How Ethan Suplee Lost 250 Pounds! Weight Lifting & High Protein Diet

He went from a weight of over 500 pounds to having noticeable muscles all over his body.

Ethan Suplee is most known for his roles in “American History X,” “Remember the Titans,” “John Q,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “Without a Paddle” as the big guy. Regardless, he recently made headlines when he announced that he’d shed 250 pounds and was no longer the person everyone remembered before.

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

He claims to have topped the scales at almost 530 pounds at his heaviest. Yet, it is now clear that he has lost weight and has spoken extensively about his weight loss and how nutrition and exercise have contributed to his transformation.

Ethan Suplee's Weight Loss Tricks

The main keys to Ethan’s successful weight loss:

He embarked on a weight loss journey after his admission to a drug and alcohol treatment program
He went into extremely lo-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet before
Now, he’s on high-protein, moderate-carb, low-fat diet
For his exercise, he lifts weights an hour six times a week
He does cardio occasionally

Ethan Suplee's life was turned upside down due to his weight.

In an interview with TODAY Health, he detailed his total weight-loss journey, which began with his admission to a drug and alcohol treatment program.

Before entering a treatment center, Ethan had a humiliating experience since the institution required his weight for admission, and unfortunately, they didn’t have a scale for individuals his size.

He described the incident as “utterly horrifying.” On his 6-foot-1 body, he weighed around 536 pounds and was battling congestive heart failure.

However, the actor thinks he gained an extra 14 pounds throughout his therapy, despite the wake-up call admitting that what he’d always done is to “eat and eat.”

He despised flying as well since it entailed requesting a seat belt extension from a flight attendant, and he was too self-conscious to swim with his kids.

“Everything was a struggle,” he stated. “I couldn’t sit down in a chair without first trying to conspicuously test its strength. I couldn’t stand in a line of people without having certain parts of my stomach brush up against them.”

Ethan Suplee started his first diet when he was five years old.

When it came to food, Ethan’s problematic connection with it began when he was five years old when his grandparents put him on a strict diet regimen.

“I started dieting when I was five years old. While other kids my age went to sports camps, there I was, at my grandparents’ home in Vermont, with them limiting my portion sizes and watching my habits because I had let myself go,” he told Yahoo News.

“I don’t remember how much I weighed at the time, but my slightly chubby cheeks and affinity for TV were sure signs to my grandparents that I needed to go on a diet.”

“They didn’t have a scientifically backed plan or even a structure to their approach, but they were my grandparents, so I obeyed, despite that other voice that told me “to thine own self be true,” the television star added.

“Back home, over the course of the next decade, my parents had me run the gauntlet of eating plans. Optifast. Atkins. Candida. The Beverly Hills Diet (how fancy). The Cabbage Soup Diet (how appetizing). There was one diet that banned anything red (beets, onions, peppers, meat). Another banned anything white (onions, dairy, turkey/chicken/ pork, mayonnaise).”

Ethan would steal food and consume it all when no one was watching.

When it comes to sneaking food, Ethan is just like any other kid, but the difference is that he binge-eats those and continues to do so as he gets older.

“It was coming from a place of love and concern, but it had this terrible reverse effect where I was like, ‘OK. I’m just gonna sneak food whenever I possibly can.’ And that became my habit. I would binge when nobody was looking.”

Regrettably, he developed the habit till he was an adult. He took advantage of the complimentary catering on TV and movie sets, but only when no one else was there.

“I’d fill my pockets and go back to my trailer,” he continued. “Then I’d hit a drive-thru and buy enough food to feed a small family and sit in my house alone and eat it.”

He similarly talked about it on his podcast, “American Glutton,” where he further discussed his problematic relationship with food in the first episode.

“I had this idea that food was something that people didn’t want me to have, so if I wanted to have more, I needed to do it privately, and it became something I was withholding from people,” he opened up.

“I actually realized later in life that much of my binge eating came on my own. When I was a teenager, I would go out to a nightclub with my friends and never really felt comfortable eating in front of people, but on my way home, I’d always find a 24-hour drive-through and eat three whole meals right before bed.”

What diet is currently working for Ethan Suplee?

Despite being successful on specific diets that worked for him in the interim, the weight Ethan wanted to lose would return, leaving him discouraged.

“I always truly believed that I’d found the diet, the best diet, and then when I failed, I’d think, ‘Why should I try something that’s not the best diet?’ It was a bad cycle.”

Currently, Ethan has finally discovered a diet that has improved his connection with food. When he stumbled onto Isratel’s TED Talk in 2018, he was on an extremely low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet.

“I began tracking what I was putting in my body and introduced carbs back into my diet,” he explained. “I started eating what I wanted, but in portions that were appropriate for my body.”

He even authored an article for Men’s Health on his balanced approach that it wasn’t what he ate but how much he ate that was the issue.

“The main thing I had to do was make sure I didn’t eat more calories than I expended each day. And guess what? Foods that were nutritious — dark leafy greens, chicken, salmon — also tended to be much lower in calories than, say, a two-patty Super Star,” he wrote.

“As I became more calorie conscious, I started to binge less and fill up on healthier foods. After a few months of this, calories stopped being calories. They started being food.”

Now, Ethan eats a high-protein, moderate-carb, low-fat diet that permits him to eat rice, potatoes, and pasta, but only one cup at a time. “I don’t want to call it a diet,” he clarified. “I’m just eating like a normal person.”

What is the fitness routine of Ethan Suplee?

Ethan not only relies on his nutrition, but he even works out. He said he lifts weights for an hour six times a week and does cardio on occasion, but just for 20 minutes at a time.

He is currently 255 pounds with only 11 percent body fat. His main goal is to tone up and bulk up his body. He likewise ensures that he consumes just the calories he has burned during his workout.

Ethan Suplee credits his weight loss to falling in love with his wife.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Ethan Suplee credits his wife Brandy Lewis with inspiring him to lose weight.

“I became, for the first time in my life, kind of interested in the future and having experiences with her,” he disclosed. “Like spending a day walking around a museum or going on a trip or hiking that I just wasn’t physically able to do.”

“For the very first time, I wasn’t getting a deep concern from somebody about my health, and I felt totally accepted for who I was versus what I looked like, and that I think was kind of the bedrock that I was successful with my goals at.”