Joe Thomas recently announced his NFL retirement after 11 seasons with the Cleveland Browns. The offensive tackle was consistently one of the best players in the league - and he has the personal awards to prove it. Thomas went to the Pro Bowl in 10 of his 11 seasons, only missing out once in 2017 and that was because his season ended in October.He was also named as a six-time first-team All-pro between 2009-2011 and 2013-2015. Despite playing at a potential Hall-of-Fame level himself, Thomas unfortunately never got anywhere near any success with his team. The Browns embarrassingly went 0-16 in his final season (albeit, without Thomas for the most part), failing to improve on the 1-15 record they had the year before. In fact - only once did Cleveland and Thomas manage to finish with a positive win record. That was back in 2007, when they went 10-6, finishing second in the AFC North. However, even this wasn't good enough to advance to the post-season, meaning Thomas never even had the chance to feature in a playoff game.Despite his team's poor record over the last 11 years, the retired tackle should at least be celebrated as one of the best personal performers over the last decade. Thomas played 167 games for the Browns and has recently revealed the lengths he went to in order to have an NFL career. To be a successful offensive lineman, as Thomas himself says, you have to be heavy. And with that being said, he revealed on Twitter exactly how he used to diet - and it's crazy.Thomas, who played most of his career at around 300 lbs, said that he used to eat 4200 calories a day to maintain that weight - and that was just on inactive days. 

He also gave some solid advice to young guys looking to become NFL's next best OL - and that was in the form of a diet tip. 

Thomas suggests making a whole loaf of bread into PB&J sandwiches, then eating half a sandwich every hour and washing it down with a glass of milk to gain weight quickly. 

Although it sounds ridiculous, according to the former Browns OL, getting up to 300 lbs is very important - as most players in the NFL are around that weight. 

And those who aren't as heavy as that would get "mashed into pieces". 

Gaining that kind of weight is the easy part, but trying to shed it after you retire may be a struggle.

Although Thomas himself is doing pretty well, as he announced that he's down to 280 lbs since retirement - and he wants to lose even more than that. 

Good luck, Joe!