The Real-Life Diet of Veronica Mars Star Jason Dohring, Who Works Out Like a Superhero

Real-Life Diet is a series in which GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in-between about their diets and exercise routines: what's worked, what hasn't, and where they're still improving. Keep in mind, what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

SPOILER ALERT: The second-to-last question of this interview contains a major spoiler from the new season of the show.

Despite what Versace would have you believe, most relics of the mid-aughts have not aged well. One exception to that rule: Veronica Mars, the cult-y gumshoe-mystery-meets-teen-soap-opera that ran from 2004 to 2007. The show is near-universally agreed to have been leaps ahead of its time, which is probably why its surprising return for a fourth season—nearly 15 years later—has been embraced rather than ridiculed.

The return of one of the show's main characters, Logan (played by Jason Dohring), has also been wholly welcomed, in part because Dohring—like the series he stars in—has aged... gracefully. Vulture, in fact, recently ran a piece entitled "Just an Appreciation of Swole Logan on 'Veronica Mars."'

Logan's journey from psychotic jackass to sensitive military man won the hearts of most of the show’s fans—not to mention Veronica herself—back in the day. At the onset of the new season, he's living with Veronica in between active-duty tours, touting the benefits of therapy, and serving as a source of stability for his oft-cynical girlfriend. Somewhere along the line, it would appear that he also decided to lift weights and developed a jaw line that could cut glass.

But the real-life Dohring wasn't all that pressed about getting in military-grade shape for the show. After all, he'd already been training for 12 years with a guy who studies the physical proportions of comic book superheroes. (More on that in a minute.) In an interview with GQ, Dohring described the origins of his workout routine, how he's developed a hyper-precise, 45-minutes-a-day approach to the gym, and also revealed his beloved honey bee farm to the world.

GQ: So let's start with the obvious: Logan got pretty ripped this season. Did the show's writers ask you to look a certain way, or was that more of a personal goal?

Jason Dohring: [Rob Thomas, the show's creator] leaves it to me to do what I'd like to do. And I met a trainer named Eric Fleishman 12 years ago. He was very skinny in high school, and he used to read comic books. And at one point in his life, he was like, "Fuck this, I'm gonna look different." He basically trains you to look like a comic book character: super wide on the top with a high, flat, platelike chest, cannonball shoulders, a wide back, and a small waist. So he has certain exercises he does that create that look, which is pretty cool and unusual, because you look like you're 195 pounds from the chest up and 165 from the chest down. I also had a buddy that I grew up with, Mike Matthews, and he wrote a fitness book called Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. He was kind enough to talk to me about dieting too. So it was his information coupled with the art aspect that Eric provides, where fitness is about beauty.

Can you take me through what kind of exercises you're doing when you work out?

It's never, like, Monday is chest day, Wednesday is legs day. My trainer will assess me and go, "Boom. This is what we need." Which is great. That's how it should be! If you're going for this ideal situation, then you're just comparing yourself every day against that, and just getting yourself closer and closer to that. So we'd always look, like, "What are you missing?" And then fill that in. Your body can be representative of your art if you aim for a certain aesthetic. I don't train for marathons or anything. There's fitness and then there's exercise with an aesthetic intention, and I fall more into that latter category.

How long do you usually spend in the gym?

I work out every day for 45 minutes to an hour, but moderately. Not super crazy.

Has the result you're going for changed throughout the years?

Yeah. There's this term called "muscle maturity," which basically means that old muscle looks better. So you can tell when someone's just started working out or if they've been lifting for 20 or 30 years. It's filled out, it's more beautiful, so I think that's one cool aspect about continually training over the years. Things fill in and start to look more like Arnold, baby.

Generally though, I've tried to stay in the same proportions, just tightening my diet down a little bit. I've planted 100 fruit trees at my house—I have my own chickens, and I'm a beekeeper.

Is most of the food you eat products that you grew at your house?

Yeah, and mostly that's fruits, vegetables, and eggs. I obviously can't have 20,000 buffalo in my backyard in L.A. But I try to find the healthiest food and water.

Do you follow a specific type of diet?

I really feel like people don't understand dieting at all. They think "diet" means less food. And it just means a certain kind of food. It's not four hours in the gym every day. It's being specific about what you're eating, looking for the result you want, and then doing the actions that give that result.

I try to eat organic. That's why I have this orchard and vegetable garden for my family. My kids opened a Venmo account and they're selling Little Bee Farm honey. They package it and take it to school.

How long ago did you start growing and producing your own food?

I got into it maybe 10 years ago, starting with tomatoes. The difference in the quality—my wife's dad had a plum tree, and he brought some over, and my kids would prefer that to candy. All the sugar in a fruit comes to the fruit like, a week before it's ready. And the fruit that we eat in the store is picked two weeks before it's ready, because it will last longer in a fucking box. But it tastes terrible.

And you're also a beekeeper?

Yes! I took an online course, I learned how to take care of them, and now we have gallons of honey at home. I'm not that good yet, but I did a couple bee rescues. I put an ad on Craigslist and people have me show up at their houses. I went with my daughter and we did a little beehive rescue. You catch the queen and all the other ones follow her into your box, and then you bring 'em home, and they're like, "Where am I?" And then they get used to that place.

What else do you like growing?

I specifically got into apples. I have 41 apple trees at my house. And what's amazing is there are 7,500 different kinds of apples in the world. They all ripen at different times. So if you're in Southern California and you're smart, you can plant one that ripens in June, one that ripens in July, August, etc. We have fresh apples from June to February.

That's a lot of math.

Yeah, but it's also awesome, because you don't want 500 of the same tree and then 50,000 pieces of fruit. You want a little bit each day, so if you can, find a way to do this successive harvest thing in your backyard. We're literally eating fresh fruit every day. It's incredible. We have 100 fruit trees, and the chickens get all the extra, and anything they don't use goes to the garden.

Do you have access to super-fresh food like that when you're on set as well?

No. But from learning all the basics about diet through my buddy and his book, I can look at food now and know what it's gonna do to my body. So even when you do go to craft services, you know what to eat.

Did it feel any differently playing a much-more-fit-than-he-used-to-be Logan?

Yeah, sure. Wardrobe helps with that—putting on stiffer clothes, getting in shape. I tried to talk to some military guys to get a sense of that life and what the schedule might have been. I talked to a couple pilots and some of the guys who were advising on Top Gun. I think there's something to the idea of being disciplined. It holds you accountable, getting up at 4:30 every day and going to exercise. I've found in my own life when I'm able to stay on one thing, other things clean up around me.

Has working out has helped you be more disciplined in your own work?

Yeah, I hated working out. For 10 years I didn't get it. I was, like, "What the hell are these guys doing going to the gym?" My trainer just told me to keep coming. He would put me in states of training where I felt like I was looking through one of those carnival things where you put your head on somebody else's body. And I was just, like, "Jeez, dude, what are you doing to me?" His artistic eye, man. He considers himself a sculptor. He just makes perfect people. And 10 years later, I finally got it.

You've said that it was a bit jarring for you to play out Logan's transition from an asshole to a really good guy. Can you tell me about getting into that mindset?

After the first episode of the show, I felt like I had the character, and I could just click into that. When you add something big, you're putting that layer on top of another layer, so hopefully your cake doesn't disappear, and instead you're adding more frosting on top. It was about trying to still have the essence of him with the smartass stuff, which is fun. You don't wanna just be a lame guy. But it was also a cool place for him to go, because where do you go when your life is so broken? And he uses it to help Veronica as well.

I also loved how important therapy was to him.

Yeah! You can tell he's still working through some things, but to have a good person to talk to, I feel like that does an awful lot.

The Veronica Mars fan base is notoriously passionate and loyal, and that can come with a lot of pressure. Were you nervous about how fans would react to the changes in Logan, not to mention the way he died?

I'm not a writer, so I don't get a script and go, "Well, let me rewrite this." A story's written and I'm fortunate to be on a show where the script is always good. It's just taking it and making it your own. I was just trying to take that script and make it funny and sarcastic, and also play up more of the love and the romance. I don't know how fans will take it. I haven't really been online much. I have tremendous confidence in Rob [Thomas], and I know that he always does good stories.

What was it like to reunite with the cast? Is it weird to be on set with them now?

Not at all. We were friends back then and it's only grown more. There's something about doing something creative with people that makes you like a family. Every time I see those guys now it's like, those are my fucking soulmates.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Originally Appeared on GQ