Getting Pumped Up

Jay Cutler eats 5 pounds of fish a day. This is partly why the Las Vegan weighs 270 pounds. But unlike you, he is comprised of less than 3 percent body fat. Yet just like you, Cutler thinks about cheating on his diet all the time, even as he goes gunning for his third straight Mr. Olympia title this weekend.

"Every day, I dream about pizzas and carrot cake and something with some sugar, you know?" Cutler, 35, says. "Every day at this point, I can't wait to have a pizza after the (Mr. Olympia) show. It's only normal.

"If I ate for taste, I'd be eating at McDonald's and Burger King. But I don't eat for taste. I just eat basically for fuel for my body."

On the other hand, he never thinks about skipping a daily workout.

"You can't. There's always someone behind you (a competitor) that's as hungry as you are," he says.

"I wake up and, at this point, I'm like, 'Shoot, I gotta get up and go to the gym.' You're tired and hungry," he says. "Trust me, there are days I go to the gym and I'm like, 'Ugh.'

"Because remember, I'm killing myself in there. It's not like I'm curling a few dumbbells and looking around the gym to see hot girls. I'm going in there to throw heavy weights, sweat, basically just tear my body to pieces, go home and feed it 5 pounds of fish a day."

By the way, he does not like the taste of fish at all. Yet, he eats the same things, every two hours, every day during the four months he spends training for Mr. Olympia.

"It gets old," he says. "But I have the edge because I'm a hard head, and I was raised in a family (on a Massachusetts farm) that always taught me the value of hard work and dedication. I think that's what bred me to be at the top of the bodybuilding field."

For most of the year, Cutler eats more of what he wants, while maintaining his weight at 290 pounds and about 7 percent body fat. Starting last June, he began the trimming phase and restricted his diet, which mentally doesn't make him "necessarily depressed, but moody maybe."

"How can I be depressed? I'm on top of the world," he says when I ask him if dieting brings him down. "I have a choice. ... This is what I choose. I love to weight train, and fortunately for me it turned into a career."

As tough as the shaping phase is before the show, it's not his biggest sacrifice, he says.

"Probably the biggest sacrifice is my social life, where I kind of hide myself away, almost like a 'Rocky'-style type training. The phones get shut down. I don't attend that many social events. I live in Vegas, and I don't go out in Vegas, especially while training for this show.

"I'm in the gym four times a day, and I'm eating seven meals. I sleep eight hours. There's not a lot of time for too many other things. That takes a toll on family and relationship. But it's kind of gotten in my life routine, and I've learned to balance everything."

In fact, a bodybuilder might tell him that "dieting-for-show" at Mr. Olympia could be the hardest part of his life. But this just isn't true for Cutler.

"It's actually the easiest time of year for me, because I'm not traveling. The hardest time is actually going out and promoting the title of Mr. Olympia, and that's sacrifice, because I'm flying all over the country. I'm never home.

"If you ask me what my favorite things to do are, it's to spend time with my wife (Kerry) and dogs at home. I hate leaving the house. When I'm at home, I don't want to do anything. I don't want to go to the movies. I don't want to go out to eat. I want to cook here and sit here and watch TV in my theater."

He stresses that just because it's a sacrifice doesn't mean it's a burden.

"I don't necessarily mind it so much, whereas others," he says, "would see it as a total sacrifice. But it pays off. I established myself as the champion of the world in the sport I've loved since I was 12 years old."

Whatever you say, Jay. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go buy me a Whopper.

Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.