Joe Manganiello’s True Blood Diet + Workout

Joe Manganiello is best known for his buff werewolf bod in True Blood. Before joining the show, Joe already had a pretty decent body (he weighed 240 pounds with 18% body fat), but that wasn’t good enough. He needed to get in even better shape to be the hulking werewolf he was cast as.

To get his muscles more defined and to give his entire body a more lean and muscular structure, Joe got help from Hugh Jackman’s trainer for Wolverine, Ron Matthews, who developed a workout routine for him that had him working out six days a week, twice a day. Joe also went on a heavily protein-centric diet.

6’5 and all muscle, here’s how this popular True Blood was able to transform his body into one of the best in Hollywood.

The Workout

Joe would use his trainer’s workout routine three times a week, and he would do it twice each day. For the other three days of the week, Joe trained on his own, doing cardio in the morning and strength training in the afternoon.

One of the most important elements of his workout is that he works on different parts of his body, different days of the week. On Monday and Thursday, he works out his legs and chest. On Tuesday and Friday, he works out his biceps and shoulders, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays, he works out on his triceps and back. Joe also moves from a one strength training workout to the other quickly, as the movement between each exercise is just as important as the workout itself.

As for the actual exercises he does, for his arms he would alternate between incline curls, standing curls and decline curls and he would change his grip. For his shoulders, he would do drop sets and for his chest, supersets for maximum fat burning were in order. And for his abdominals, he would do twists and hanging leg raises.

The Diet

Since Joe was raised on an organic diet, the strict diet required for this role has been easy for him. He eats only protein, vegetables, and he cut back on sweets and ate no processed foods to get in shape for the role. And he also eat whenever he feels hungry, about 2 to 3 times a day (which adds up to about five times a day).

Joe also went on a 2500 calorie diet so he could drop 10 pounds, and get the 230 lb frame (with 8% body fat) that the producers wanted. For breakfast, he would have two packets of oatmeal with hot water and a protein shake. For lunch, he would have two roasted chicken breasts, 1/2 cup of corn and one sweet potato.  And for his midafternoon snack, he would reach for a protein shake mixed with banana and creatine.

When it was time for dinner, Joe would have a 4 to 6 ounce steak or fish, 1/2 cup of carrots or asparagus and a large salad with vinaigrette dressing.  He would also have another late night meal, which was another chicken breast and 1/2 cup of green beans.

And to allow himself to be human every once in awhile, he lets himself eat one cheat meal a week (he loves chicken and waffles and Unami burgers). He would also eat sulfur-free mangoes, sugar-free almonds and whey protein whenever he got hungry.

High intensity strength training workouts done several times a week, combined with high amounts of protein, loads and veggies and no sugar, it’s no wonder Joe Manganiello’s diet has worked so impressively.