Since making the leap from high school to the NBA in 2004, Dwight Howard has racked up eight All-NBA selections, the same number of All-Star nods, three Defensive Player of the Year awards, a Slam Dunk title, and an Olympic gold medal. Among his less-heralded career highlights, though, is one that somehow occurred after he accomplished most of the items on the aforementioned list: getting a handle on a lifelong dependency on all things sweet.

Howard always had a strong affinity for sugar, and for years, he wasn’t particularly choosy in how he got his fix. According to an ESPN the Magazine feature published in March, former Lakers team nutritionist Dr. Cate Shanahan discovered in 2013 that Howard had been consuming about two dozen chocolate bars’ worth of sugar per day, possibly for as long as a decade—a habit that was causing him to experience tingling in his legs and fingers. Howard needed to get his cravings for Skittles and chocolate and honey buns and cream pies under control, not only for the sake of his basketball career but also for the integrity of his long-term health.

Now, as he enters his fourteenth year in the league, we caught up with the Charlotte Hornets’ newest defensive anchor—who says he lost 15 pounds this off-season—to discuss how he finally managed to rein in his sweet tooth; what he learned about nutrition from the world of boxing; and the best time of year for an NBA athlete to ditch his regimented diet and, for one glorious evening, eat whatever the hell he wants.

GQ: After you declared for the draft, what did you have to learn about eating in order to perform at a high level?

Dwight Howard: When I first came in the league, it was okay for me to eat whatever I wanted. I realized that that wasn’t really going to help me in the long run, though, and that I had to learn about the right type of diet—the foods that give you more energy. But it takes a while. I think kids now have an advantage because they learn [nutrition] at a young age. We didn’t have that opportunity.

You were obviously a big kid coming into the league, but you still had to put on weight and muscle. What adjustments did you make to fill out your body?

Well, I love to eat, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was coming out of high school and adjusting to playing against grown men. You can tell that most players today come in a little more chiseled because they start those weight-training programs earlier. Once I got used to lifting weights and eating the steak and potatoes, as they call it, I ended up getting a lot stronger.

A lot of guys who come into the league after only one year of college still think they can eat anything they want and make it through an NBA season. What’s your advice to those players?

There’s a time and place for everything. There are times during the season when you want to eat the crazy foods, and I think the best time to do that is right after the season. Get you a good month in where you’re eating whatever you want.

After that, you have to slowly change your diet and get your body ready for the season. It’s tough, and that’s where I’ve learned from what fighters do to their bodies. They have to go to extremes, where they lose something like 25 pounds in seven weeks. That’s where I would look for motivation: Learn what they do to really chisel up. Once it’s getting close to money time—when you really have to start training—you have to curb your diet and get back to eating healthy.

There was a story in ESPN the Magazine earlier this year that reported you were eating about two dozen chocolate bars' worth of sugar per day until sometime in 2013. Now, I won't ask you to confirm or deny that, but...just how bad was your sweet tooth?

I don’t even know how they’re that accurate about me eating so much candy, but everybody likes candy. People love different types of sweets, and what I liked to do was eat candy.

Was it hard to get off of it? Yeah, at first. Now I’m pretty much cool with it. It doesn’t really bother me. I don’t have to have any type of candy in my diet to feel a certain type of way. But there was a point in time when I just loved eating candy.

What type of candy are we talking about here?

Skittles, and honey buns, and any chocolate... I had a busload of candy in my pantry. It was just filled with each type of chocolate, each type of honey bun, moon pies, oatmeal pies—all types of snacks. Now my pantry is filled with snacks you wouldn’t dare look at because…they don’t look like they taste good. [Laughs]

With any addiction, especially sugar, it’s hard to go cold turkey. How did you wean yourself off the intake you were used to?

Basically, just trying to remove it from my house, so I wouldn’t get tempted by looking at it. It was tough at first. I’m not going to say it wasn’t, but I just had to take it out of my sight and tell my mind: "This is not good for my body.” That was kind of the process.

What physical changes did you feel once you cut out those sweets?

Well, I wasn’t getting tired as fast during games. My body felt different. My face looked a little bit different. I felt all the benefits that happen when you take something bad from your diet. The biggest thing for me in games is fatigue. Usually when you eat candy, you have a good rush. It hits you and it feels great, but then once you crash, you crash. Once I took that out, I was able to play longer.

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With your sweet tooth under control, what’s a cheat meal look like for you nowadays?

During the season, I do a really good job of making sure I eat the right things. But if I did have a cheat meal, or something like that, it would be ribs, collard greens, candied yams, and chitterlings.

What’s your game-day meal routine?

Once I get up, I try to have some type of egg. It really doesn’t matter if it’s scrambled or an omelet. Maybe salmon, too—something that’s going to give me protein to fuel me in the morning. I try to have a pretty big breakfast. After that, depending on where we’re at, I try to get three small meals before I get on the bus and head to the arena: a small chicken sandwich, or something with carbs in it, or different types of fish. After the game, I try and load up on everything that I lose during the game. That’s probably the biggest meal other than breakfast.

As far as my body goes, I’m pretty much a health freak when it comes to doing what I have to do to stay on top of my game. I make sure I eat the right foods, and I drink a lot of water. I like Core Water—they have regular water, and different flavors that I’m always taking in. If not Core Water, I would drink a lot of coconut water. That’s the biggest thing for me: I don’t drink anything but water.

How does one go about achieving the Dwight Howard physique?

Oh, man, I don’t want to give my secrets away, but I do love to see people healthy. If you want a great body, the first thing you have to start doing is running. Getting up early, running, drinking a lot of water, and doing something that’s really going to push your body to the limit, like boxing. Or some type of crazy cardio, like spinning.

Then, your diet. People think it’s all about what you do in the gym, but it starts with your diet. Once you get your diet right, you can start doing more running and different types of cardio.

And push-ups! Lots of push-ups.

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