The Real-Life Diet of Christian McCaffrey, Who Thinks Cold Plunges Are a Metaphor for Life

The San Francisco 49ers' All-Pro running back stays football fit by eating clean, sleeping well, and embracing the agony of an arctic cold plunge.GQ; Getty ImagesThe last time Christian McCaffrey was featured in this magazine, in 2020, he posed poolside, ogling the camera in nothing but a pair of crisp white Calvin Kleins. The All-Pro running back still looks like Adonis, but a lot has changed in six years. For one, he's a 49er now, and at the midway point of the 2026 NFL season he and quarterback Brock Purdy, a popular MVP candidate, have San Francisco sitting pretty atop the NFC. McCaffrey, now in his 11th NFL season, also recently became a father, a development that's thrown the demands of professional football into stark relief. “I want to spend all day with my kids,” he confesses. “But obviously I play football, so it's not always like that.”When McCaffrey's not chasing after his springy 15-month old daughter, his days consist of morning prayer ("it puts me in the right head space"), film study (he goes through “a bunch of notebooks every year”), cold plunges ("a good metaphor for life, actually"), and meditation, a practice he embraced this past summer under the auspices of the movement coordinator and spiritual guru Ido Portal. “Some days were great,” McCaffrey says. “Some days were crippling.”But the week we spoke, the 49ers happened to be on their bye, which meant the typically scrupulous 30-year-old could permit himself that rare indulgence: a slice of his wife Olivia Culpo's carrot cake.GQ: You’re on your bye week right now. What does your day look like?Christian McCaffrey: It's funny, even on the bye week, you can never just take a week off. You always have to do something. For me, you get a good week in the middle of the season to just get your body back, get your mind back. I think a lot of it is just being with my family. It's so good for your mind, your body, your soul. And then in the mornings, I'll do whatever workout—the team gives us different workouts to do throughout the week so that you stay up to date or you're at least moving a little bit. And then recovery work, any treatment you have to do, and later in the afternoon you'll do another mobility recovery session just to stay moving so you don't get stale.Since you mentioned family, I’m curious to know how fatherhood has changed the way you go about your business as a football player.I think the first thing that I did right was marry correctly. When you play in the NFL, it just takes all of your energy and time, frankly. I mean, I want to spend all day with my kids, but obviously I play football too, so it's not always like that. So to be able to still do my job and know that they're taken care of—my wife's a super mom, so I still do everything I need to do. And when you come home, to be able to look at my daughter's face and hold my son and just spend time with them, it makes those moments so much better.Your kids are still quite young. What do you like to do with them after a long day at work?My son is a month old, but my daughter—she's 14, 15 months now, and she's all over the place. If there's something to play with, she'll play with it. She is obsessed with that little Roomba. She won't stop. She'll just click the button on the Roomba 24/7, and then when it starts moving, she gets scared and runs to me. She likes climbing and moving, and we just try to keep her moving as much as possible, and she loves it. Just watching her smile and enjoy life is the greatest thing ever.This is your 11th season in the NFL. That doesn’t happen without a rigorous recovery routine. What does yours consist of?For me, the staples are nutrition. Those are things you can control, always. So if I'm eating healthy, if I'm getting the correct amount of sleep, if I have my Dymatize shake after my workout or my prehab session or whatever it is, getting those positive calories into your system at the same times every day is something everybody can control. That's why partnering with them was easy for me, because it was a product that actually helped me and also tastes good.What's your favorite flavor?I like the Fruity Pebbles. I'm still a kid at heart, so anything that tastes like an old cereal, I'm going to go ahead and do that. But I mean, there's so many things out there now. It's almost overwhelming how many modalities and recovery tools and different things you can do. But I think the thing I've learned most, as somebody that's experimented with all of that stuff, is your mindset and your ability to just stay moving is critical. I think you can try all of the different tools, but if you're not doing the staples—moving, recovering from moving, eating correctly, having the right nutrition, sleeping correctly—then a lot of this stuff is not going to move the needle as much as you think.Do you track your sleep?I used to, and then I got way too obsessed over it. But I had an Oura ring for a long time, and I'll track my sleep in the offseason with that.What's the right amount of sleep for Christian McCaffrey?Well, it's fascinating. After the season, you think you're sleeping well, but your body and your mind go through a lot over an NFL season. So you think, “Oh, I can rest now.” But I was looking at the sleep scores early in the offseason and they were horrible. Maybe I slept eight hours, but it's the worst sleep ever. You're detoxing… I mean, the reality is that you take a lot of drugs to help you play. You have to do all these things to help you get back on the field on Sunday, with all the hits you're taking. So it takes a while to get back to a good sleep score. But then once I get the ball rolling it’s like, "Okay, I'm in a good place now.”Is there any part of the recovery process that you dread?That I dread?Well, does anyone love doing a cold plunge?I don't think anyone loves getting into the cold plunge. But everyone loves it after. The cold plunge is a good metaphor for life, actually. The things that are usually the most challenging are usually the most beneficial. So yeah, I've learned to like it. And again, when you're playing and it's in season, you're so focused on the practice and the game and getting your body right that the things that you think just become routine and habit.Speaking of routine, what’s a gameday morning like for you?I always start my morning with prayer. That's been a staple, and if I can connect with God as much as possible, it just puts me in the right head space. It reminds me why I'm doing this and it eliminates a lot of distractions. I meditated a lot this offseason, especially in the summer. I worked with a guy, Ido Portal, who's a legend and has had a massive influence on me. And for six weeks straight, we did one hour of stillness every morning. That was a huge challenge, but a really moving experience. I still do that all the time. I don't have time to do it for an hour anymore, but if I can get 20 minutes in the mornings, or even throughout the day at a random point where I have a little window, I try to do that as much as possible. That just helps your nervous system get back to where it's supposed to be, especially in a high-stress week.And meditation is a relatively new addition to your routine?Yeah, I'd never done that before until this summer. And Ido, he's a character, man, but he's a beautiful person and an unbelievable human being. It was very moving working with him for a summer, and it wasn't negotiable. We were doing it, starting at seven o'clock every morning, one hour straight, complete stillness, can't move, nothing. It's only something you can explain through experience. It wasn't about whether or not you turned your brain off. There was no shot. For six weeks, I didn't shut my brain off one time. It's more about, can you focus and refocus on the task at hand as best as possible? Some days were great. Some days were crippling. Some days you're cramping because you're in a seated crisscross position and you're like, "I'm in so much pain." And then you get done and you're like, "Wait a second, I wasn't in as much pain as I thought." It was such a moving experience because, again, you said you were going to do something, therefore you need to do it. You're going to find out what your purpose is through this six-week experience. It might be different than the guy next to you. It might be different than Ido's, but you're going to go through it, and you're going to learn a lot about yourself and you'll be better for it.What’s your relationship to film study?You watch so much film with the team all the time, but people think we just go out and practice and play. But really, we have a job. We're sitting in meetings taking notes all day. I mean, you go through a bunch of notebooks every year in the NFL and you're watching film all the time. I've watched less film as I've gotten older, but I'll watch a lot of blitz tape to make sure I'm prepared for different tells, when they're blitzing, when they're not. But running back is such an instinctual position, so I try to train the instinct more than predict things based on what you're seeing. There are certain things you can pick up on, but that can also be a crutch, so I try to find the middle ground.You mentioned the importance of eating clean and healthy, so I’m curious: what indulgences do you allow yourself?Look, I try to eat as clean as possible, but there's a time to indulge. If you're feeling great and you have a couple of days off—if my wife's going to make a dessert, I'm going to eat it. It's good for the soul.Give me an example.She makes a carrot cake and, to this day, there's not a better one I've had. Or my mom will be in town and cook something. Or her mom will be in town and cook something. So I'll definitely indulge every once in a while, but throughout the week I eat clean.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.Jake Nevins is GQ's Senior Culture Editor. You can reach him at jake_nevins@condenast.com. ... Read More