- So sometimes when you're on set,
I give myself permission now to sort of let up
and eat what I need to eat.
It's not the time or the place to put pressure on yourself
unless you really need to be shirtless that entire film
which tends to be the case for me sometimes.
Hi, I'm Zac Efron.
Men's Health has asked me to tell you about what I eat.
Let's dig in.
(exciting music)
I guess the philosophy around my current diet
is intermittent fasting mixed with getting enough nutrition
to sort of sustain me throughout the day.
I started intermittent fasting
just after I stopped being vegan.
My body wasn't processing the vegetables in the right way
so I decided to stop it and try something new.
Intermittent fasting's been really helpful with that.
For most roles, you change something
but I think probably the one role
that I had to change the most for was probably Baywatch.
That movie, I adopted a really, really specific
eating regimen.
Clean fish or meat with sweet potatoes, like that
and I just did that for the entire film.
So that was the most extreme I had ever gone.
I think I was in ketosis that entire film.
Beer Run was really fun.
I just got to eat whatever I wanted
and we were in Thailand which was a good place to do it.
I love Thai food.
There's so many delicious things they can do with crab
but some of the best foods I discovered
were like noodle dishes like ramen,
the soups and stuff they have out there.
Geez, now I can't think of any of 'em.
So sometimes when you're on set,
I'd give myself permission now
to sort of let up and eat what I need to eat.
If I'm craving something, I'll just have it.
It's not the time or the place to put pressure on yourself
unless you really need to be shirtless that entire film.
What am I talking about?
Which tends to be the case for me sometimes.
What's harder, the diet or the working out?
I've got training pretty locked in.
The diet kind of does the finishing touches.
Diet will take you to the next level
and if you're doing it right, you can train better.
I don't know, it's sort of like the chicken and the egg.
Toughest diet I've ever done for a role.
Probably just not eating.
I've done that a couple times.
It's always rough.
Have I ever had a cheat meal with The Rock?
We ate a ton of food during Baywatch,
tremendous amounts of food.
He'll eat twice the amount of protein I have in a day
and a huge thing of carbs and he'll just have it
in one five minute period between a take.
So I watched him eat a lot.
I don't know if we had that many meals.
Favorite carbohydrate to eat?
I feel good when I have bananas
and when I have sweet potatoes.
I think I get the most bang for my buck out of those ones.
Also, plantains for some reason.
Those give me good clean energy.
Favorite protein?
This is kind of a weird one but I really like organ meats.
So I love liver, liver and onions and things like that.
Kinda weird but I've grown really fond of it.
That's a great question.
An epic burger.
Spent a lot of time in Australia.
I love it out there and I discovered I loved Vegemite.
I mean, I got to like it without butter
but for your first time, you need to put a lot of butter
and a little bit of Vegemite.
After that, I got to like it
where I was just eating the Vegemite without the butter.
Even Australians called me weird for that one.
Yeah, I didn't wanna rub in
how much of a stereotype it seemed like it was
but we barbecued every night
and we had shrimp every other night.
So yeah, I just had to refrain from making that joke a lot.
Last meal I cooked for a date?
I honestly can't even remember.
That's terrible.
I think I leave it to ordering.
Last meal I Postmated for a date?
The best food smell in the world?
It always seems to be by ice cream shops
when they're baking the cones.
I don't know what that smell is.
That or a ramen shop.
I think walking by a good ramen shop in Japan.
The smell is just insane.
I try not to eat in bed but sometimes I'll wake up
and there'll be like Skittles attached to my back
and the sheets are all rainbow colored.
That's happened a few times.
So typically I'll break fast around 10:30 or 11
but that's after I do some cardio.
First meal of the day usually starts with bone broth.
I really love bone broth.
It's satisfying and it's good for your stomach.
Helps me kinda warm up for the real food.
Some sort of veggies with a really clean source of protein
whether it's chicken, beef, venison, elk, anything
then yeah, I usually have my highest carbohydrate meal
sort of in the evening.
That's usually another really good source of meat
and healthy carbohydrate like sweet potatoes or quinoa.
Yeah, on cheat days,
I love to eat massive amounts of pancakes.
If I'm doing pancake day, it's a lot of pancakes.
I'll go through a whole box of Kodiak Cakes.
If I'm gonna have a cheat meal,
I still want it to be at least semi good for you.
Once again, I'm Zac Efron.
That's a little bit about what I eat.
Also, don't forget to check out The Greatest Beer Run Ever
on Apple TV+ September 30th.
Thanks for stopping by.
(calm music)