The Real-Life Diet of Caleb Williams, Who Drinks Small-Batch Olive Oil for Gut Health

24-year-old Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams not only has the qualities of a bonafide star in the making—he is, from a pretty young age, doing everything possible to make sure said star burns for as long as it possibly can. Williams was the number one overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and he’s now entering his third season with the Bears. There’s momentum: he’s coming off a sophomore showing that saw him set the team’s single-season passing record (3,942 yards, or 2.24 miles, and 27 touchdowns).

That stat helped propel the Bears to their first playoffs in 16 years, too. On the field, the athlete is known for his high IQ improvisational skills and delivering accurate throws from sometimes unusual (or seemingly impossible) angles; he can be electric, and expectations are high as he begins the season with the Bears’ still-new head coach, Ben Johnson, who was hired in 2025.

Williams credits a lot of his success to building habits for an extended professional and personal lifespan. As he says, “I love living, and I love football. Optimizing life and optimizing my sport are really important to me.”
During this most recent offseason, he says he was as focused on nutrition, recovery, and sleep as he was training and cross-training (even adding yoga to his regimen).

In particular, he’s become fascinated by the sourcing

In particular, he’s become fascinated by the sourcing of his food, down to the Perucompany Fruitist, in which he has invested). He measures his fruit intake in balance with his blood type. He drinks small-batch olive oil from local growers for concentrated antioxidants. He visits butchers to retrieve a specific leanness of meat

For being as young as he is, his hyper-focus on duration through diet and playing the long game through overall wellness feels as impressive as his arm. Here, Williams tells us more, covering everything from tendon preparation work to the therapeutic qualities of video gaming to keeping it real with Cinnabon. GQ: On a day where you’re feeling your best—full capability, full mental clarity—what factors will have come together to make it 100%?

Caleb Williams: For me, it starts with eight hours of sleep. Always. After that, it’s about consistently being good with my food—the amounts I’m eating, what I’m eating—and I’ve gotten to the point now where it’s also about the quality of it. That stems from trying to get things from the roots and from thebout trying to go straight to the farm—family-business farms, not massive producers

For greens and for fruits

For greens and for fruits. That’s interesting—drilling down further into the source for nutrition. Can you tell us a bit more about that? It’s been something I’ve gotten a lot more interested in as I get older. Here’s an example: I drink very concentrated olive oil straight from olive trees, not mass-produced, that I take for antioxidants and gut health. My dad started me off at a really young age eating well, and paying attention to and being conscious of what I’m eating and putting in my body.

I take about 15 vitamins a day. I drink a lot of salt water so my plain water intake can be higher. Saturating my blood with sodium lets me drink more. There are just a lot of small things like that, which I’ve learned over the years—asking questions, doing research, hearing from my nutritionist. I’m constantly trying to optimize, one, because I really enjoy life and I want to feel my best for as long as I can.

And obviously what I love to do is play ball. I want to go out there and dominate and be at my best for every single game. So this interest kills two birds with one stone: I love living, and I love football. That’s a nice quote. Optimizing life and optimizing my sport are both really important to me. I also take collagen, bone-support supplements, creatine for muscle recovery and for my brain.

I do it all, but in the right

I do it all, but in the right way. Not overdoing it, not under-doing it. How are you working with the company Fruitist in particular? It’s been great for me. We measure everything and figure out what works best with my blood type and the rest of my diet, and from there, figure out the proportions I need so I feel my best. I don’t want to feel sluggish, but I don’t want to feel too light, either.

The thoroughness is impressive. You’ve got us rethinking what’s in our kitchen right now. I’m still human, though, man. I still go get an ice cream or a Cinnabon every once in a while, and honestly I think that’s good for the mind and the body—being able to have stuff like that occasionally instead of being all purified all the time. I’m good with it as long as I stay consistent otherwise with my eating times and what I’m eating throughout the day.

So Cinnabon and ice cream are your guilty pleasures? I also love candy. You mentioned evaluating fruit in particular in relation to your physiology and blood type. Does that mean you’re drilling down to things like… acidity, or natural sugar content? Yeah, we drill down. Fruit is one of the main things I use. I love it, I was always that kid who never complained about fruits and vegetables.

Blueberries in particular are helpful

Blueberries in particular are helpful. I get bruised up playing such a gladiator sport, so the antioxidants have been monumental for me. They’ve been a real power snack. Let’s talk about fitness. As a quarterback, what’s your ideal workout for performance optimization? It shifts day to day, but I’m consistently into lifting. I lift year-round. I think everybody should lift for health reasons; it’s important not just for sports, but for longevity and overall strength.

I’m a little more into movement lifts right now. I’m big on making sure my movements match the body’s natural patterns—hips, knees, ankles—moving biomechanically the way the body is supposed to, and being conscious of that while I’m exercising. I also do some Olympic lifts, squatting, explosive work, and I put a lot of emphasis on preparing the tendons. Deceleration and acceleration work.

With a movement lift, does that mean mimicking the motions you’d make on the field? Yeah, rotational stuff and things like that. And it’s about moving the whole body instead of being static. Bench lifting, for example, is pretty static. From a mental health perspective—in a tense moment in a game, or even a down moment in general life—do you have a go-to way to level-set?

I talk to myself all the time

I talk to myself all the time. It’s really big for me. I play such a pressure-cooker sport, so being able to be, in a way, arrogant about myself when it comes to football is important. Outside of it you can be as nice, humble, and sweet as you want, but between the lines and in the locker room, it’s about being arrogant and believing in yourself. I tell myself all the time how great I am, and how great I’ll be.

I believe in speaking things into existence, and consistently saying and seeing my goals. Another thing: I breathe. That’s huge for zoning in and getting tunnel vision. And I hum. People don’t realize it, but there’s something called the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system that deals with breathing, and things like breathing and humming calm those systems down and calm your nerves.

In tough moments on the field you don’t want wide vision or big eyes—you want to be locked in. So breathing, humming, and talking to myself are my big three. On a day with nothing to do—no training, no game, everything is totally off—what do you do to reboot, beyond the eight hours of sleep? I stick to a routine, especially in season, but I enjoy movies, and I love video games—being able to get out of your mind and your body and, in a way, be a different person.

You’re still yourself, but you’re playing a role,

You’re still yourself, but you’re playing a role, a team game, a character with special abilities or whatever the case may be. You’re disconnecting from the world for a bit. So video games are big for me, along with watching movies and TV shows, listening to music, going on drives, going to dinners and trying new food spots. You mentioned football’s gladiatorial element—have you seen The Odyssey yet?

I’m hoping to rent out to the 70mm IMAX theater in Chicago and maybe bring some friends, or my nieces and nephews—probably not them, actually, given the content—but I’m excited. I will see it eventually.

Source: www.gq.com