Watch This Guy Attempt to Follow Strongman Brian Shaw's Epic Diet and Training Regime for a Day

Philip Ellis

July 9, 2020 10:35 PM

Fitness YouTuber Will Tennyson has experimented with the extreme diets and intense workout regimes of shredded actors and athletes including Jason Momoa , Mike Tyson , and Mark Wahlberg . For his latest challenge, however, he took on the daily routine of literally one of the strongest men in the world: Brian Shaw.

This Guy Tried Brian Shaw's Diet and Training Plan

The four-time World's Strongest Man winner has been on a journey to lean down in the last year, with the goal of cutting his weight down to 400 pounds . This means that Shaw's daily caloric intake has been reduced although recreating the strongman's diet still means Tennyson will have to eat 10,000 calories in the space of a single day . "This man eats every two hours," he says.

Breakfast is a "week's worth of cholesterol" in the form of 8 scrambled eggs, and a "shitload of grits," all of which come to 1,190 calories. After forcing the small mountain of food down, Tennyson says he wants to work out, but can't, as Shaw only hits the gym after his fifth meal of the day.

By the time he has finished doing the dishes from breakfast, it's time to start the second meal on Shaw's daily diet plan: a whole box of instant mashed potatoes with duck fat, and 12 ounces of bison patties (1,220 calories). "It tastes like a shepherds pie, I like this one," he says. "But seeing the duck fat pooling on top of the mashed potatoes is grossing me out right now... I'm already starting to get the sweats."

For the third meal, Tennyson preps an on-the-go snack of 2 turkey patties with 2 and a half cups of rice (1,240 calories). "It seems like all he does is just cook, eat, and train," he says. "But that's his career, and that's what you've got to do to be the best."

Tennyson orders out for the fourth meal; 2 small cheese pizzas and 2 slices of cheesecake from Domino's (3,140 calories). "[Shaw] is only supposed to eat until he feels satisfied," he says, adding that eating is the last thing he wants to do, so he has to get into that strongman mind-set "to work up some sense of an appetite."

The fifth pre-workout meal is an entire bag of sweet potato fries and 2 more turkey burgers (1,550 calories). "There's so much eating going on, it's literally like a full time job," says Tennyson. "I don't understand how he does it. And the fact that he does this every single day just makes me want to throw up."

Finally it's time for all that food to fuel a strength workout, and Tennyson chooses to focus on his chest, shoulders and triceps, following Shaw's routine of standing military press , incline dumbbell bench press , close grip bench press and cable triceps extensions. Having all of that food in his system actually does seem to make a difference; Tennyson hits a PR on the barbell at 225 pounds.

The sixth and final meal of the day is Shaw's favorite: 16 ounces of sirloin steak, 4 ounces of rice noodles, a side salad, an apple, and some more cheesecake (1,770 calories).

"Today has turned me off food completely," says Tennyson. "I want to do a 48-hour fast tomorrow. I have no desire to eat at all... I have been sweating non-stop today, it's disgusting. And the amount of dishes I've done is like the amount of dishes I've done in 3 months. I don't know how he consistently does this day in, day out."

Philip Ellis