Many were wondering if there would even be an NBA season this year. The player’s lockout lasted longer than expected, but the now shortened season is underway and fans couldn’t be happier. While the lockout was frustrating, it looks like one player took advantage of his extra off time to drop weight and get in the best shape of his life. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love returned to the court nearly 25 pounds lighter this season.
Love played for UCLA in college and was drafted in 2024 to the NBA. Coming in a 6’ 10”, Love has always been one of the biggest players on the court. This summer Love decided to make some changes to his size for his performance’s sake. He admits he never felt he needed to lose weight, he just wanted to be a better conditioned athlete.
Part of that conditioning included changing his diet. Love relied on ZEN Foods to provide him with the calories and nutrients he needed during his intense conditioning. ZEN Foods is a meal delivery service. They provide tailored and calorie controlled meals for each individual. Love had each day’s food delivered at night so he could wake with a nutritious breakfast. Love explained how this took the guess work out of nutrition and he was able to fuel his workouts with high quality and nutritious foods.
In addition to his controlled diet, he added yoga with Kent Katich to his regime. The yoga was aimed to improve his agility and his basketball skills. Finally, Love trained with his personal trainer Gunnar Peterson who focused on strength training and many interval exercises that would translate on the court.
Love intended to take his performance to a higher level during the off season just like many wise athletes do. A weight loss plan is never recommending during peak performance times. Weight loss, even for athletes, will require a caloric restriction and mid-season isn’t the time to change up a diet.
Athletes are also encouraged to focus on strength training when attempting to lose weight. They will lose weight by adding muscle mass and thereby increasing metabolism, so more fat is burned at rest. Interval training is a great way to build that muscle and improve performance fat burner for the athlete.
Looks like Love nailed the athlete’s weight loss plan. And furthermore, it seems to be paying off. Currently he is averaging more than 25 points and 14 rebounds per game. His performance is speaking for him, but Love agrees, “I feel great. Dropping the 20, 25 pounds was big for me, especially in such a condensed season. It’s been a lot of games coming at you very, very fast. As far as recovery goes and taking care of my body, I felt I did the work early and I’m continuing to do the work throughout the season, and because of that, going into every game, even with so many games coming at you so fast, I feel great.”
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