Eddie Hall’s journey to becoming the World’s Strongest Man required more than just lifting heavy weights. During a recent interview, Hall revealed the lifestyle demands that came with competing at the highest level of the sport.
During his peak strongman years, Hall consumed between 10,000 and 12,000 calories per day as a minimum requirement. “The upper end would be about 15,000,” he explained. “But you’d be averaging about 12,000 calories a day.”
At his heaviest, Hall weighed 432 lbs (196 kg), or approximately 32 stone, which he maintained through constant eating.
“From the second you wake up to the second you go to bed, you’ve got milkshake, you’ve got pasta, rice, you’ve got something going in all day,” Hall said.
The eating schedule wasn’t simply about enjoying large meals. Rather, it was a relentless routine of force-feeding.
“Every single meal you would force feed. You’d be having two of everything. And when I say two of everything, I mean two of everything, but twice. So you’d have two breakfast, two lunches, two evening meals. And they were big meals.”
To meet his caloric requirements, Hall incorporated foods typically considered treats. “To bulk it up, you’d be having ice cream, you’d have cheesecakes, which sounds great, but you’re eating those things when you’re already full,”
He described being in a constant state of near-nausea. “You’d eat to the point you were nearly sick. That was pretty much every single meal.”
Beyond nutrition, Hall’s daily routine was completely structured around his training and recovery. “I was up at 7, breakfast, back to bed, physio, back to bed, lunch, back to bed, another dinner, back to bed, get up for training, four or five hours at the gym. I’d go to another gym and do my hot cold therapy. And I’d go home, I’d have my tea, and I’d climb into a hyperbaric chamber and sleep in a f**king chamber.”
Hall admitted that for two and a half years leading up to his 2017 World’s Strongest Man victory, he maintained perfect discipline.
“I didn’t miss a single meal. I didn’t miss a single training session, physio session, stretching session, hot cold session, nothing. I never had a single drink. I didn’t celebrate birthdays, Christmases. It was just 100% strongman.”
This lifestyle came at significant personal cost. Hall saw his wife and children for barely an hour per week during his most intensive training periods.
“If I saw my kids for an hour a week, I was very lucky,” he said. The strain nearly ended his marriage, with his wife moving out five weeks before the World’s Strongest Man competition.
Hall also acknowledged the health consequences of maintaining such size and pushing his body.
“Strongman in general, it’s is not healthy. There are people that can be top 10 in the world and be healthy. But if you want to be the number one and stay number one and push the boundaries such as the 500 kilo deadlift and such things, you have to push the boundaries physically.”
Just five weeks before winning the title, routine blood work revealed his kidney and liver markers were dangerously elevated, but the most alarming issue was his hemoglobin. His blood had become so thick that his doctor warned him he was at a major risk of heart attack or stroke.
During an interview with Rob Moore, Hall explained why he had to retire from being a strongman. “Everything was working overtime to keep my body from having a heart attack or a stroke,” he said.
The final weeks of training became harder for Hall. He stated, “I honestly thought I’d go to bed every night thinking I wasn’t going to wake up the next day.”
After capturing the World’s Strongest Man title in 2017, Hall walked away from competitive strongman almost immediately. Reducing his body weight and bringing his dangerously high health markers back under control became his top priority.
Today, Hall has reinvented himself through MMA training and a strict carnivore diet that he says has dramatically improved his overall health. His sleep quality has improved, inflammation has dropped, and his cardiovascular fitness is stronger than it has been in years.
