Chris Hemsworth’s Superhero Diet Is Thor-oughly Protein-Rich and Plant-Based
His personal trainer admits the actor’s vegan diet had one unfortunate side effect (hint: God of Thunder).
Mark Metcalfe
Chris Hemsworth during a photo call for Thor: Ragnarok in Sydney, Australia.
Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in the Marvel Studios film franchise, may be nearly as famous for his exquisitely sculpted, superhero physique as he is for his acting. The 34-year-old Australian hunkster has had to maintain optimal fitness and comic-book-perfect muscles for the role he first stepped into back in 2011 and to which he has repeatedly returned.
How has he done it? Well, yeah, he works out a lot, pushing himself train even in scorching hot days and working on flexibility and movement as much as weightlifting to add size.
“Bulk is nice, but being more agile is definitely important,” he told Men’s Health last year. “I’ll do a ton of boxing or Muay Thai workouts. I surf a ton and I do a lot of yoga, too.”
But exercise is just one part of Hemsworth’s regimen. He also stuck to a high-protein diet to prepare for Thor and Avengers and then, during filming, went vegan.
“He tried it out and we were actually surprised,” the actor’s personal trainer, Luke Zocchi, said this month during an appearance on the Australian morning talk show Today Extra, Daily Mail Australia reports. “That was a big experiment we tried to see if he could keep the muscle being vegan and it actually surprised me as well because we're all in this mentality of 'gotta eat animal protein, protein, protein' but you can get a lot of protein from beans.”
Favoring bean and veggie burgers, Hemsworth scarfed down six meals a day — eating every two or three hours — during filming. His revised diet may have been inspired by his younger brother and fellow hunky actor, Liam, who has been a vegan since at least 2015 and has said he has encouraged Chris to adapt to “eating more vegetables and more plant-based stuff.”
“Chris is obviously extremely healthy and has played Thor and has had to work out a lot over the past few years,” Liam told Men’s Fitness a couple of years back. “But he has a lot of digestive issues, and he’s constantly trying to figure out what’s best for his system.”
He may still be tinkering. Zocchi admitted Chris’s adoption of a vegan diet had one unfortunate side effect: “It got a little gassy at times,” he said.
Brings a whole new spin to that God of Thunder thing.
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