How much did Ronnie Coleman eat during his prime? His diet explored

Retired US bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman is considered the greatest bodybuilder in the world. He is an eight-time Mr. Olympia who is renowned for his dominant physique.

Sports in general is a very demanding field in terms of strict training and dietary regimens. Bodybuilding in particular is even harder as, unlike other sports, bodybuilders are judged solely on aesthetics. So, even a small deviation from the set plan can cost points.

Ronnie Coleman was known to be very disciplined with regard to training and diet. He explained his diet routine when he appeared on the podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, in June 2020.

Coleman explained how his physique is a result of years of hard work and careful planning. His ripped physique was a combination of heavy lifting and eating.

"What a lot of people don’t understand is you see me big up there, but it took a long time for me to get there I didn’t get there overnight. I put on … between five and 10 pounds (2-4.5kg) of muscle a year, and that came from all that heavy lifting (and) a lot of eating, a lot of eating."

He said that although his meals weren't that heavy for him, they would be too much for a normal person. He had "about six meals a day."

"It wasn’t a lot to me but if someone normal tried to eat it, it would probably be a lot. So I’d eat a pound (450g) of chicken, grilled breast with half a cup of rice."

Ronnie Coleman would often get up in the middle of the night to have a meal because his planned meal timings were not easy to maintain.

"It’s kind of hard to eat like that so I would have to wake up in the middle of the night to eat and go back to sleep. You kind of get used to it. When you eat like that, you get hungry every three hours. Every two or three hours you’re hungry because I’m not eating a lot of fat. It’s lean, I’m not eating a lot of carbs so it’s a little bit of food at a time,"

---

"That’s less than half a percent" - Ronnie Coleman on his body fat percentage

Ronnie Coleman (Image via Generation Iron)

Retired US bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman revealed what he would eat and what his diet plan looked like during his prime bodybuilding days. A heavy part of Coleman's diet involved protein. According to him,

"The most important thing about nutrition is protein because protein is what builds muscle"

He told Men's Health this year that other than a few variations during competitions, "all the meals are pretty much the same." He also spoke about all the supplements that he used to take. Coleman also added that he does not compare food and supplements because both of them are important.

"The basics in my opinion are a multivitamin, amino acids (BCAA), and whey protein isolate. The isolate is lower calorie, and it’s easier to digest. There are others, of course, but those in my opinion are the absolute must haves. Food is obviously very important too, but I don’t put one over the other. You need to pay serious attention to both,"

Ronnie Coleman had initially started bodybuilding to get a free gym membership. He told Joe Rogan in 2020, that after starting bodybuilding, he achieved a body fat percentage of 0.33 percent, which is an unbelievable count!

Rogan was so surprised that he reconfirmed the numbers with Coleman, who clarified:

"That’s less than half a percent,"

Rogan couldn't believe the astonishing percentage and remarked:

"What? How does a human get that low?"

Ronnie Coleman explained that a lot of things that he achieved were due to his genetics and said that a lot of people wouldn't be able to get there even if they tried.