“Cold Turkey”: Charles Barkley Shocked Shaquille O’Neal with His New Year’s Resolution of Quitting 20 Diet Cokes a Day in 2024

Last Year, the Inside the NBA crew listed their New Year resolutions on one of the first shows of the year. While others vouched to do better or get more efficient in their daily routine, Charles Barkley’s resolution was a shocker for everyone. Sir Charles revealed that he has a habit of drinking 20 Diet Cokes a day and his resolution is to stop in the new year.

Barkley had realized that 20 cans of Diet Coke a day was very bad for health, so getting rid of that habit would be a necessary decision.

Meanwhile, Ernie Johnson asked if he wanted to “scale it back” to a more acceptable quantity or if he wanted to cut Diet Coke out of his life completely. Chuck said, “I think it’s probably best for me to go cold turkey.” Although he sounded confident about his resolution, Sir Charles didn’t get a lot of moral support from Shaquille O’Neal and Johnson.

“No way,” Shaq said.

Seconds later, Barkley was exposed by Kenny Smith as he had Diet Coke in the cup that he was drinking from. Smith said, “This is Diet Coke…How can this be your New Year resolution?”

With no leg to stand on, Chuck acknowledged that he has a problem and needed help for the same. The Jet ended up putting his Diet Coke into a trash can and Johnson announced that Barkley won’t be seen sipping Coke after that.

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The TNT crew is yet to give an update on whether Chuck was able to live up to the resolution throughout 2024. Chances are that he did because, over the last few years, he has been very serious about his health, and fitness, and has been on a successful weight loss journey.

Charles Barkley lost over 60 pounds with Mounjaro

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show in May 2023, Chuck revealed that he lost 62 pounds with Mounjaro. The drug is similar to Ozempic and works by suppressing appetite. Barkley went from being 352 lbs heavy down to 290 and was very happy about his progress.

He said, “It’s been great, I’m starting to feel like a human being, not a fat-a** anymore.” Chuck hoped that taking his health seriously might help him live longer. The 61-year-old also worked very hard on controlling his diet. On an episode of his podcast with Ernie Johnson, Chuck revealed that he had also started doing intermittent fasting.

He said, “I’ve lost a ton of weight as everybody can notice…I’ve been eating once a day.” Barkley revealed that he didn’t feel the need to indulge in snacking while he was fasting, which accelerated his progress.