Myles Turner Says He’s Jacked Now Because He Stopped Eating Whataburger And Waffle House

Myles Turner says he’s in the best shape of his life, but at what cost? The Indiana Pacers guard has sculpted his body this offseason in a big way, but what he’s had to cut out of his life may cut too deep for many in his native Texas.

ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk wrote about how Turner has changed his body shape in the offseason, mostly by embracing yoga and cutting certain foods out of his diet. It’s a pretty standard training regimine, really: you eat healthy foods and put in good work in the gym and you will feel better and lose weight.

But casting aside a love of a regional fast food icon in the name of heath and wellness isn’t easy, and one of the most notable things Turner had to stop eating was Whataburger.

Cutting Popeyes fried chicken, Waffle House and Whataburger out of his diet and no longer devouring eight slices of pizza in one meal, Turner hired a personal chef; he has sculpted his body from 14 percent body fat down to nearly half that. In mid-June, Turner posted before-and-after pictures of his body, and new six-pack, on Twitter that went viral.

“I took a look at myself in the mirror last season, and I was pudgy,” Turner told ESPN after sweating his way through an hour-plus vinyasa flow hot yoga session in Las Vegas last month. “I was getting tired a lot faster, and a lot of that had to do with eating fast food, eating pizza the nights before games.

“Everybody told me about my diet, but last season it started to affect me. I guess getting older, my metabolism is not as high as it used to be. … I was getting gassed.”

The work Turner has put in is evident even as far back as June, when before and after photos of him shirtless made waves on social media.

Texas TV station WFAA even wrote about the news and did a segment on air about the native Texan giving up eating what’s a fast food staple in the Lone Star State, so you can tell it’s serious business.

As Anthony Bourdain can tell you, having Waffle House can be a nearly religious experience in the south, so you have to commend Turner for putting in the work to improve. We’ll see if it impacts his performance on the court, but I doubt losing one NBA player from your customer base is going to impact the chain’s bottom line anytime soon.