2023 World’s Strongest Man has just winded up recently, and Mitchell Hooper emerged victorious. Hooper scored a total of 53.5 points over six events, demonstrating that he is the next big thing in the world of strongmen. Recently, he gave an interview to GenerationIron, talking about his journey and experience after his first victory at the competition. Hooper provided some insight into his training regimen, diet, and future intentions during the interview with Dylan Wolfinger.

Hooper also covered the differences in nutrition between a bodybuilder and a strongman during the interview. Let’s get into the depth of the discussion.

Hooper talks about strongmen and bodybuilders’ diet

When asked about the first thing he’ll eat after his victory, Hooper replied by saying, “meat lovers pizza and some ice cream.” Hooper also revealed that in terms of diet, the sport of strongman is a bit more flexible as compared to bodybuilding. Bodybuilders generally aim to reduce body fat and achieve a lean physique, so they often consume fewer calories than strongmen. In contrast, Strongmen require a higher calorie intake to support the immense energy demands of their training and competitions.

While talking about strongmen, Hooper said, “You have your…what you need to eat…and you have your calories you need to hit.” Adding to this, he revealed his diet formula, “Personally I like to sort of go 80-20 about things, but yeah..you sort of habitualize a lot of food trying to keep 80 percent of it healthy, and that’s my diet.” A typical strongman diet, as told by Hooper as well, consists of a huge amount of calories with high amounts of carbohydrates as well as fats. 

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High-caloric meals help athletes to lift super heavy and recover quickly from intense workouts. Bodybuilders on the other side, eat small, frequent meals to ensure low body fat percentage and high muscle mass. Many strongmen in the past have also discussed their diets. One thing that was common in all of them was the habit of eating big in order to get big. Once, another strongman, Hafthor Bjornsson, shared his diet with his fans, and it took them by surprise.

Veteran strongman Hafthor Bjornsson shares his diet 

Standing tall at 6’9 and 152kg bodyweight, Hafthor Bjornsson once revealed his diet that led him to the apex of his strength. He said, “I basically ate everything. Pizza, Pasta — anything to make myself bigger”. He also added that while being on such a huge diet, he needs to eat something that is easy on the stomach but can be consumed in giant proportions. “With such big proportions, the food needs to digest quickly,” revealed Bjornsson. 

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Consuming such a high amount of calories surely sounds difficult to an average person. But this is the fuel responsible for the success of beasts like Hafthor Bjornsson and Mitchell Hooper.