The Real-Life Diet of Joel Embiid, Who’s Lifting Heavier Than Ever

The Philadelphia 76ers star center says he’s updated his training for the upcoming NBA season: “It feels like we have a brand new team.”GQ; Getty ImagesBefore the NBA preseason tipped off, Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers’ star center, arrived at the team’s official media day looking lean. After a string of lingering injuries in seasons past, the 32-year-old spent summertime with a more active training schedule—and opened camp as a full participant for the first time in years feeling good.This summer the team on which he’s spent his entire twelve-year career also underwent a major overhaul. On July 1, the Sixers traded for Jaylen Brown, a former Finals MVP. Three weeks later, LeBron James, 41, signed a two-year deal with the Sixers, crediting his decision to his friendship with combo guard Tyrese Maxey—and a desire to help Embiid win his first NBA Championship. These moves followed a second round sweep by the New York Knicks, now the NBA’s defending victors, and the positioning has reset the expectations for The City of Brotherly Love’s famed franchise.Embiid became an MVP himself by honing the skills often expected of much smaller players. At 7 feet tall, he can dribble, drive and shoot from outside like a guard, and he likes to be in constant motion. This season, coach Nick Nurse wants him moving around even more in a faster offense built around Brown, James, Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe. The team is also being careful with Embiid’s energy management; he sat out the Oct. 5 preseason opener against New York.Embiid insists the mission hasn’t changed. But his habits have. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reports that he’s hitting the gym early and is down to rookie weight. Ahead of his 13th season, we spoke to him about lifting heavier than ever, his strict three-protein diet, his mother’s Cameroonian spices, and the one thing still missing from his resume.GQ: We’re just about two weeks from the start of the 2026-2027 season. What’s been your focus with conditioning and training going into it?Joel Embiid: Just the usual. I’m going into my 13th year, so I already feel pretty old. Over the years, it’s changed a little. At the beginning, you’re trying to find your routine. Now it’s really about focusing on my body: lifting a lot, making sure everything is on point, conditioning. It’s not limited to the weight room. I’ve been getting on the court a little bit too, so I’m mixing that up. But, mostly, it’s being in the gym and getting as strong as possible.As you’ve gotten into your thirties, is there something specific you’re working on in terms of strength training?It depends. It’s a mix. Early in my career, I lifted, but it wasn’t heavy weights. In the summertime, it was more band work and trying to keep my body as loose as possible. We always tried to do whatever fit my game. I never wanted to get to a point where the muscle affected my shots, because the way I think about basketball and my body, everything matters. If my arms feel a little too strong, it’s definitely going to affect my shot. So early in my career, we stayed away from heavy weights.That’s probably been the change, especially the last couple of years, dealing with the injuries I’ve had. We had to adjust and go extremely heavy, sometimes. But at the same time, during the season, it’s hard to lift extremely heavy, because you’ve got games every other day. It’s a balance.There is a somewhat prevalent feeling that if you’re an athlete, there’s no such thing as too much muscle. But of course, too much muscle can interfere with your mobility on court.It’s a mix. You’ve seen the way I play. I like to move. I like to be free. I’m not a typical seven-footer. I play like a guard, and to play like that, you have to be free… So I never wanted my upper body to feel [limited with too much muscle], or my lower body to keep me from being quick. My advantage, especially playing against bigger guys, is the quickness: the ability to play like a guard, put the ball on the floor and be as loose and as free as possible.After an intense training day, what’s the most important thing for your recovery? What do you do for recovery, every time?It really comes down to putting energy back into my body. I’m not much of a supplement guy. I have my smoothie, and I try to eat right after I work out. When you’re young, you feel invincible, like you can do anything you want. Then you get to a certain age and you start to feel everything. So it’s about finding whatever fits you. Usually for me it’s just a smoothie, and it can be as light as a fruit smoothie. I've always stayed away from protein shakes. That doesn’t fit me. I get my protein from actual food.Do you have a favorite go-to smoothie, or do you mix it up?I’m really picky when it comes to food, especially fruit. I don’t like certain mixes. I don’t eat banana. Usually it’s a mix of strawberry, pineapple and a little bit of ginger. I let the chef and the nutritionist handle whatever they need to.Always fresh, never frozen fruit?Always fresh for sure.Do you drink anything else for energy? Are you a coffee or tea guy?No. I never got into coffee. It’s the same thing as alcohol for me. I hate it. I don’t know how guys are able to drink alcohol; I just can’t do it. Coffee, I can’t do it either. I never got into energy drinks or any of that stuff. Over the years, the nutritionist and the chef have tried to come up with a bunch of different things. I used to be a big Shirley Temple guy, so they play around with that, cutting down as much of the sugar as possible, trying to make better versions of it and adding some stuff in. But when it comes to energy replenishment, I really don’t take anything. I don’t need it.As far as food goes, if you could have one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?I’ve been asked that before, and it’s always a tough question. The best way to put it is: some sort of protein. But, like I said, I’m really picky. The protein can only be chicken, steak—and the steak can only be filet, because I don't like any fat—or salmon. Those are the main three. I don’t do anything outside of that. I stick to those three, ask for them really well done, and rotate them. As far as one meal for the rest of my life, I’d probably say some sort of chicken with my mom’s spices. My mom is from Cameroon.One of the differences I’ve found with American food: When I came to America, I was extremely skinny. Growing up, I ate so much, it was unbelievable, but I never gained weight. Then I came to America, started eating American food—and gained a little bit of weight. Maybe it was just because I was growing; I was 16 when I came to the States.I’m not a guy who usually gets on the scale to check my weight, but I tried an experiment. I went back to Cameroon and said, “Okay, I’m going to eat whatever I want, because I miss it.” When I came back to the States, I got on the scale to see what happened. I’d gained nothing. I’d actually lost weight. That’s why, a lot of the time, when my mom comes to visit, she brings a lot of things from Cameroon: spices, sometimes actual food.I was going to ask about Cameroonian influence on your diet, and you beat me to it. And I’m the same way—need meat cooked well done. I get a lot of shit for it.That’s it. I’m so particular about everything. I’ve had a lot of chefs, and when you tell some of them “extra well done,” they make it dry. But I’ve had salmon that was still soft and extra well done. You don’t have to burn it. Same thing with filet. When I say I need it extra well done, don’t burn my steak. Find a way to make it well done without burning it!Foodies always scoff at well done.I don’t judge people. They can do whatever they want. I really don’t go out to eat, to be honest, whether I’m here at home or traveling the world. I stay away from restaurants. If I don’t know the chef, I don’t trust what I’m putting in my body. It has to be that way.Changing tack a little bit: there is a lot of attention on the 76ers going into this season. Mentally, are you approaching it any differently?You’d be foolish to say this season isn’t going to be any different because of the expectations and the attention. But in my mind, everything is the same, because my whole career has always been about one thing: winning. So it’s the same approach coming into the season. I want to win. What’s it going to take for me to win? I have to be locked in. I have to play my best basketball, like I’ve always done. Every season, I’ve gotten better. So what can I add this year to help us win?[This year is bringing] a different type of attention, but it doesn’t change anything for me, because the goal has always been to win. We added some new guys who can give us a better chance, but that doesn’t mean I put more pressure on winning. It’s always been the same hunger. I’ve accomplished a lot of things, and honestly, there’s only one thing missing. But it doesn’t change the way I approach it. Come in, get as ready as possible and focus on what you can control.The wrong thing to focus on is whatever’s coming from the outside. You have to be as locked in as possible with your teammates, make sure everybody’s on the same page and go from there, because we’re going to be judged from the first game. Honestly—from the first preseason game, if everybody’s on the floor. There are going to be ups and downs. We’re not guaranteed to win anything, and we’re definitely not guaranteed a great start. It feels like we have a brand new team, so there’s going to be an adaptation period where you really have to be focused. You can’t deviate and start worrying about what people say.Worst-case scenario, you start 0-5, and the media is going to be on us: “Oh my God, this is someone’s fault.” The wrong thing to do is focus on that attention. That’s why you have to prepare yourself now.Like you said, it feels like a new team, the scrutiny will be there from the moment it all begins. And, I promise: If it is an 0-5 start, I won’t say anything bad.[Laughs] It’s all about how you finish. We have a lot of guys, and sometimes that can be too much, sometimes it might not be enough. But as long as everybody’s on the same page, understands that it’s all about winning and is willing to do whatever it takes, a bad start or a four-game losing streak during the season isn’t going to change anything. You focus on every single day. Okay, we lost this game. What can we learn from it so we can get better? Then you peak at the right time, which is April, May, June. That’s all that matters.Even though you’ve been a competitor of LeBron’s, you’ve both been in the league for a long time, so it feels like there’s already a level of comfort with each other.For sure. We played together on Team USA, so we already have that chemistry. And JB, I’ve competed against him all these years. I know who he is. I know what type of competitor he is. The perfect example: This past season, we came back [against the Boston Celtics, Brown’s former team] from down 3-1. The series changed a little bit and we started winning some games. In Game 7, I had a good start, and honestly, no one could guard me. He took on the challenge. He guarded me. That shouldn’t have been his challenge, because they have a few big men over there, but because he’s so competitive, he took it on. He knew it though—he still had no chance. [Laughs] But he had to try something. That tells you everything you need to know about the guy. He wants to win, whatever it takes. So I’m happy to have him in my corner.With Bron, we have a previous relationship, and not just from the Olympics. I tried to recruit him years ago, right before he went to the Lakers. We’ve always been cordial and friendly, especially when we play against each other. Obviously, the guy is 41 years old, and people still see him as one of the best players of all time. I’m younger, Tyrese is younger, so our job is to make everybody’s life as easy as possible. What can you do during the game, on the court and off it, to make sure Tyrese’s job is easy, JB’s job is easy, VJ’s job is easy, my job is easy, Bron’s job is easy, and the guys coming off the bench, too? How can you put that all together so nobody has to overexert themselves? That’s the goal.Not a subscriber? Join GQ to receive full access to GQ.com.