“Bulking.  A day in the life. Thank you, Chef Mario for helping me stay healthy and properly fed whilst... Becoming. Wolverine. Again”, is what Hugh Jackman posted on 6th March 2023, as he prepared the beloved MCU superhero.

In this post, Jackman shared images of his 6 boxes of meals, highlighting the calories in each.

• Black bass: 2000 calories.
• Two chicken burgers: 2000 calories.
• Patagonia salmon: 2100 calories.
• Two grass-fed sirloins: 2200 calories.

Hugh Jackman also shared on “The Late Show” that he was slowly getting used to eating 6000 calories a day. Before his role as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman was working in a Broadway musical called The Music Man, so naturally, making the calorie jump took some time.

“I’m building up. I’m on about 4,500-5,000 calories at the moment,” Jackman said on the January 2023 episode.

He also added, “I wore a heart rate monitor [for ‘The Music Man’] because my trainer said, I need to know what I’m working with here, because I’m trying to bulk you up. I burned 1,500 calories in the show, eight times a week. So she goes: ‘Oh, you gotta eat.’ So I was eating 4,500 calories a day. It was not pretty. Now I’m just eating and training.”

Hugh Jackman also revealed that he prepared for the role of Wolverine the old-school way. The 57-year-old admitted he was devouring chicken to meet his lean protein needs.

"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," he joked.

However, there was a good reason behind Jackman's extremely high-calorie diet while preparing for Deadpool 3.

Huge Jackman Didn’t Have Much Time

The 57-year-old combined his 6000-calorie diet with an equally tough workout regimen.

The actor shared he was pressed for time during an interview on  HBO Max’s Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace in 2023. “So, we have six months from when I finish (Broadway’s The Music Man) to when I started filming. And I’m not doing any other work. I’m going to be with my family and train. That’s going to be my job for six months.”

During the cut phase, he engaged in cardio and intense weight training. The primary focus of the actor’s workout was weight training, utilizing progressive overload. Exercises such as weighted pull-ups, barbell bench press, back squat, and deadlifts were prominent in his workout. His cardio involves a rowing machine.

Huge Jackman shared a post on Instagram, where he regularly performed pyramid training on the rowing machine, with sets ranging from 400 to 2000 meters. And all that work paid off as Jackman absolutely looked the part when Deadpool 3 released in 2024.

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi