Retired from Portugal, not from the gym: How Cristiano Ronaldo maintains his 7% body fat at 41

Cristiano Ronaldo has handed back the No. 7 shirt, but there is no sign he has retired the routine that keeps him so lean. The 41-year-old announced his retirement from international football on Thursday, ending 23 years with Portugal, 234 caps and 146 goals. At club level he is expected to play on with Al-Nassr until the end of this season, and by widely repeated reports he is doing it with about 7% body fat.

So how does a man closing in on 42 carry the physique of an athlete half his age?

Reports put Ronaldo's body fat at around 7%, below the 8-12% usually cited for Premier League players. Business Today pegs the average professional footballer at 10-11% and compares Ronaldo's reading to that of Olympic sprinters.

A personal programme of three to four hours of work a day, five days a week, with the gym visited five or more times weekly. A session reportedly combines 25-30 minutes of cardio, high-intensity sprints and targeted weight work, with Pilates and swimming mixed in.

Commonly listed staples include compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts and bench press, plus HIIT, cycling and sprint drills. His own advice is to vary the workout and to pair it with a good diet.

Instead of three big meals, Ronaldo reportedly eats six small ones, high in protein and low in fat. Al-Nassr's nutritionist has described a Mediterranean-style approach: protein-heavy breakfasts built around cheese and low-fat yoghurt, water with every meal, and no sweets, fried food or fatty food.

Fish, avocado, salad, whole grains such as quinoa and fresh fruit feature along with chicken, which he has called a "magical food". His favourite dish is reportedly bacalhau à Brás, a Portuguese mix of cod, potato and egg. Sugary drinks are off the menu. His personal chef is reported to put the split at 60% diet and 40% exercise, and to say he avoids milk.

Split sleep and a recovery stack

The most talked-about habit is polyphasic sleep: reportedly five 90-minute blocks spread across the day, about 7.5 hours in total, an approach attributed to a sleep expert he met at Real Madrid. Recovery is just as structured. Reports mention saunas and ice baths, sometimes as early as 2 a.m., and a home cryotherapy chamber said to have cost around £50,000 when he returned to Manchester United in 2021. Another report says he spends about $1 million on health monitoring.

Ronaldo may be done with Portugal, but if the reports are right, the discipline behind the 7% is not going anywhere.

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