At his heaviest, actor Ethan Suplee tipped the scales at 550lbs. Today, he maintains a lean body weight of 270 lbs.
The widespread dissemination of Ethan Suplee’s prodigious weight loss has revealed the grueling journey the ‘My Name Is Earl’ star put himself through to shed almost 300 lbs.
“I definitely don’t make food ‘unenjoyable’, says Ethan. “It’s just that when I examined my behavior with food, I readily found that I was consistently entertaining myself with it. This is troublesome for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that something done for so long and to such an extreme must be ever increased to maintain its allure. Food had become more of an anaesthetization. It had to stop.”
“I do try not to entertain myself with food.”
“I do try not to entertain myself with food,” he says. “Even now, there are certainly times I find meals so much less enjoyable due to caloric restriction and macronutrient adherence, but I make a conscious effort not to need enjoyment. The restrictive meal periods usually come at the end of a cutting cycle for a photoshoot, or most recently, I dieted for a movie I wanted to be very lean in. This notion has had to be confronted by me, especially when sodium is restricted, but it’s usually for a very short period.”
Ethan’s world-famous weight loss story has unsurprisingly attracted an unending queue of questions from followers wanting to achieve the same.
“I believe many could benefit from my way of eating as a generalization.”
“I consistently eat in a very specific way. I aim for a base of lean protein and vegetables every day.”
Ethan’s Daily Diet
Training Days
- Four servings of 8oz lean meat/poultry/ fish, each served with a small handful of fibrous vegetables.
- Whey protein shake before exercise (made with water).
- Casein protein before bedtime (made with water).
Non-Training Days
Ethan swaps out the whey protein for an extra 8oz lean meat/poultry/fish meal. This doesn’t change from maintenance to cutting. Fats and carbohydrates can fluctuate for maintenance or cutting cycles. Ethan’s carbohydrate intake can range from 150-400g/day, depending on which stage of cutting or maintenance he’s in. His fat intake can range from a couple of small handfuls of almonds to a few tablespoons of olive oil and some avocados.
“On days I don’t train, my fats are increased, and my carbohydrates decreased,” says Ethan.
IFBB pro-Jared Feather has been programming Ethan’s meals.
“Jared has stopped me from diligently counting everything and gotten me to a glorious place of mostly eyeballing meals, he says. “This initially made me incredibly nervous, but it has worked well for almost two years. For two years before this, I kept perfect numerical values for everything daily.”
Jared also programs Ethan’s training. “My workouts now are a far more in-depth and precise version of what I had been doing on my own,” says Jared. “It is possible to do what I’m doing without the assistance of an IFBB pro, but I am glad to be working with Jared!
Ethan’s Training Split
Ethan trains five days weekly and performs chest/legs/back/ with some smaller ancillary muscles thrown in daily.
“I had been doing chest/back/legs but found that some of the back exercises caused limitations on leg days,” he says. “I don’t experience that in reverse.”
Ethan shares his advice and experience with those struggling with the scales.
“My suggestion for anyone who is confronting massive weight loss and is interested in the energy balance is to keep good track at first but eventually transition to a long-term sustainable lifestyle that doesn’t require such extreme work. This can be done even after you’ve reached your goal. That’s how I did it, and I’m quite happy with the results.”
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