One of the most dominant bodybuilders in history and the 8-time Mr Olympia Champion, Ronnie Coleman, revealed his food preference.

And it wasn't vegetables!

"I didn't really eat any vegetables when I was dieting. None," Coleman said. "I just didn't like the way they taste. Awful."

Ronnie Coleman preferred a high-calorie diet and always had a non-vegetarian item on his plate.

His meals would mostly consist of chicken, rice, steak and potatoes. He even had some turkey at times.

Coleman's meals weren't fancy or gourmet; they consisted of high protein, which came from meat, several 16-ounce servings, and protein shakes clocking in at 100 gms each

Well, it surely shouldn't be concluded with Coleman's words that veggies aren't good, but everyone has their preferences. It's that Coleman prioritized the variables that directly fueled his training and recovery.

The former bodybuilder focused on being consistent with his everyday habits.

"although he did go out to eat quite frequently in the off-season. It was about consistency. Ronnie ate the same core foods day after day, dialing in exactly what his body needed to grow and recover from his high-volume, heavy training," Kyle Hunt Fitness reported.

Also, Coleman took a lot of supplements, vitamins, omega fatty acids and minerals to fill his micronutrient gaps.

The Real Secret Behind Ronnie Coleman's No-Vegetable Diet

Ronnie Coleman's deeper story isn't about vegetables at all. It's about what he was doing instead.

Coleman consumed six meals a day. Three meals out of those contained at least 16 ounces of protein. And he never took a cheat day for his nutrition.

"I thought that would be it, but come to find out that size comes from eating. As soon as I went from 10 ounces to 16 ounces, that’s when I started putting on size. I went from like 280 to like 325 by just eating a ton of food," he said.

All of it wasn't easy, Coleman himself admitted about his eating volume, saying it was "the hardest thing ever trying to stuff all this food down."

But vegetables just did not fit on his plate, and his formula was straightforward.

"60% is from the food. 30% is from the workout, and the rest is everything else."

But this kind of protein diet is not gut-friendly for everyone. Dr Mike Israetel was clear: Ronnie's genetics allowed him to thrive without vegetables — most people won't.

"His bloodwork remained perfect—because Ronnie Coleman is a genetic outlier in basically every measurable way. For regular humans, this approach is terrible," Israetel noted.

Not everyone is 'Ronnie Coleman', ditching vegetables can go differently for most, if not all. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Proma Chatterjee

Edited by

Shubhi Rathore