"How NFL offensive linemen escape the 5,000-calorie lunch and transform in retirement"

From a long ESPN article that goes into some very sad detail about the ways lineman put on, and try to take off weight:

According to Elias Sports Bureau research, the average weight of starting offensive linemen was 254.3 pounds in 1970. It jumped to 276.9 by 1990, but the largest increase in poundage would come in the following 10 years. A decade later, the average O-line starter checked in at 309.4 pounds. Today the number stands at 315, more than 60 pounds heavier than 50 years ago.

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I felt if I missed a meal after two hours, I was going to lose weight, and I was going to get in trouble. That was the mindset I had. We got weighed in on Mondays, and if I lost 5 pounds, my coach was going to give me hell."

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Thomas puts it bluntly: "You're training yourself to have an eating disorder the way you view food when you're in the NFL, and to try to deprogram that is a real challenge."

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Thomas said when he was 300 pounds, his body would ache if he had to stand for a few minutes.