Journalist attempts to match Michael Phelps' diet for a day

[Baldrake]

Feeling like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, I'm one bite away from asking my girlfriend for a bucket. I call it quits after an hour of eating in earnest, leaving one fried-egg sandwich, two chocolate-chip pancakes, most of a bowl of Cream of Wheat, and a five-egg omelette on the table, laughing at me from the heights of Phelpsian wonder.

“Dude,” I curse my Olympian nemesis, “how do you not weigh 700 pounds?”

Article here.

[DraconianOne]

I am still absolutely flummoxed by Phelps' need to comsume 12000 calories a day.  I mean, he's a big man and he's pure muscle but wow! We're talking someone who must burn 4000kcal* a day if just being awake and doing day to day stuff. 5 hours exercise will burn the other 8000. 

Running at 6 minute miles for 5 hours will burn that much.  That's phenomenal.


*Using a formula, I reckoned his BMR at ~2100 so I roughly doubled it on account of him being a superhuman.  Most of us would multiply that by 1.1. or 1.2.

[Jeff Kelly]

12.000 calories is totally impossible on normal food. My friends who train for Iron man style triathlons struggle to get more than 8000 by means of normal food. The body simply cannot convert that much food into energy.

[NowhereMan]

I know professional rowers aim to eat around 10,000 calories. I read a similar article a while back where a reporter decided to follow the diet of the GB rowing squad, he said he gave up at about 11am having already been sick twice from forcing himself to eat so much.

[Salamok]

Wonder how this plays into the calorie restriction theory of longevity. 

My other thought was that this guy has to purge in some fashion before getting in the water, his races were spaced so close together that this isn't like carb loading prior to a marathon (ie a single performance).  He might get away with something like an enourmous meal 12-16 hours prior to the race followed by some moderately sized (yet jam packed with calories) meals as he got closer to race time.

My final thought was that the diet is complete bullshit deployed to psych out his opponents and while he might possibly eat that way at times there is no way he was eating all that food during the olympics.

[NowhereMan]

It doesn't sound like the kind of diet you'd eat during periods of competition, more likely it's his training diet.

[Baldrake]

My final thought was that the diet is complete bullshit deployed to psych out his opponents

I must admit that thought had crossed my mind.

[Oban]

I am eager to find out what sort of drug and/or genetic modification regime he is using.

[Salamok]

I am eager to find out what sort of drug and/or genetic modification regime he is using.

usually the answer to that is: the same ones everyone else is using.

[Merusk]

It doesn't sound like the kind of diet you'd eat during periods of competition, more likely it's his training diet.

This.

Swimming uses all your damn muscles the whole time you're doing it.  It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.  It's arms and legs and torso all at once for the duration.  Swimming at that level and as big as he is in height and muscle mass means he's burning a shit ton, particularly since he swims about 6-8 hours a day when training from what I heard. (Hell it might even be more than that.)

The hard part comes when you're done training or competing and you still want to eat a lot out of habit.  That sucks.

[Salamok]

It doesn't sound like the kind of diet you'd eat during periods of competition, more likely it's his training diet.

This.

Swimming uses all your damn muscles the whole time you're doing it.  It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.  It's arms and legs and torso all at once for the duration.  Swimming at that level and as big as he is in height and muscle mass means he's burning a shit ton, particularly since he swims about 6-8 hours a day when training from what I heard. (Hell it might even be more than that.)

The hard part comes when you're done training or competing and you still want to eat a lot out of habit.  That sucks.

No one is arguing that it doesn't take a ton of energy/calories to swim at this level.  The doubt is weather or not you can obsorb those calories fast enough based on this diet.  Your stomach can only absorb so much from 3 fried egg samiches in a given period of time, if you dive into the pool 10 minutes after eating that you wont be setting any records and that much garbage packed into your digestive system is just going to be in the way.

yes carb loading works but fried egg samiches aren't carb loading and after doing it marathon runners don't turn around the morning after a WR marathon then carb load up so they can go out and instantly run another WR marathon.

[NowhereMan]

I was just thinking that when he's in competition eating that much actually slow him down a bit. I don't doubt he needs to eat that much when he's actually swimming, like I said it's not the first time I've read about mere mortals trying to put away the same amount of calories as pro athletes and I'd say rowers and swimmers are among the most calorie intensive simply because both use pretty much the whole body very intensively.

[MahrinSkel]

There's a bunch of genetic mutations known to improve athletic ability (most of them discovered from research on Olympic athletes).  They nearly all have the effect of amping up your baseline metabolism so that it takes you more calories just to walk around and breathe.  There was a little kid in Germany who got a double helping of a Myostatin mutation (key to the elasticity of muscle fibers) from his parents (both world-class weightlifters), at 9 he had completely insane muscle development with no real training at all, and was burning 3000-4000 calories a day.

There are others that involve higher red blood cell counts, mutant forms of hemoglobin, etc.  But as I aid, they nearly all increase diet minimums, which kept them from naturally proliferating until they combined into a new super-human that supplanted the rest of us in pre-civilized environments where resistance to starvation was a neccessary survival characteristic.  If Phelps has something like that, or a couple of them, it would account for his diet.

--Dave

[DraconianOne]

It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.

I'd like to see you run.  It must be very funny.

One day, though, you should learn about something called "biomechanics".

[K9]

I heard that cross-country skiiers burn in the region of 14-16,000 calories per day.

I know when I did my phase 2 army training I was eating in excess of 8,500 calories per day (standard 24hr ration pack), and I lost weight over the course of that. I could easily believe that someone whith his level of body musculature will be able to process that much energy.

[Baldrake]

It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.

I'd like to see you run.  It must be very funny.

One day, though, you should learn about something called "biomechanics".

That's what I think we call "proof by intimidation".

I used to run pretty seriously. So yeah, you do use your arms and core muscles while running. But at the end of a hard 15k, you know what muscles you've really been using.

[schild]

I could do it.

[K9]

The only thing that I wonder about is why he sticks to the three square meals format. I was under the impression that most sports players, fitness types shifted towards more meals, but with a more moderate calories intake at each, in order to process food more efficiently.

[NowhereMan]

I know lots of guides on losing weight or training say to do this but I don't know if there's any actual scientific evidence to support doing that.

[Merusk]

It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.

I'd like to see you run.  It must be very funny.

One day, though, you should learn about something called "biomechanics".

That's what I think we call "proof by intimidation".

I used to run pretty seriously. So yeah, you do use your arms and core muscles while running. But at the end of a hard 15k, you know what muscles you've really been using.

O rite.. I forgot the part of running where you push yourself thu tha air n stuff. 

Hurk.   

No, I don't run seriously.  I swam from 8-19 and my knees are shit so there is no running for me now.  I know when I ran while still training swimming it was much much easier on everything but my legs.

[DraconianOne]

I wish I could swim better. I'd like to do triathlons but I don't swim regularly and I'm not particularly keen on cycling. I can do the running bit though (these days it's mostly things like mountain marathons, multi-terrain events and adventure racing). Obviously you don't use your arms as much as in swimming and yeah, it helps with balance but the biomechanics thing - the harder you pump your arms, the quicker your legs go. Seriously. Helps with that last sprint for the line on a long race even when your legs are knackered. Try it. (Apart from you, Merusk, because shit knees are shit and I totally sympathise.)

I'm still surprised by his diet too in this day of sports and nutritional science. You'd have thought he'd have a team of nutritionists to hand but he seems to have gone the Alf Tupper route.

[Trippy]

I wish I could swim better. I'd like to do triathlons but I don't swim regularly and I'm not particularly keen on cycling. I can do the running bit though (these days it's mostly things like mountain marathons, multi-terrain events and adventure racing). Obviously you don't use your arms as much as in swimming and yeah, it helps with balance but the biomechanics thing - the harder you pump your arms, the quicker your legs go. Seriously. Helps with that last sprint for the line on a long race even when your legs are knackered. Try it. (Apart from you, Merusk, because shit knees are shit and I totally sympathise.)

I'm still surprised by his diet too in this day of sports and nutritional science. You'd have thought he'd have a team of nutritionists to hand but he seems to have gone the Alf Tupper route.

As long as he isn't just drinking soda and eating candy for his calories he'll get all the nutrients his body needs so it doesn't really matter what he's shoveling down as long as it has a passing resemblence to "food". And in fact it's better for him to eat the stuff us regular people are told to avoid like fats cause those are more calorie "dense" (9 calories per gram vs 4 for carbs and protein) so he doesn't have to eat as much. If he tried to eat 10K calories in, say, leafy green vegetables his stomach would explode from all the undigestable fiber.

[NowhereMan]

Yeah, it's amazing how actually living a really, really active lifestyle makes the food that nature designed us to really want to eat healthy again, provided it's not all hugely processed.

[Nebu]

I know lots of guides on losing weight or training say to do this but I don't know if there's any actual scientific evidence to support doing that.

The only proven evidence that supports this demonstrates that more frequent meals causes fewer peaks and valleys in blood glucose.  For some athletes this is beneficial.  It also maintains a more even metabolic rate, but I don't think it has any meaningful effect on daily BMR. 

[Paelos]

This thread sounds like it's heading into MMO-type min/maxing.

[justdave]

I would argue that this is the origin of min/maxing. Which makes it all the more ironic.

[DraconianOne]

This thread sounds like it's heading into MMO-type min/maxing.

Mountain marathon runners are seriously into their min/maxing when it comes to the weight of kit they carry.  I've heard of people who drill holes in the handles of their toothbrush just to save a few extra grams. Food is the biggest consideration because people generally go for carb rich food but don't want to carry a lot even though they're going to be on the move for 8-12 hours a day.

I've never really min/maxed in MMOs but I have found myself in a supermarket comparing packets of cous-cous and dried pasta to work out which is greater calorie density.

[Arnold]

I am still absolutely flummoxed by Phelps' need to comsume 12000 calories a day.  I mean, he's a big man and he's pure muscle but wow! We're talking someone who must burn 4000kcal* a day if just being awake and doing day to day stuff. 5 hours exercise will burn the other 8000. 

Running at 6 minute miles for 5 hours will burn that much.  That's phenomenal.


*Using a formula, I reckoned his BMR at ~2100 so I roughly doubled it on account of him being a superhuman.  Most of us would multiply that by 1.1. or 1.2.

I totally agree.  I think he inflated those numbers by 2 or 3 times.  I've seen bodybuilders, powerlifters, and "world's strongest men" (who were probably all juicing) throwing those caloric numbers around, but Phelps is just way too lean for me to believe he consumes that much.

Also, the author of the article is WAY overestimating the amount of calories his exercises are burning.

[Arnold]

It doesn't sound like the kind of diet you'd eat during periods of competition, more likely it's his training diet.

This.

Swimming uses all your damn muscles the whole time you're doing it.  It's not like running where your arms aren't used for more than balance or gymnastics where certain parts rest while you're using others.  It's arms and legs and torso all at once for the duration.  Swimming at that level and as big as he is in height and muscle mass means he's burning a shit ton, particularly since he swims about 6-8 hours a day when training from what I heard. (Hell it might even be more than that.)

The hard part comes when you're done training or competing and you still want to eat a lot out of habit.  That sucks.

Muscle mass???  The dude is tall, but he's FREAKING SKINNY.  There's not much muscle on his frame at all, and if there were, he probably wouldn't be a world record holder.

[Arnold]

This thread sounds like it's heading into MMO-type min/maxing.

Food is the biggest consideration because people generally go for carb rich food but don't want to carry a lot even though they're going to be on the move for 8-12 hours a day.

I'd say "fuck carbs" and carry sticks of butter or bota bags of olive oil, or something like that.

[Merusk]

Muscle mass???  The dude is tall, but he's FREAKING SKINNY.  There's not much muscle on his frame at all, and if there were, he probably wouldn't be a world record holder.

It's all muscle.  You go for strength, not bulk as a swimmer so you don't look like Ahnold.  He's what people call "Wirey"  Or are you saying Bruce Lee was a mucleless fucker, too?

[Trippy]

Phelps also doesn't do the "sprint" events (50m Freestyle, etc.) so he doesn't have the sheer muscle mass of those kinds of swimmers.

[Arnold]

Muscle mass???  The dude is tall, but he's FREAKING SKINNY.  There's not much muscle on his frame at all, and if there were, he probably wouldn't be a world record holder.

It's all muscle.  You go for strength, not bulk as a swimmer so you don't look like Ahnold.  He's what people call "Wirey"  Or are you saying Bruce Lee was a mucleless fucker, too?

Oh, I totally understand that, but looking at what he's carrying, I find it hard to believe he requires that many calories.

Bruce Lee had WAY, WAY more muscle than Phelps carries.  I don't have pictures hand, but from memory, Lee carried less fat as well.

[Arnold]

Muscle mass???  The dude is tall, but he's FREAKING SKINNY.  There's not much muscle on his frame at all, and if there were, he probably wouldn't be a world record holder.

It's all muscle.  You go for strength, not bulk as a swimmer so you don't look like Ahnold.  He's what people call "Wirey"  Or are you saying Bruce Lee was a mucleless fucker, too?

Oh, I totally understand that, but looking at what he's carrying, I find it hard to believe he requires that many calories.  That's the reason I mentioned the bodybuilders, powerlifters, and "strong men".  Those guys can be huge and really do have to consume those kind of calories to stay huge.

Bruce Lee had WAY, WAY more muscle than Phelps carries.  I don't have pictures hand, but from memory, Lee carried less fat as well.

[Trippy]

Swimming at a world-best training level would burn off 1000+ calories an hour, easy (swimming at an "amateur" pace burns off 800+ an hour). 6 hours in the pool a day means 6000K calories just from swimming. If he requires 4000 calories just lying in bed all day (except for eating) to keep from losing weight that easily takes him above 10K calories a day.