Pelicans' Zion Williamson shares his weight-loss secrets

Zion credits a personal chef, Jhonas Lewis, who made all his meals from July through September. Lewis helped Williamson detox, severely cut carbohydrates from his diet, and eat more vegetables - as long as Zion didn't know he was eating vegetables.

One time, Lewis made Williamson a turkey bolognese, but he substituted pasta for kneaded zucchini, cucumbers, spinach, and arugula. After serving the dish, Lewis explained the ingredients to Williamson, as personal chefs typically do for their clients.  

But Williamson cringed in disgust. From then on, a new understanding was born.  

"I said, 'You know what? Let's not go there,'" Lewis said. "And he said, 'Yeah, you're right. Don't even tell me, chef. Just keep doing what you're doing. It tastes amazing.' So, moving forward, I just stopped telling him what was exactly in [the food]."

As a result of the new diet and two-a-day workouts, Lewis estimates that Zion was losing "7-9 pounds per week." He added "You couldn't pay Zion to put his shirt on."

The exact weight Williamson lost or is playing at remains a guarded secret, perhaps due to the body-shaming Williamson received last year when he was rehabbing his foot injury and unable to run and work out. But he's clearly turned things around nutritionally - just don't tell him what healthy food he's consuming. If anyone is skeptical of Zion's physical turnaround, it appears he'd be happy to take his short off and present the evidence.