What does Michael Phelps eat to keep him going?
While waiting at the boarding gate yesterday in Dublin airport to catch my flight home I picked up a stray copy of the Guardian newspaper. It was the cover of the magazine that really caught my attention. Guardian journalist Jon Henley was trying to eat his way through the 12,000 calorie a day diet which has been fueling Phelps to his Olympic glory.
According to Henley breakfast includes a large bowl of oatmeal (not too surprising), three doorstep- sized sandwiches of white bread, butter, fried egg, fried onion, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise; a five egg omlet, three slices of French toast liberally sprinkled with sugar; three pancakes topped with chocolate chips; and two large cups of coffee and that’s just for breakfast!
Lunch and dinner include whole pizzas, pounds of pasta and ham and cheese sandwiches all washed down with gallons of high energy sports drinks.
My mum is a swimming instructor and my sisters were all competitive swimmers. Not only was mum constantly feeding us but all the friends and boyfriends that ended up at the kitchen table. She was always running out of food feeding up the growing boys but nothing to the extent of 12,000 calories a day. Phelps claims that it is not what he eats that’s the challenge rather physically consuming enough calories in a day to fuel his grueling training program.
They say you are what you eat but in this Olympic record breaker’s case it’s clearly not true. It seems he can eat what ever he wants and still be in winning form. Watch this video of Jon Henley sttempting to eat Michael Phelps’ daily intake of 12,000 calories.
