Monday, July 23, 2012

Michael Phelps' 12,000 Calorie Diet

The Daily Mail is saying that Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day, and that his medal-earning performances are, according to Phelps, down to his high-calorie diet.

Breakfast
  • Three fried-egg sandwiches
  • Three chocolate chip pancakes
  • A five-egg omelette
  • Three sugar-coated slices of French toast
  • A bowl of corn grits (maize porridge)
Lunch
  • Half a kilogram (one pound) of pasta
  • Two large ham and cheese sandwiches covered in mayonnaise
  • Gallons of energy drinks
Dinner
  • Half a kilogram (one pound) of pasta
  • Pizza
  • Energy drinks
It must be difficult for athletes to transition to a non-performance diet. I wonder if he eats broccoli. I bet he eats broccoli. He's not coming clean about the broccoli.

They also say that his "arms span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm) — disproportionate to his height of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm)." He's like an underwater bird.
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7 comments:

  1. Why did you splice Michael Phelps' head onto a picture of my body?

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  2. I only point this out, because I saw it recently. Apparently the 12k calorie diet is "a myth."

    I'm sure it's still pretty substantial though.

    shaun

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  3. Carbs make you fat.

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  4. The liver stores 340g of carbs at any one time. Everything over that get stored as fat IF it isn't burned off. At 4 k/cal/gram that's 1360 cal to get rid of the stored carbs. I'm sure that he burns a lot more than 1360 cal/day between the workouts and the continued calorie burning afterwards. I could see 6k. Besides doesn't he eat at subway?

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  5. In grad school we had to design a diet for a professional cyclist, ~8,000 calories a day. I thought, no sweat. Not exactly. When someone is active most of the day, you can't have the food not be calorie-dense for the mere fact they don't have that much time to eat. And to digest - we had to watch the fiber, not too little but certainly not too much. And, at the time, you were looking at about twice the protein requirement, 1.6-2.0 grams per kg body weight instead of the usual 0.8g/kg. And lots of fluid! I came away with great respect for sports nutritionists.

    I read that swimmers use even more calories to maintain their body temperature, as going in and out of water draws heat away. I don't know how you would assess that need.

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  6. I'm not fat; Bix isn't fat. We both eat considerable amounts of carbs, Anonymous.
    Ronald, it's great to see you're in such good shape on all those carb calories!

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  7. I had wondered where you were, Ronald. Now I see ... you were in training.

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