Ex-lineman Joe Staley has dropped 50 pounds since April retirement

Joe Staley has joined a growing list of former NFL offensive linemen whose bodies have undergone significant changes since retirement. Freed from a diet designed to maintain girth, the former 49ers great told ESPN he’s lost 50 pounds and four inches off his waistline since retiring in April.

Staley said he donated five garbage bags of old clothes now that he’s gone from a size 40 waist to 36. As much as Staley, 35, hated walking away from football, he likes what he sees in the mirror.

“As an offensive lineman you’re always known as this ... unathletic blob,”he said.“Then you get the opportunity to be healthy again, and all of the effort you used to put into football, you put into that . ... It’s a little bit vain, but I’m starting to see abs that I’ve always wanted.”

Staley’s post-football transformation is becoming more commonplace, as ESPN documented the cases of many recently retired linemen who’ve also slimmed down from their bulked-up NFL days. From exRavens guard Marshal Yanda, who lost 60 pounds in three months by shaving his NFL diet of 6,000 calories per day to 2,000, to former Giants and Chiefs lineman Chris Bober, who ingested nearly 5,000-calorie lunches at University of Nebraska-Omaha to prepare for a pro career, the stories are similar.

The average weight of a starting NFL offensive lineman is 315 pounds, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That’s 10 pounds heavier than 10 years ago and a whopping 60 pounds heavier than the average offensive lineman who weighed 254.3 pounds in 1970, ESPN reported.