Michael Phelps: I eat 12,000 calories a day

[Kaido]

Obviously I'm on the wrong diet :Q

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day

By Chris Chase

After he retires from swimming, Michael Phelps might want to try his hand at competitive eating. The Olympic star recently said he consumes 12,000 calories per day, or 9,500 more than the FDA recommends for an active, young male.

Phelps has to keep his intake up in order to compensate for all the calories he burns during the 30-hours per week he spends in training. He told NBC that an average day might have the following menu:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Three years ago, Phelps told an interviewer:

I eat pretty much whatever I want. I don't have a strict diet. It's all about cramming in as many calories into my system as I possibly can. To be honest with you, I have a tough time keeping weight on.

Michael better be careful there. There's no surer way to turn new female fans into former female fans than by complaining about how hard it is to keep on weight.

 

[Atty]

I honestly don't think I could eat all that food in one day without getting extremely sick.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: iAtticus
I honestly don't think I could eat all that food in one day without getting extremely sick.

Most people couldn't eat half that without getting sick.

He probably spends half his day eating and going to the bathroom. That's a tremendous amount of food.

 

[Trianon]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Obviously I'm on the wrong diet :Q

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day

By Chris Chase

After he retires from swimming, Michael Phelps might want to try his hand at competitive eating. The Olympic star recently said he consumes 12,000 calories per day, or 9,500 more than the FDA recommends for an active, young male.

Phelps has to keep his intake up in order to compensate for all the calories he burns during the 30-hours per week he spends in training. He told NBC that an average day might have the following menu:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Three years ago, Phelps told an interviewer:

I eat pretty much whatever I want. I don't have a strict diet. It's all about cramming in as many calories into my system as I possibly can. To be honest with you, I have a tough time keeping weight on.

Michael better be careful there. There's no surer way to turn new female fans into former female fans than by complaining about how hard it is to keep on weight.

doesn't look like those three meals would amount to 12 000 calories, unless the pasta is exclusively made of cheese

 

[skace]

Dude my stomach just turned reading what he eats for breakfast. I wish I could spend 30 hours a week training.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Trianon

Originally posted by: Kaido
Obviously I'm on the wrong diet :Q

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day

By Chris Chase

After he retires from swimming, Michael Phelps might want to try his hand at competitive eating. The Olympic star recently said he consumes 12,000 calories per day, or 9,500 more than the FDA recommends for an active, young male.

Phelps has to keep his intake up in order to compensate for all the calories he burns during the 30-hours per week he spends in training. He told NBC that an average day might have the following menu:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Three years ago, Phelps told an interviewer:

I eat pretty much whatever I want. I don't have a strict diet. It's all about cramming in as many calories into my system as I possibly can. To be honest with you, I have a tough time keeping weight on.

Michael better be careful there. There's no surer way to turn new female fans into former female fans than by complaining about how hard it is to keep on weight.

doesn't look like those three meals would amount to 12 000 calories, unless the pasta is exclusively made of cheese

That's a small sample of what he eats...they had a good blurb on his training/eating. That's no where near what he eats on a daily basis.

 

[Rike]

Well if I swam almost non stop for 6 hours a day and was 23 years old, I'd have no problem eating as much as I wanted too. And it would be hard to keep the weight on.

It's all about how much you burn. Being young doesn't hurt either.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Rike
Well if I swam almost non stop for 6 hours a day and was 23 years old, I'd have no problem eating as much as I wanted too. And it would be hard to keep the weight on.

It's all about how much you burn. Being young doesn't hurt either.

On top of him being fairly large and super lean. That is still an obscene amount of food.

 

[EvilYoda]

His "condor flap" still freaks me out every time. Just try and see how far back you can extend your arms and then watch him loosen up before a swim...sooooo weird.

 

[Crono]

Swimming is seriously intense, calorie wise. I'm sure other pro athletes that train 6 hours a day need to eat a lot just to maintain their body mass.

 

[Saint Nick]

do you think his stomach hurts after eating a meal or does it digest it really fast?

 

[coldmeat]

Originally posted by: NightDarker
do you think his stomach hurts after eating a meal or does it digest it really fast?

ya, how could his stomach hold all that food? 1 large pizza and a pound of pasta?

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
His "condor flap" still freaks me out every time. Just try and see how far back you can extend your arms and then watch him loosen up before a swim...sooooo weird.

It's because he's double jointed in several different major joints and serious stretching and flexibility regimens are part of his training.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: coldmeat

Originally posted by: NightDarker
do you think his stomach hurts after eating a meal or does it digest it really fast?

ya, how could his stomach hold all that food? 1 large pizza and a pound of pasta?

You would be surprised at how much the stomach can handle. It's very elastic and can become more and more elastic with "training" by binge eating. I think food eating competitors practice binge eating to stretch their stomachs out and keep it very elastic. Some very extreme eaters, often the super obese have been known to eat upwards of 20,000-30,000 calories per day, 20-30lbs of food and drink.

 

[joesmoke]

Whats up with all the caffeine in his diet? Coffee in the morning then energy drinks throughout the day? i thought caffeine was a no-no for athletes, especially at his level. thoughts?

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: joesmoke
Whats up with all the caffeine in his diet? Coffee in the morning then energy drinks throughout the day? i thought caffeine was a no-no for athletes, especially at his level. thoughts?

He probably needs the caffeine to stay alert - it's possible he doesn't get enough sleep. At that age and level of fitness, though, he should have enough energy naturally to propel himself through the day. But since he doesn't watch what he eats, he's probably eating large amounts of food that make would make anyone sleepy, so the caffeine would counter that. That much caffeine probably isn't negatively affecting him now, but long term it probably isn't good to have that much caffeine in your system a day.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Crono
Swimming is seriously intense, calorie wise. I'm sure other pro athletes that train 6 hours a day need to eat a lot just to maintain their body mass.

I was reading about a guy who swam the English Channel. It's about 18 miles and took him around 12 hours (may be inaccurate, I'm going from memory here). Anyway, a boat was nearby to ensure his safety and keep him hydrated. Apparently he lost 14 pounds of fat (@ 3500 calories / lb.). This couldn't be attributed to water loss since he had all the fresh water he could drink, supplied by his safety boat.

No wonder I was always starving after a day in the pool, I need to move closer to the coast and lose this gut

PS - if I can find it I'll post some more info about that.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: Crono
Swimming is seriously intense, calorie wise. I'm sure other pro athletes that train 6 hours a day need to eat a lot just to maintain their body mass.

I was reading about a guy who swam the English Channel. It's about 18 miles and took him around 12 hours (may be inaccurate, I'm going from memory here). Anyway, a boat was nearby to ensure his safety and keep him hydrated. Apparently he lost 14 pounds of fat (@ 3500 calories / lb.). This couldn't be attributed to water loss since he had all the fresh water he could drink, supplied by his safety boat.

No wonder I was always starving after a day in the pool, I need to move closer to the coast and lose this gut

PS - if I can find it I'll post some more info about that.

A quick google search says swimming the english channel will burn 15,000 calories, so that would only be a little over 4 lbs.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: MixMasterTang

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: Crono
Swimming is seriously intense, calorie wise. I'm sure other pro athletes that train 6 hours a day need to eat a lot just to maintain their body mass.

I was reading about a guy who swam the English Channel. It's about 18 miles and took him around 12 hours (may be inaccurate, I'm going from memory here). Anyway, a boat was nearby to ensure his safety and keep him hydrated. Apparently he lost 14 pounds of fat (@ 3500 calories / lb.). This couldn't be attributed to water loss since he had all the fresh water he could drink, supplied by his safety boat.

No wonder I was always starving after a day in the pool, I need to move closer to the coast and lose this gut

PS - if I can find it I'll post some more info about that.

A quick google search says swimming the english channel will burn 15,000 calories, so that would only be a little over 4 lbs.

Yeah 14 lb. did sound really high, I must have misread.

 

[kalrith]

This actually doesn't surprise me considering how many hours he exercises at such a high intensity. When I go on backpacking or skiing trips, I typically eat around 6-7k calories a day with about 7 hours of pretty rigorous exercise each day. Sometimes it is difficult to eat so much more than I'm used to. The calories aren't just for the exercise aspect of the trips but also for keeping me warm.

 

[Kaido]

Hah, a reporter tried the diet and failed miserably:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...ics/article4541753.ece

:laugh:

 

[Kaido]

I think the real question here is his motivation level. He obviously has to be very motivated to pursue such lofty goals with such intensive training. I read that he has ADD/ADHD, so that probably helps a lot. I tend to get very excited about new things, but the excitement typically wears off within a couple days. I'd love to know how he keeps his motivation level up!

 

[geokilla]

Tape worm anyone? That's seriously a lot of food. I could eat a pizza.....if I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Hah, a reporter tried the diet and failed miserably:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...ics/article4541753.ece

:laugh:

This article is awesome

"An hour and a half later I was still eating."

 

[Megatomic]

lol, it's funny to watch the world's response to Phelp's eating practices. Endurance athletes and power lifters burn insane amounts of calories per day. And they have to eat insane amounts of food to keep up the pace. If I do a BRick or a 50 miler on my bike, I'll be starving (to death!!) 15 or 20 minutes after I've stopped. And I do eat well at breakfast, like 1000 calories typically.

When my work schedule allows me to tri train like I want to I can eat upwards of 4000 calories per day and never gain weight. I've been between 165 and 170 for a year now. And 4000 calories/day worth of food is a lot, I can't imagine eating 10 to 12k per day.

ps - he eats/drinks thousands of calories of energy bars/gels/drinks every day, that should account for the deficit noted above.