinds of fucked up. So that's when I got even bigger—just not as good shape as I wanted to be. I got caught in a rut.

I think that happened to a lot of us.

Sure it did, but a lot of us aren't on TV with our shirts off every week. [Laughs.]

So fast forward to earlier this year. You popped back up on Dynamite after a few months away, and you’re absolutely shredded. How did that happen?

Well, it wasn't quite that cut and dry. What happened was I went to England for a Fozzy tour at the beginning of December 2021. While I was over there, I started having problems breathing on stage. Couldn't catch my breath. So I went to the doctor and found out I was having a pulmonary embolism, which means blood clots in your lungs. We canceled the last three days of the tour and I was in the hospital for a couple days in England, and then I was stuck there for another week because you can’t fly when you have blood clots. I wound up going to a medical concierge in London, which is a thing I didn’t know existed. What it means is you go to this company that takes care of everything—everything is in house. They make all the appointments, and they figure out what you need to do.

It was so amazing that when I got back to Florida, I found a medical concierge here. They put me on this scale called the InBody scale, which isn’t just your weight—it gives you your skeletal muscle mass, your body fat mass, your BMI percentage. And there was a measurement for visceral fat, which is the fat that surrounds your organs. The first thing the doctor said is: you need to lose visceral fat, which meant I had to lose weight.

Now I have no choice, right? Because this is my health now, it's no longer just an aesthetic thing. At the time, my visceral fat was at 11. It needs to be under 10. (Now it’s at 6 or 7, which is fine.) My body fat was like 21% or something like that, and 21% at 240—that's a lot of body fat. Around this time, very coincidentally, I met a guy who was opening up a medical weight loss diet clinic called Options. And that's what I decided to do.

I started on January 10th, and I wanted to lose 10 pounds over six weeks. Well, on this diet, I lost 11 pounds in the first week. So I said, “Well, this isn't super hard. Let me stay on it for a while.” Eight weeks later, I was down to 210 pounds. I lost 31 pounds in eight weeks.

Wow. So what is the diet?

The diet consists of just very small snacks, all infused with proteins and nutrients, and then a bunch of supplements—B12 fat burners, potassium, vitamins. I remember the first day it was like, “Okay, here's your first meal.” And it's one little package of oatmeal. And I was like, well, what else? I'm the type of guy who will have six eggs and bacon and a couple pieces of toast and a banana. But no, this is it. I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

But here's the key: you keep eating all day. I used to do intermittent fasting, which to me is the biggest scam in dieting. It doesn't work. Like, I'm not eating all day, but then when I eat, I can have whatever I want? Doesn't work that way. You have to keep eating constantly throughout the day. So you'd have this little pack of oatmeal, and then just as you're starting to get ravenous, like two and a half, three hours later, you get a little chocolate bar or a bag of chips or a cup of soup. Or you might get a chocolate shake, but it’s not a big protein shake like you’re used to—it's this wee little box. And then once a day, you would get eight ounces of protein with a salad, so you could have a couple turkey burgers or four eggs or whatever. You’d strive throughout the day to make it to your big meal—“big” meal, it’s eight ounces—and then you'd have one or two more snacks later. And that would be it. Like any other diet—because I've been on a few of them—once you get into the hang of it, it's really not so bad.

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Another thing was drinking at least 100 ounces of water a day. I was never much of a water drinker, but now I'm pounding water. Like, boom, I'll drink 34 ounces—glug, glug, glug. You just gotta retrain your body, and once you’re able to do that, it isn't so bad. I can still have a drink. I have my little shot glass for a little vodka, and it’s fine.

So it was just a lifestyle switch, and when you get to that first weigh-in, you're like, “Hold on, I can't believe it.” When you see the results, that's all you need. That's what really hooked me. To this day, I'm that guy that carries a scale with me everywhere. If I’m over 210, I pull back. If it's under 210, well, then I'll have a cheeseburger. If it's 205, then I'll have a cheeseburger and a pizza. If it's 215, then I'll be strict on the diet for a couple days. Once you get there and maintain it, it’s okay. You just have to know where you're at.

Right, so it sounds like you’re not nearly as restrictive as you were at the start.

The first couple months I was super enveloped with it. But we're human beings, you know what I mean? You can't fucking live like that forever. The beginning was like going cold turkey almost, no pun intended—because I would've loved some cold turkey at that time. But you really have to just focus, and I'm still very motivated. Once I got into it, you can't get me out of it. I still keep a scale with me to measure the ounces of meat, because if it says to do eight, I’m doing eight. I'm not doing 8.5 or 7-point-whatever. That's it.

And once you’d shed the weight, you had that big comeback moment on Dynamite.

Well, I wasn’t able to wrestle for a couple of months [after the blood clots]. I was still on the show doing commentary and backstage stuff, but nobody saw me with my shirt off. So once I was able to wrestle again, that’s when people saw the big transformation. And it all tied in together with the debut of the [new wrestling faction] Jericho Appreciation Society, so it really was a reinvention.

And I was smart about it, because I wasn’t going online and posting, like, “Working on my diet!” with a mirror shot. I was like, “I'm just gonna do all of this, and then when the time is right, people will notice.” And when the time was right, it was like, “Holy shit, what did you do?” I'm thinking to myself, “I've been doing it the whole time. I just didn't post thirst trap pictures to get pats on the back.” I just went, boom—suddenly it’s a whole new guy.

How did that massive reaction feel?

It felt great, man, it really did. You know, my matches never suffered, but I could feel the difference. Imagine having a wrestling match, or boxing, or riding your bike, with a 30-pound weight belt wrapped around you. Then you take it off, and it's just like, holy shit. It was a whole new thing. And listen, I’ve got pretty thick skin, but it was kind of a drag when you read, “Oh, Jericho's fat,” and all this stuff. People are pretty cruel. But here's the best part: When I lost all the weight, there was no, like, “Oh wow, Jericho's not fat.” It was like, “Oh, he went and got ab implants! That's what he did!”

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Is that even real? Like, how do you even get ab implants? There was no, “Congratulations to Chris for losing weight.” Instead it’s just, “Obviously he cheated to do it. Major steroids.” I guess that’s a huge compliment that everyone thought I was all gassed up and had ab implants. Meanwhile, all it was was eating a wee little fucking chocolate bar about this big [pinches fingers together]. If you needed a snack right now and I gave you one of those, you’d be like, “What? I need four of those!”

How does it feel to be back in the ring now? You recently brought back your “Lionheart” Chris Jericho persona from the ‘90s. Was that because you feel 20 years old out there again?

It was never based around that, but the point is it works. Tony Khan, my boss, was the most impressed of all. He even came up with the idea of me talking about the Fountain of Youth [on Dynamite recently]. Listen, I don't have a problem being known as this king of reinvention, but I put my money where my mouth is. I did reinvent my whole body. Look at Tom Brady, for example, at 45, still being the best. At 51, am I the best? No, but some nights I am. And I'm one of the best every night.

I always say that when I lose a match, [people think] it's the best match. When I win a match, suddenly it’s 51-year-old Jericho holding down the young guys. And, you know, I don’t mind. I’m 51, I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve had 32 great years. But fuck, man, if I can reinvent myself and maybe have four or five more years wrestling at the highest of levels, why not do it? I don’t have a problem with age, but I do have a problem when you give up. I just saw the Stones in London in July, and Mick Jagger still looks like Mick Jagger. He’s almost 80, but he sings great, he looks great, he moves great. You can still go to a Stones show and feel like you saw the Stones.

Obviously I won’t be wrestling when I’m 80, but I never thought I’d be wrestling when I was 51, either—especially at this level. So it’s a real reinvention, not just from a gimmick standpoint, but from a lifestyle standpoint. I’m very proud of it, and I’ll never get to that weight again. My visceral fat will never go over 10 ever again. I will carry that fucking scale in my bag and weigh myself every morning until the day I die. It’s a little bit obsessive, but listen man, I just got a clean bill of health. I don’t have to take blood thinners anymore. My heart is great, my lungs are great, blood, all those things. I took this warning from my body, from God, and I didn’t take it lightly.

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I didn’t make excuses, either. People always make excuses when it comes to losing weight. “I really wanna lose weight, but I’m just not committed.” Well, either you do or you don't. Either you want to, or you don't want to. And for me, with this pulmonary embolism, I could have fucking died on stage. That's how Roddy Piper died—of a pulmonary embolism. I got really lucky, and I don't want to take that for granted. I still want to be able to perform and sing and wrestle at a high level. So I'm gonna do everything I can to continue doing that.

What does your training regimen look like these days?

My weightlifting is pretty much non-existent these days. Even before the embolism, I’ve been kickboxing, and I really enjoy it. When I was in my twenties, it was all about the power aspect of things: How much can you bench? How big can you get? Then, when your body gets older, you hear about guys tearing tendons and ligaments and pecs and all that sort of stuff. I always loved weightlifting, but what I really loved about training was that feeling of having a great workout. That morphed into yoga—I was a big yoga proponent for about 10 years. And then I was really into bike riding. But kickboxing is my main outlet now.

When you're kickboxing, man, I think my arms and shoulders are more defined now than they've ever been. My legs as well. When I’m home, I'll do at least three kickboxing sessions a week. I’ve got a great trainer who comes to my house. Right before the pandemic, I converted my garage into a gym. All the machines are set in a circle. Right in the middle is where I kickbox, and if I want to work out, I can do that too. It really transformed my physical training.

When you’re out on the road with Fozzy, how do you augment your training and eating regimen?

Well, with Fozzy, we’re playing 75 minutes a night and it's a high energy show. I’m running and dancing and singing the whole time, so that replaces the kickboxing as far as cardio goes. And then [with eating], once again, it was a big switch across the board. Before all this happened, what was on my rider? Two roasted chickens, a vegetable tray, and a giant bottle of vodka. Now what’s on my rider? Blue Diamond salted almonds and like five 34-ounce bottles of water. That’s it.

The rest of the time, I just take care of myself. I'm now that guy now who meal preps, except that my meal prep is seven envelopes of oatmeal, 14 bars of chocolate, seven bags of chips, and seven shakes. That’s my food, plus one meal a day, which might be a cobb salad or maybe some scrambled eggs. Or, like I said, a cheeseburger. I still enjoy myself, just not every day.

My drinking has gone down, too. I still love to drink. I drink vodka, and it’s great, but now I know there's 65 calories in a shot of vodka. I'm that guy now. I'll still enjoy some vodka, but I also know I don't need a whole bottle on my rider every night.

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It's just too much, you know? People just eat too much food in general. We go to Outback and you order something, and now I instantly grab it and I cut it in half. People really just eat, eat, eat—especially in North America. You don't need that much food. Once you retrain yourself towards that, it really changes your whole mindset. Don't eat too much. Eat right. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it.

Have other guys in the AEW locker room taken notice of your progress and asked for advice?

Look at Taz—he’s lost 50 pounds on the same diet. Dr. Luther, he’s down about 40 from the diet. Rebel, she’s on the diet, and you can tell the difference with her. Even one of our drivers has lost about 50 pounds. The people that reached out to do it and did it the proper way, you can see it, because it hits fast. And when it hits, like I said, that's all the motivation you need to keep going. So yeah, everyone noticed. And I think, once again, I still look like Chris Jericho. Not that I didn't before, but there's nobody in the locker room that can say, “Oh, Jericho's not doing everything he can to stay in the best possible shape to lead this fucking company.”

Taz is going to be looking like [his son] Hook pretty soon.

He's getting there, man. I saw him the other day and was like, “Damn, dude!” He's got such a boxy frame—and I'm speaking on his behalf, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind—and he was having some issues with his knee, so he had to drop some weight too. And when he started, the weight just goes and everyone's so excited. You can see us across the room, we got our little bars of chocolate, and it becomes a way of life.

It makes me very happy to see those guys doing it, and it makes me happy that I’m still staying on top of it. And like I said, if you want to have a crazy cheat day, you can do that. It was my wife’s birthday last weekend, and it was great. And then I got on the scale and I was 218, and it was like, “Okay. This week? Super diet.” Four days later, I’m at 209 again. Doesn’t take much.

Obviously GQ isn’t in the business of spreading rumors or gossip, but AEW had a pretty tumultuous situation go down a few weeks ago. Given that you’re one of the biggest leaders in the locker room, I feel like I’d be remiss not to ask what the mood has been like backstage lately.

Without getting into specifics, it happens all the time. That's one of the things about being around as long as I have: You just recalibrate and you focus on the positives and realize we got a great locker room, a great group of guys and girls. I think we re-established that [on TV the last few weeks]. We know that this is a pretty special place, and we're gonna go out there and we're gonna kill it. That's what we did. It's a reset and that's exciting for everybody involved, including me. We're just gonna keep building upon it. That's what you do. That's how you have longevity.

I bet you the Edmonton Oilers were terrified when Wayne Gretzky left, and they won a Stanley Cup that year. That's just how it goes when somebody leaves—somebody else steps up. That’s the best thing about wrestling, or pro sports, or even SNL. Adam Sandler leaves and suddenly Jason Sudeikis is the big name or whatever. So absolutely we're not gonna miss a beat. We're gonna go on and become bigger and better and stronger than ever.

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Yang-Yi Goh is GQ’s Style Editor. Since joining the magazine in 2019, he has interviewed pro athletes, profiled movie stars, received hate mail for his opinions on sneakers, and written approximately fifty gazillion lists of the best suits, shirts, socks, pants, jewelry, sunglasses, hoodies…you get the idea. Prior to GQ,... Read moreStyle EditorXInstagramRelated Stories for GQReal Life DietWWEWorking OutFood