Celebrity body transformations for roles are nothing new, but one that is particularly notable is Hugh Jackman‘s transformation into the superhero Wolverine. His diet and workout regime to achieve this sculpted physique is legendary and as the Australian actor edges towards 60, it’s all the more impressive.
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Jackman has been playing the jacked hero since 2000 when he was cast in the first X-Men movie so it’s been almost a quarter century, with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. Reprising the role has been no small feat for Hugh, who had to throw himself deep into training for months before filming began.
“It’s been five years and I’d really never thought I’d come back and I’m really, really excited about it,” Jackman told Men’s Health in 2022 when it was first announced that he would be reprising the role. “I’m going to have the time of my life… I can tell you that I started back at the gym and I’m eating a lot.”
He later told People that, “When I came back to it, it was really fun and I was thrilled. My body was a little sore at the beginning, but I was thrilled that my body was still responding. And I realized how good it is for your brain. But the hardest bit…the food,” he admitted. “I have to eat a lot. For me, for my body type, I’m naturally skinny. To get the size on, that’s the hardest bit. That’s the bit that does my head in.”
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine diet
In March 2023, Hugh gave us a glimpse of what bulking for Wolverine entails from a food perspective. “Bulking. A day in the life,” Jackman wrote in a caption of an Instagram post, which showed six meals a day. “Thank you, Chef Mario, for helping me stay healthy and properly fed whilst… Becoming. Wolverine. Again.”
According to Variety, Hugh consumes black bass (2,000 calories), Patagonia salmon (2,100 calories), two chicken burgers (around 1,000 calories each), and two grass-fed sirloins (1,100 calories each). It equals around 8,000 calories of mostly protein to get into Wolverine shape—to put that into perspective, the average man needs around 2,500.
During an interview on HBO’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the host asked Hugh to comment on the speculation over the years that he’d taken steroids to bulk up. “No, I love my job. And I love Wolverine,” he replied.
“I got to be careful what I say here, but I had been told anecdotally what the side effects are of that. And I was like, ‘I don’t love it that much.’ So no, I just did it the old-school way. And I tell you, I’ve eaten more chickens — I’m so sorry to all the vegans and vegetarians and to the chickens of the world. Literally the karma is not good for me. If the deity has anything related to chickens, I’m in trouble.”
