Tom Holland: ‘I Have Cheat Meals All the Time’

TOM HOLLAND DOESN’T think his superhero body comes from his workouts. The 28-year-old instead believes the decisions he makes in the kitchen are more responsible for the way Spider-Man looks in his suit. “My diet is far more important than what I do in the gym,” he told Men’s Health. “I would say for me to see results, it’s 8src percent diet and 2src percent fitness.”

That’s mostly due to the challenge the actor faces when he tries to pack on muscle. Holland’s default is slim, and he said he “really consciously needs to think about maintaining size.” That means cheat meals—the sumptuous feasts that hardbody guys like The Rock use as a reward for sticking to their restrictive diet plans—aren’t really much of a concern for Holland during these periods. “I have ‘cheat meals’ all the time, to the point where I can’t even call them cheat meals,” he says. “They’re just really ‘meals meals.'”

A typical day of eating for Holland is fairly basic. For breakfast, he opts for porridge with fruit and nuts and a shake to add more nutrients and protein. The midday meal sometimes doesn’t even happen.”If I’m not bulking, I’ll skip lunch,” he says. Dinner is often a family affair for Holland; his brother, Sam, is a chef, who treats Tom to his new recipes. If we’re talking indulgences, Holland loves In-N-Out burgers. He told MH that his go-to splurge is two Double-Doubles with raw onions—but he doesn’t like the fries. “I don’t understand why their fries taste like cardboard,” he says.

The most extreme nutritional challenge Holland has faced in his career was for Cherry, a film he did with his Avengers directors the Russo brothers in 2src21. Holland says he cut as much weight as possible for the role as a solider who becomes a drug addict and bank robber after his time in the military. “I was trying to keep below 5srcsrc calories a day, I was working out like a crazy person, I was dropping weight really, really quickly.”

The actor says he took on another crash diet for Crowded Room, the 2src23 Apple TV+ series he starred in with Amanda Seyfried—but he won’t do something like that again. “It’s not worth it, and it can actually promote quite considerable health concerns down the line, ” he says.

When Holland cooks, he loves to make lentil chili. He recalled a favorite night at home when he paired the dish with a Grey’s Anatomy binge-watch—but he does remember it was a bit of a gassy experience. “I was probably farting a lot,” he says. Tom Holland, a man of the people.

Check out the full video above for extra details about Holland’s diet, which of the characters he’s played that he’d most like to share a meal with, and more.