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Professional athletes don't get to the top by accident. It takes superhuman levels of time, dedication, and focus—and that includes paying attention to what they put in their bellies. In this series, GQ takes a look at what pro athletes in different sports eat on a daily basis to perform at their best. Here's a look at the tuna-heavy diet of Bobby Holland Hanton, body double to some of the buffest dudes around.

On top of daring, a good stuntman has to be fit, cautious, and unnoticeable. When you squint, he has to look indistinguishable from the actor he's (momentarily) replacing.

Enter Bobby Holland Hanton, a former British gymnast, and current alien-god, super spy, medieval warrior, Dove Men+Care guru, and Death Eater. With movie star looks of his own, Hanton has also done stunts for Hollywood beefcakes like Channing Tatum, Christian Bale, and Daniel Craig.

But ever since Snow White and the Huntsman, he’s also been the primary stunt double for Chris Hemsworth, and the two have worked so well together that Hanton is now a standard feature in Hemsworth’s contracts. So, if Thor needs a stunt double, well... it's Hanton.

And whether he’s slimming down for DC or beefing up for Marvel, his diet changes dramatically depending on the actor he has to double for. “Because of my background is in gymnastics, my muscle memory is such that I can get to a larger size quite quickly,” he says. “It’s probably easier for me to get bigger than it is dropping all the weight.”

After a while it starts to get quite difficult but you keep telling yourself, ‘It’s for the job, it’s for the job, it’s for the job.’

In a role for a yet-to-be-released movie, for example, the 6’1” body chameleon had to drop his burly frame down to a feathery 169 pounds. To shed the weight, Hanton went on an ultra-strict diet of 500 calories worth of vegetables every day for five weeks. It was the hardest mentally he’s gone through, and when he was finished, he immediately had to bulk up again to work on The Avengers: Age of Ultron. (Currently, he’s in Belfast for the next season of Game of Thrones and is preparing for another bruiser role after that.)

So, what does he eat to get swole? He focuses on a strict, high protein diet, and when Hanton finds a routine that works, he keeps it. This makes for some really repetitive meals during the week, as he’s spending an hour a day training on top of the time he spends shooting scenes. “After a while it starts to get quite difficult but you keep telling yourself, ‘It’s for the job, it’s for the job, it’s for the job.’”

The key to keeping his sanity, though, is building in a weekly rewards system: “When it’s super strict I give myself one cheat day. Usually on a Sunday—I should do just a cheat meal but I do the whole day—I’ll eat whatever I want. I’ll have bread, chocolate, Chinese food, et cetera. It’s my way to have something to look forward to during the week.”

Because Chris Hemsworth is both very big and very lean, becoming his body doppleganger takes a lot of regular eating. It also involves wearing lifts, so Hanton can stand eye-to-eye with the 6’4” Hemsworth. “I’ve learned what it’s like for girls to do stunts,” he says, “with two-and-a-half inch lifts in my boots it’s hard to walk, let alone fight.”

BreakfastFour poached eggs, two grilled chicken breasts, avocado

Post-breakfast snackTuna tossed with quinoa, nuts and olive oil

Lunch, after workoutGrilled steak with sweet potato

Afternoon snackHandful of nuts, grilled chicken breast

DinnerBrown rice with grilled white fish, bowl of cooked peas, and carrots

Bedtime snackCup of brown rice with tuna

Luke Darby is a contributor to GQ, covering news, entertainment, and the environment. A Louisiana native, he now resides in Cleveland, and his writing has also appeared in Outside, the Dallas Observer, and Marie Claire.Related Stories for GQReal Life DietHealthHealth