The Real-Life Diet of Adam Devine, Who Wants to Look Like a 50-Year-Old Pilates Mom

The mere thought of attempting to lose weight can overwhelm the mind. How do I even begin? What’s the best method? What if I become really annoying about it? For actor and comedian Adam Devine, who noticed himself ballooning during his wife’s pregnancy, the solution was MyFitnessPal. The app, which allows users to track everything they eat, proved to be a perfect match for the Midwest native, who didn’t want to necessarily overhaul his entire diet, but rather, become more aware of what he was putting in his body. The result for Devine, who has since partnered with MyFitnessPal, was a slimmed down, more confident version of himself as he entered his fourth decade of life.

Here Devine delves into his fitness and dietary habits, reveals a new favorite workout that he used to completely dismiss, and talks about worshiping at the altar of rotisserie chicken.

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

Adam Devine: What’s crazy is, I didn’t even know it happened until I stepped on a scale and saw that I was over 200 pounds. I’m not that big of a guy, so that was pretty big—the biggest I’ve ever been. I’d always see that 200 mark and rein it in, but this time I just didn’t. All of the sudden, I was buying bigger pants. I am a human house. This is crazy.

I went on a tour with my podcast, This Is Important, and there’s photos and videos all over the place. My beard was patchy and really thin, the mustache wouldn’t connect. I looked like I was 15 years old, but I was just trying to cover my neck fat. It did not work. Essentially, when my son was born I had to rein it in. I got MyFitnessPal, so it’s sort of synergistic that we’re now working together. I think they heard me talk about it. But I just started to log everything that I was eating. I thought I was eating healthy, for the most part, but I was just eating way too much food! You don’t have to eat a pound of salmon. It can be a quarter pound, you know what I mean?

Then, of course, I was eating with my wife, and she was eating for two. I was just eating like a lunatic, trying to be supportive of her. She’d be like, “Let’s order some pizza.” And I’d be like, “Let’s order from three different places and do a taste test.”

Then, instead of just eating a couple pieces, you’re eating like eight slices. Well, I don’t know. Papa John’s is really hitting the spot right now.

Yeah, we’re actually doing some great work over here.

I think that’s called a classic bang-bang. You hit one then you hit the other, yeah. I’ve been known to do that, for sure.

It was just tracking everything. Once you track it, you just start to make smarter choices. You put it in the app, you know how many calories you have to hit, all the proteins and the macros and the carbs and the fats, and then you just start to go, “If I don’t get the cheese on the burger, that’ll save me 100 calories.” Little choices like that. Instead of dressing on the salad you leave it off, and then you might just do the fork drip trick. It starts to add up and the weight starts coming off.

Yes, microdosing all things horrible for you. You can still have it, just in a micro amount.

Absolutely, dude. Once you start to see the weight coming off, it makes it almost fun. You wonder if you can do a little better tomorrow. Then, when you slip up, you can see the numbers of how you slipped up. It made it kind of a game. It’s fun to beat your high score. I’m the Aaron Judge of not eating poorly.

You know, I used to be a lunatic. I used to do CrossFit every day, seven days a week. I’d ride a bike all the time. And it worked! I got to eat a little worse than I currently do, but I’m older now. I’m in my 40s. My body just can’t handle that amount of working out anymore. Now, I just lift weights—slow and controlled, progression over time—and just watch what I’m eating. It’s worked better than anything I’ve ever done before.

Before, I’d be like, “I worked out all week. I can party all weekend and have 15 beers, nachos, pizza.” Then you’ve kind of blown your whole week. You can still do that now. But if you track it, you know you had a couple pieces of pizza; don’t have six pieces of pizza and five beers. You can have two pieces of pizza, two beers, and call it a day.

You can, to an extent. There’s just different seasons of life. Sometimes you’re like, “You know what? I’m going to care less for the next few months. I’m on vacation. I’m in Italy. I have to live my life!” That’s how I felt when my wife was pregnant. I kept joking that my goal was to be bigger than she was, and I succeeded. Did I win the race? Yeah, I did. I’m not saying that I’m number one at getting larger than my wife when she was pregnant, but I was. I think I gained 28 pounds and she gained 26 pounds. She’s now lost more weight than I have.

You know what I started to do that I thought wasn’t going to do anything? I’m an athlete. I don’t need to do this little girl workout.

Please.

Dude. You nailed it. It kicked my ass. I’m not that flexible of a person. I was so tight, just from working out and doing so much CrossFit. I started to do that, and now I’m a little more limber. It’s also very hard. You look around and you’re like, “Why was I shitting on this exercise? All of these women in here are freak athletes, absolutely shredded. I should have been taking a page out of their playbook!” A lot of guys lift weights and they get so tight. They can’t even bend down to tie their shoes. What is the point of having all those muscles if you can’t use them correctly?

I just want to look like a 50-year-old Pilates mom. That’s my ideal body type right now. That’s a sexy, hot way to look. Just covered in Lululemon and drinking from my Stanley cup. I’m wearing a quarter zip right now. This is full dadcore.

Salmon, dude. I eat it all the time now. Rotisserie chicken, I eat that constantly. I’ll get three rotisserie chickens at the top of the week. My wife is like, “What are we doing with the rotisserie chickens? There’s no room for anything else!” I’d eat the rotisserie chicken on the first night, the next I would put it in a low-carb burrito wrap. I use chicken for everything.

Over a decade ago, I went on a few dates with this girl. It was going great. I thought it could really work. Then she saw me eat chicken wings. Ghosted me. Never talked to this girl again. How disgusting I looked eating those chicken wings made her be like, “I’m out.”

[laughing] She saw me and was like, “I gotta get away from this guy. I don’t know why I keep agreeing to go on on these dates. I’ll take him to a Buffalo Wild Wings and say that’s the last straw.”

Yeah, until a professional eater gets in and they’re dunking them in water, getting the flavor out. But I believe in you.

Devine arrives in style at the 2024 GQ Global Creativity Awards Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

No, because I never really took anything off the table. I know that I love cheeseburgers, and I know I can have a cheeseburger. I just can’t have one five times a week. Once a week and you're fine. And I don’t love French fries the way people do. I like them, and they go really well with a burger, but now I just go, “Here, honey. Take my fries.”

The little mantra is progress over perfection. Knowing that, if you make these little changes over time, it’ll work. Then you won’t have such a droopy dog neck. You should have seen me a year ago. I’m Irish. The first thing that goes is my head.

I’m always on the grill. Chicken, salmon, every once in a while a steak. I do a lot of meal prep where I make a bunch of broccoli with chicken or salmon. I also buy a weird amount of rotisserie chickens, as we’ve covered. The amount of chicken in my household, some people would see it as off-putting. But I love it. I can’t get enough of the dirty bird.

It’s amazing how many of your friends—I think it’s because they want to get in better shape but refuse to make the changes—they’re just like, “Oh, actually dude, I don’t think you look as healthy. To me. I’m just saying.” Okay, well, touch your toes. Can you do it? Because I can!

Not really. I think, for me, I’ve been on such a good run with my fitness and trying to be a little healthier. I think I’m just going to continue on my path. Quite frankly, I like where I’m at right now. I don’t want to get much leaner. I’m kind of fine. I just want to be in good enough shape that, if suddenly they want me for a rom-com, I can look like a guy who would be in a rom-com.

Or, hey, James Gunn is calling. He wants you in the DC universe. I can get there within a couple months. A year ago, I would have gone, “Now, is this superhero obese? Does he have a BMI of 35?”

Does his superpower come from cheeseburgers? If that’s the case, sign me up. James, I hope you’re reading GQ. We’ve got a great idea.

Oh yeah, dude. I would always get an ICEE. Red and blue, two classic colors, and I would do a mashup of the two of them. Then I would get Trolli sour gummy worms. That was my go-to, all the time. If you saw me in high school or college with those things in my hands, just know I’m stoned. That was a full-on tell, and also the fact that I never used Visine and my eyes were always blitzed.

Ugh, I love it. What sucks is, I had some not too long ago. I had like, five, and my teeth started to hurt. My God, I’m old. This sucks. I can’t even devour sour gummy worms anymore. Who am I? Now I’m talking about eating a sensible amount of salmon and wearing a quarter zip. I’ve changed.