Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick shares his health advice while GTA 6 looms

Strauss Zelnick, the head of Rockstar Games owner Take-Two, has offered a detailed look at the health habits he says help him stay fit and feel better. In a new interview with Business Insider, the executive behind the company publishing Grand Theft Auto 6 spoke about exercise, sleep, food, and the supplements and drugs he would rather avoid.

Zelnick is already known for treating fitness as a serious part of his daily life. He published a book in 2018 called Becoming Ageless: The Four Secrets To Looking and Feeling Younger Than Ever, and images of him looking lean and extremely low in body fat have circulated online for years. The latest interview adds more detail to the routine behind that image, while also showing where he draws a line on certain longevity trends that have become popular in wellness circles.

What Zelnick says to do first

Zelnick began with what he called the most important step for anyone trying to improve their health: do not smoke. He described smoking as the factor most closely tied to an early, unhealthy and unhappy life, and framed it as the single biggest habit to avoid.

His second warning was about alcohol and drugs. Zelnick said people should not abuse either, calling them two of the strongest links to a bad old age, or no old age at all. From there, he moved into the basics of exercise, diet, sleep, and support from other people.

He said exercise does not need to be extreme to help. Walking for 30 minutes four or five days a week was the example he gave, adding that he personally goes far beyond that because health and fitness are among his hobbies. Even so, he stressed that most people do not need to live the way he does to benefit from regular movement.

Food, in his view, also does not have to be an all-or-nothing project. Zelnick recommended a responsible diet, but said it does not need to be insanely healthy. His practical advice was simple: do not overdo unhealthy food.

Sleep was another pillar in his routine. Zelnick said seven hours each night should be the goal and argued that getting less than six hours leads to poor choices. In his words, the math says short sleep makes people make bad personal decisions and bad professional decisions.

Sleep, community, and a skeptical view of peptides

Zelnick also said health is not only physical. He said an emotional or spiritual life matters, along with having people you love and love you in your life and, preferably, a community around you. That part of the conversation placed his health advice in a broader frame than diet and workouts alone.

He also pushed back on peptides, which have become popular in some fitness circles but remain largely unregulated. Zelnick said he does not believe in taking something that is not double-blind tested and pointed to the FDA as a reason to be cautious. His view was that people would be better off following the kind of routine he described rather than relying on peptides.

That skepticism stood in contrast to his enthusiasm for GLP-1 drugs. Zelnick said people who want to lose weight should consider taking a GLP-1 and argued there is no reason to be grossly overweight in the era of those prescriptions. He said he is a huge advocate for them and said there should be no shame in taking them if someone is carrying extra weight.

He illustrated that point with an anecdote about a workout group member who wanted to lose 50 pounds. Zelnick said he told the man to speak to his endocrinologist and get a prescription, comparing the suggestion to telling someone with a migraine to forget Tylenol and just meditate. In his telling, prescribed medications can be part of living a healthier life.

How this fits with Zelnick’s public image

The interview fits a long-running public fascination with Zelnick’s appearance and discipline. He has previously discussed his approach to health in public, including a 2016 Business Insider video in which he showed his workout routine. He is also a friend of Bryan Johnson, the billionaire known for trying to live forever, though Zelnick said he does not subscribe to the same longevity experiments.

Instead, Zelnick said he once received advice from Peter Attia, the celebrity longevity doctor and his former doctor, who told him he could help with healthspan but not lifespan. Zelnick said he was receptive to that distinction. In the interview, he came across as someone focused less on radical life extension and more on habits that, in his view, make ordinary life healthier and more sustainable.

That public profile has made him a recognizable figure beyond the games business, especially as Take-Two prepares for the eventual release of Grand Theft Auto 6. Recent reporting has already linked the game to everything from fan anticipation to business forecasts, while another former Rockstar developer recently suggested AI clones could help push a PC release closer to the console launch. Zelnick’s latest comments do not change any of that, but they do add another piece to the long-running picture of the man leading the company behind one of gaming’s biggest upcoming releases.

For now, the new interview is less about GTA itself than the habits of the executive overseeing the publisher that owns it. Still, for anyone following Take-Two’s most visible boss, Zelnick’s advice was blunt and consistent: avoid smoking, do not abuse alcohol or drugs, exercise regularly, sleep enough, eat responsibly, and do not ignore the prescriptions that can help you stay healthier.