Robert Pattinson had previously joked – to the disdain of fans – that he was doing no training for The Batman. Naturally though, if you’ve watched enough of the actor’s interviews, be it on the red carpet, radio, or press junket circuit, you’ll know that he has a penchant for eschewing fact for what makes a good story: entertainment. He was quick to clarify his earlier remarks, insisting that of course he worked out for the role, he simply just didn’t want to talk about.
Since hitting cinemas, The Batman has blown audiences away, but for bodybuilder and fitness model Aseel Soueid, he was more intrigued in Pattinson’s diet. Soueid has previously worked out like Wolverine, Captain America and Black Adam, detailing the process on his YouTube channel. But in his latest video, he took on the superhero diet that got Pattinson into shape to play the caped crusader.
The meal plan consists of six meals each day, all of them being clean. He starts with a breakfast of oatmeal, banana and a hard-boiled egg, followed by a glass or orange juice and a cup of green tea. Next is a whole tin of tuna, and four rice cakes topped with peanut butter. “Quite a bro meal here,” says Soueid. “I used to eat this religiously, especially as a college student. This is as cheap as it gets if you need a quick ‘healthy’ snack, some carbs and fats, that’s all it is…And it’s got a lot of volume so it’s definitely going to fill you up. Just a tip, don’t go overboard on the peanut butter, because it’s a lot of calories.”
For a pre-workout meal, Soueid eats skinless chicken breast, baked potato and mixed vegetable. As anyone who has tried to get in shape knows, such diets are usually bland and devoid of most flavour, and not surprisingly Soueid expresses his lack of enthusiasm. But as he suggests, even when you’re going for lean, you can still find ways to add flavour to a meal without upping the calories.
Meal number four is a bowl of cottage cheese and mixed fruit with oatmeal crackers. Then comes a sirloin steak with white rice and more mixed vegetables. For the sixth and final meal of the day, he makes a smoothie with protein powder, a banana, blueberries, spinach and unsweetened almond milk. It brings his total food intake for the day up to 2,797 calories, with 329 grams of carbs, 77 grams of fat, and 204 grams of protein.
“This actually makes a lot of sense considering [Pattinson] is like 6’1, around 165 pounds before he started filming The Batman,” said Soueid. “This is right around maintenance, maybe a little bit above because he was trying to build muscle but also stay lean…You don’t have to be in a huge calorie surplus to build muscle. Stick to around maintenance while you’re getting stronger in the gym, with a high protein diet, and you’re going to be just fine.”
