The 320-pound former NFL star turned hunky model after achieving incredible body transformation through extreme diet

DAVID Carter made the leap from pro football to modeling simply by transforming the food on his plate.

The former NFL defensive end, 34, enjoyed a four-year career in the league from 2011 to 2015.

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A collegiate star at UCLA, Carter hit 41 tackles and recorded 3.5 sacks in his senior year.

The 320-pound, 6-foot-5 defensive end joined the NFL in 2011 and was selected in the sixth round by the Arizona Cardinals.

Carter, a powerful tackler, struggled to secure a starting role during his time in Arizona.

He started four games total before casting spells against the Cowboys, Raiders, Jaguars and Bears.

But in 2014, Carter made radical changes that would put him on the path to a future career in activism, motivational speaking, and modeling.

Carter made the difficult decision to give up meat and dairy after watching the documentary Fork Over Knives.

He’s now a proud vegan — and has undergone a radical body transformation since his NFL days.

He admits he used to eat “crappy” food and was technically considered obese in college.

He wrote on his Instagram: “[During college] I came fresh from years of grilling and crappy high school food.

“Even though I was a collegiate athlete, I still suffered from high blood pressure and was technically overweight.

“Just because you run around all day and people call you an athlete doesn’t mean you’re healthy⁠.”

Carter has always been tall, but these days he’s in shreds and still tips the scales close to his NFL weight of 300 pounds despite his new diet.

Carter told GQ, “People ask me if I want a steak and I tell them I don’t actually eat that, or meat or dairy. They usually think, ‘Wait, you’re supposed to be small and weak.’

“But of course they can’t say that when they look at me.

“I try to eat 1.2 grams of protein per pound per day otherwise it’s really hard to gain weight.”

Carter maintains his body on an outrageous 10,000-calorie-a-day diet.

It offers a whopping 80-ounce smoothie in four servings, as well as four hearty main meals.

On a typical day, Carter munches through copious amounts of hemp-protein oatmeal, brown rice and black beans with avocado, and onion-garlic couscous.

His radical new diet – coupled with countless hours in the gym – has benefited both his body and his overall health.

Carter now models for the Wilhelmina agency and appears in ads for Dockers and Levis.

Going by the online name The 300-Pound Vegan, he recently shared snaps from a new shoot with Banana Republic.

“I WAS STRONG BUT NOT HEALTHY”

His incredible turnaround is breathtaking for a man whose family once raised chickens and later ran a barbecue business.

Carter told Cleveland.com, “I remember eating 20-ounce steaks at team dinners.

“I drank milkshakes at night to gain weight and added wheat germ, protein, and powdered cow blood, a very bioavailable protein.

“I went to Wendy’s after a workout and ate four burgers and two batches of fries.

“I was strong, but I wasn’t healthy.”

Carter is now a motivational speaker alongside his modeling and wants to promote healthy eating rather than scaring people into veganism.

He continued, “Vegans like to scare people, to scare them.

“That’s good if you want to draw heart starts, but I like drawing people from where it really matters.

“I like to ask people, ‘How many people in your family have died from starvation?’

“I want to set an example by doing, not talking.

“The NFL only offers you five years of health insurance after you retire. I want to live as long as I can.”

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