Eddie Hall won the World’s Strongest Man title in 2017. He became the first person in history to deadlift 500 kilograms. He weighed close to 200 kilos — roughly 430 pounds — at his competitive peak.
To maintain that kind of mass and train at that level, Eddie Hall didn’t just eat a lot. He ate in a way that most people can’t even comprehend. His regular strongman diet ran between 12,000 and 16,000 calories per day. But on one particular day, he decided to push that even further — all the way to 20,000 calories.
He called it the worst day of his life.
Here’s exactly what he ate, why he did it, what it cost him physically, and how his diet looks today compared to those strongman years.
Why Eddie Hall Needed So Many Calories
Before getting into the 20,000 calorie day specifically, it’s worth understanding why Hall was eating at these levels in the first place.
At his peak competitive weight of around 430 pounds, Hall’s body required a staggering amount of energy just to function. Testing conducted at Staffordshire University showed that Hall needed approximately 5,000 calories per day just to maintain basic bodily functions at rest — four times the recommended daily intake for an average man. With his training load on top of that, his daily requirement jumped to 10,000 calories as a baseline.
During bulking seasons, that climbed even higher. Hall has stated that during heavy training blocks he regularly consumed between 12,500 and 15,000 calories per day.
To put this in context against other elite athletes:
- Average man: 2,500 calories/day
- Andy Murray (tennis): 3,200 calories/day
- Arnold Schwarzenegger at his peak: 5,000 calories/day
- Dwayne Johnson: 5,000–6,000 calories/day
- Tour de France cyclist during racing: ~8,000 calories/day
- Eddie Hall during strongman training: 12,000–16,000 calories/day
The 20,000 calorie day wasn’t his normal. It was a deliberate challenge — Hall revisiting his old strongman diet and pushing it to the absolute limit to see what his body could handle.
Eddie Hall’s 20,000 Calorie Day — The Full Breakdown
According to Hall’s own account, the 20,000 calorie day consisted of:
Breakfast — Full English, Everything Fried A full English breakfast with everything cooked in butter: sausages, bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, fried bread, black pudding, plum tomatoes, and orange juice. Estimated at 1,700–2,000 calories. After this meal, Hall went back to bed for about an hour — eating this much this early required recovery time.
Mid-Morning Snack Oatmeal with whole milk, raisins, and honey. Approximately 1,400 calories. Followed by another nap.
Pre-Training Meal A carbohydrate-heavy meal to fuel his gym session — pasta, rice, and protein. Estimated at approximately 4,400 calories. Another nap followed.
Snacks Throughout the Day Hall was known to eat calorie-dense snacks between main meals, including scrambled eggs, protein shakes, and on some occasions, a plate of fat trimmed from gammon meat — not for the taste, but purely for the calorie density.
Lunch — Steak and Sides A half-kilogram steak with rice, pasta, and vegetables. High protein, high calorie, high carbohydrate.
Dinner — Chicken Curry and Bolognese A chicken curry followed by bolognese with a full kilogram of pasta. This is where the calories really started stacking.
Dessert — Ice Cream, Multiple Times Hall has stated that during bulking seasons he would eat a liter of ice cream after every single meal. On the 20,000 calorie day, this added thousands of additional calories across multiple servings.
Middle of the Night Hall regularly set alarms during the night to wake up and consume a protein shake — or on some occasions, a raw steak with a glass of water — to ensure he hit his daily macros. He has described this as something that sounds mad but felt completely necessary at the time.
Total: approximately 20,000 calories
What It Actually Felt Like
Hall has been open about how the 20,000 calorie day felt physically. In his own words, it was “barely possible” and described as “real torture.”
He later called it the worst day of his life.
The physical repercussions of consuming that much food in 24 hours are significant — extreme bloating, digestive stress, fatigue, and discomfort throughout. Even for someone whose body was adapted to consuming 15,000 calories regularly, adding another 5,000 on top pushed him to his absolute limit.
This is an important distinction. Hall wasn’t casually eating 20,000 calories. He was forcing food down despite discomfort, fighting his body’s signals to stop, and paying a serious physical price for it.
Eddie Hall’s Diet Today vs. His Strongman Days
This is what most articles miss — and it’s arguably more interesting than the 20,000 calorie day itself.
Hall retired from strongman after winning the 2017 World’s Strongest Man. Since then, his diet has changed dramatically depending on what he was training for.
During his boxing transition: Hall cut his calorie intake to around 6,000–7,000 calories per day and dropped from 430 pounds to around 160–170 kilos (350–375 pounds). Speed and endurance became priorities alongside strength, requiring a very different nutritional approach.
His current approach: Hall has experimented with a carnivore-style diet in recent years, eating closer to 9,000–10,000 calories per day during those phases. When he needs more variety or trains differently, he brings carbohydrates back in.
In his own words: “It’s a tool in the toolbox, and when I need more variety or I’m training differently, I’ll bring carbs and other foods back in. It all depends on the goal.”
For his MMA fight at KSW 105, Hall weighed in officially at 334 pounds — dramatically leaner than his strongman peak, showing how deliberately he manages his body composition depending on the sport he’s competing in.
What Allowed Hall to Perform at That Level
Beyond the food, Hall has spoken about what he believes actually separated him from other strongmen — and it wasn’t just training harder or eating more.
In a podcast with Rob Moore, Hall explained: “I believe that I brought a different angle to Strongman, and that is the world of recovery and investing in your body. I trained hard and I ate hard, but I believe that there were people that trained harder and ate better than me. But where they wouldn’t put the money and effort in is recovery.”
Hall’s recovery protocol at his peak included:
- 21 different vitamins and nutrients taken three times daily
- Structured naps between meals and training sessions
- Physiotherapy appointments built into his daily schedule
- Strategic calorie timing — eating the largest carbohydrate loads before training sessions
The 20,000 calorie day is the headline. But the recovery infrastructure behind it is what actually made the training sustainable.
What This Means for Normal Lifters
Here’s the honest reality check: nothing about Eddie Hall’s diet is applicable to a natural lifter trying to build muscle.
Eating 20,000 calories doesn’t build more muscle — it builds more mass, most of which is fat, and is only sustainable for someone competing in a strength sport where bodyweight itself is an asset. For a natural lifter at normal body weight, a 500–700 calorie surplus above maintenance is sufficient for muscle building without excessive fat gain.
What IS relevant from Hall’s approach:
Meal frequency matters at high volumes. Hall ate 8–10 times per day not out of preference but necessity — his body could only absorb and process so many calories per sitting. For natural lifters trying to eat at a significant surplus, spreading calories across 4–5 meals is more effective than trying to force them into 2–3.
Recovery is training. Hall’s investment in sleep, physio, and structured recovery is the part of his regimen that transfers directly to any serious lifter. Under-recovering is the most common reason natural lifters plateau, regardless of how well they eat or train.
Protein was always the priority. Despite the extreme calorie numbers, Hall’s diet was anchored in high protein intake — eggs, steak, chicken, beef, protein shakes. The carbohydrates and fats built the calorie total on top of that protein foundation. That principle applies at any calorie level.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many calories did Eddie Hall eat per day normally? During his peak strongman years, Hall consumed between 12,500 and 16,000 calories per day as his regular diet. The 20,000 calorie day was a deliberate challenge that pushed beyond even his normal extreme intake.
What did Eddie Hall eat for breakfast? A full English breakfast — sausages, bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, fried bread, black pudding, plum tomatoes, and orange juice — all cooked in butter. Estimated at 1,700–2,000 calories. He typically went back to sleep for an hour after eating it.
How much did Eddie Hall weigh at his strongest? At his competitive peak during his 2017 World’s Strongest Man win, Hall weighed close to 200 kilograms — approximately 430 pounds.
Did Eddie Hall eat during the night? Yes. Hall set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to consume protein shakes or raw steak to hit his daily calorie and macronutrient targets. He has described this as feeling completely necessary despite sounding extreme.
What does Eddie Hall eat now? Hall’s current diet varies significantly from his strongman days. He has experimented with carnivore-style eating at around 9,000–10,000 calories per day, and during his boxing training cut back to 6,000–7,000 calories. His approach shifts based on his current training goal and competition requirements.
Could a normal person eat 20,000 calories in a day? Physically possible for some, but highly inadvisable. Even Hall — whose body was adapted to consuming 15,000 calories regularly — described the 20,000 calorie day as one of the worst experiences of his life. For an average person, attempting to consume that volume of food would cause extreme digestive distress and potentially serious health consequences.
How did Eddie Hall afford to eat that much? Hall has spoken publicly about the significant financial cost of his strongman diet. Sponsorships and prize money from strongman competitions helped cover food costs, but he has noted that the financial investment required to compete at the highest level of strongman is substantial — food being one of the largest ongoing expenses.
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