Eddie Hall has never been shy about what it took to become the World’s Strongest Man – but even his fellow giants still can’t quite believe the food mountain he used to demolish every single day.
In a recent YouTube video, Hall takes his friend and four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw on a shopping trip to Tesco, revealing in detail what his daily diet looked like during his record-breaking strongman career.
The numbers are staggering: over 15,000 calories a day, spread across multiple meals, constant snacks, and a near-endless flow of drinks. For Shaw – himself no stranger to massive eating challenges – it was almost too much. At one point, he admitted halfway round the supermarket aisles: “I’m just… I’m already sick.”
Breakfast x2
Hall began every day with not one, but two breakfasts.
First breakfast was a full English feast: at least two sausages, four slices of bacon, four eggs, black pudding, a tin of baked beans, a tin of tomatoes, and fried sourdough bread. Shaw was surprised that Hall would only eat around four eggs per day at the peak of his strongman career – as Shaw would reveal on Eddie’s podcast that he himself would often consume a dozen eggs in a day.
Second breakfast toned things down slightly, swapping the fry-up for porridge with raisins and honey.
To balance out the heavy meals, Hall always made sure to include small portions of fruit each day – blueberries, raspberries and oranges.
Lunchtime Load-Up
The midday routine was even bigger.
First lunch: a huge serving of meat (steak or chicken), a huge portion of carbs (often potatoes), a portion of steamed vegetables, plus dessert – often half a pound of cheesecake or even a full litre of ice cream.
Second lunch: tuna sandwiches with caramel and chocolate flapjacks. Hall would eat an entire packet of flapjacks before training, adding up to 1,000 calories in one hit.
Snacks and “Meeting Jesus”
Throughout the day, Hall grazed on sliced meats, packets of cooked chicken breast, pork scratchings, crisps, and – in his words – the ultimate indulgence: two Wispa Gold chocolate bars. He described the bars as being like “punching through the clouds” and “meeting Jesus Christ himself.”
These snacks weren’t just for downtime either – Hall revealed he would eat sliced meats or chicken breast even during training sessions to keep protein flowing.
Dinner and Evening Feast
Dinner was another monster meal cooked by Hall’s wife – often something like a spaghetti bolognese or curry, made with half a kilo of meat and half a kilo of pasta or rice, alongside steamed vegetables.
The evening meal would then top everything off – a deep dish pizza, washed down with a protein shake and protein bar.
Drinks: Calories in a Glass
It wasn’t just food doing the work. Hall drank almost constantly to fuel his training, including: Four litres of cranberry juice, at least one litre of high-fat milk (around 750 calories alone, coconut water, a litre of Lucozade on the way to the gym, and another six litres of water.
Looking back, Hall insists he has no regrets about what he put his body through: “So I was always on a super high-fat diet. I believe my body ran the best on high fats – like it does now. I’m on a carnivore diet now. And I just solely fuel my body on fats.”
When asked by Shaw if he was embarrassed about his strongman diet, Hall was defiant: “Not at all. As I say, for me, it was for one job; to be as big, strong, and powerful as I could be for one day… and then stop eating like a pig. You could argue that the 500kg deadlift wouldn’t have ever happened if I hadn’t done this.”
It all sounds excessive, but Hall tipped the scales at an incredible 196kg (433lbs) when he won his World’s Strongest Man title – something that every calorie here would have fuelled.
The video quickly went viral, amassing over 975,000 views on YouTube, with fans loving the sight of two strongman legends debating calories in a British supermarket.
One wrote: “The look of sheer bewilderment on Brian’s face throughout this video is priceless.”
Another added: “I love how Brian’s trying to act shocked like he wasn’t bashing all these calories and a cheesecake a day himself.”
A third joked: “I can’t imagine seeing Brian Shaw in f***ing Tesco.”
As you can see, it take a lot of determination to become the World’s Strongest Man – and that’s just at meal times.
Featured image credit: YouTube/ShawStrength/Instagram/@EddieHallWSM
