Henry Cavill reveals Superman workout secrets, PLUS: Shirtless photos!

The latest Superman reboot Man of Steel is out in theaters today, and while the preliminary reviews are lukewarm, everyone’s smitten with the man of steel himself: British actor Henry Cavill.

Henry trained hard for the iconic role, putting in hours at the gym and eating 5,000 calories a day.

Cavill told Refinery29:

A lot of hard physical work went into it; hours were spent in the gym every day of the week. Two hours a day of really crushing yourself. The calories went up or down depending on what we were doing training wise. I was eating 5,000 calories a day at one point, which sounds like a lot, but actually it’s really fantastic and pretty damn easy. I mean, it’s not junk food, but after training I think we managed to get the post-training shake up to 1,500 calories. That’s two thirds of some people’s diet in one shake. Oh, and I loved the eating side of it.

Here’s footage of Cavill working out to be the Man of Steel, via The National Guard:

He didn’t always get to nosh on thousands of calories a day, though. Before his shirtless scenes he had to starve himself. “I ate a lot and worked out like a fiend. But then, only for the shirtless scenes, I really stopped eating,” he told Rob Shuter.

As for the costume, Henry says he didn’t mind wearing it. “I loved wearing it every day,” he says. “Sure, there were some times where it got tricky or uncomfortable; too hot or too cold, whatever the case may be. I loved it, though. I mean I got to be Superman every day, a really cool, modern version of Superman.”

He’s also glad he doesn’t have to wear the red underwear that every Superman before him has had to wear. “Kids now are growing up without any knowledge of the previous incarnations of Superman,” he told The Sun. “They would probably look at him and say, ‘Why is he wearing his underwear on the outside?'” The writers and producers of Man of Steel agreed, opting to ditch the underpants in order to give the story and suit a modern and “real world” vibe.

Where have you seen Henry Cavill before? He played the the Duke of Suffolk The Tudors from 2007 to 2010, and in 2011, he landed his first leading role as Theseus in the ancient Greece action romp The Immortals.