Michael Phelps Diet
The Olympic gold medalist consumes up to 12,000 calories each day.
BACKGROUND
When we think of the 2008 Summer Olympic games, two words come to mind: Michael Phelps. This machine-of-a-swimmer dazzled us all with his superhuman abilities in the swimming pool, his boyish and All-American charm and of course, that body! What it takes to look and eat like Michael Phelps is no small feat. In fact, this world-record Olympic star has professed that his life consists of training, eating and sleeping. That's it.
What this young man does not do is diet. But his eating regimen is as closely monitored as is the speed at which he sails from end-to-end of the pool. Packing in about 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day, Phelps chows down on what most us would love to consider as 'diet' food: fried egg sandwiches, pizza, and pasta.
Similar to stars like Mariah Carey and Rachael Ray whose fabulous and healthy figures have garnered enough attention to propel their eating styles into non-formal diets, The Michael Phelps Diet is a style of eating that has captivated us because of its sheer volume of food.
The science behind Phelps' way of eating looks something like this: He expends thousands and thousands of calories a day through swimming workouts and his resistance training. In order to keep his muscles fueled, he must consume the right foods in order to keep, recover and repair those overworked muscles and to give his body the nourishment to get up the next day and do it all over again. Most of his calories are coming from carbs, which is the body's primary fuel for energy.
No one recommends doing the Michael Phelps diet unless of course, you're 6-foot-4-inch and spend most of your day enduring grueling workouts. But for those of you who are conditioned athletes and desire to emulate the magic of Phelps, you can easily do a very scaled-down version of what this champion eats. And for those of you who aren't, you must simply embrace the twinge of jealousy you feel at the food-freedom this superstar enjoys every day that he is training.
PRO
- The Michael Phelps way of eating does not contain refined sugars
- It provides fuel in the form of carbs, protein and fat for someone who expends an enormous amount of calories
- Endorses an active lifestyle
CON
- Too many calories for the average person to consume in one day
- Eating this way for most of us would be dangerous to our health
- Does not contain many vegetables or fresh fruit
- Daily time commitment to eat this much takes effort
- Phelps is the spokesperson for Frosted Flakes cereal
- His victory meal was from McDonald's
DIET and NUTRITION
Phelps consumes 10,000-12,000 calories each day when he is training. Most males his size and age consume about 2,500-3,000.
The focus of his diet is getting in calories in the form of carbohydrates that his body can digest and use quickly. The bread and pasta, which are staples of every one of Phelps' meals, are refined carbohydrates, giving Phelps the quick energy he needs to swim and endure his grueling training schedule.
A typical daily meal plan in the life of Michael Phelps, looks like this:
- Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.
- Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayonnaise on white bread and 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.
- Dinner: One pound of pasta and an entire pizza and another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.
EXERCISE
Michael Phelps way of eating may make us all green with envy, but eating two pounds of pasta in one day doesn't come without effort. Phelps works pretty darn hard for those calories. While he is training, he spends 6 days each week working out harder than most of us can ever imagine.
Clocking in 50 miles of swimming each week in combination with a few hours of resistance and weight training on dry land, his physique and ability are a result of a very closely-watched and disciplined training schedule.
CONCLUSION
He is truly a boy wonder, but the road to the victorious fame that Michael Phelps is now savoring, is a life-long journey of hard work. In addition to the attention he has received from his world-record 8 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his diet has also received its time in the spotlight.
Filled with thousands of carb-heavy calories, Michael Phelps must eat this way in order to fuel his champion body and training schedule. But for the rest of us, his diet would send us to the cardiologist. You're better off to sticking to a healthy diet filled with veggies, fruit, lean protein, heart-healthy fats and whole grain carbohydrates if you want to live until the next summer Olympic games and witness Phelps do it all over again.
Common Misspellings
Mike Phelps, Micheal Phelps, Michael Felps, Michael Phelp
Related Diets: Dr. Gott's No Flour No Sugar Diet, McDonalds Diet, Sugar Busters!
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With all that food going in, how much time is he spending on the can crapping it all out? His regimen must actually be training, eating, sleeping and crapping, that's it!
Well u need fuel to fire up an athlete we all aware of this. Personally I dont believe this diet, its complete b*****t to consider a guy would consume this junk food let alone the greatest swimmer
Ok so Phelps needs carbs and fats to maintain his rigorous training, doesnt take away fact that he his eating a meal allowance that will kill him. Hello hasnt his camp heard of cholestrol, bye Phelps nice watching you
Oh man, I wonder how long Phelps is going to live. I imagine he'll have a few overuse injuries when he gets older. Fifty miles of swimming a week? On the bright side, what this does demonstrate is that it really doesn't matter what you eat. If you are active enough all those calories are going to be used to keep you going. That isn't to say you won't have a massive heart attack when you're forty, which I suspect Phelps will if he keeps that regimen up for more than a few more years. I totally dig the breakfast man, even the grits. I could eat that much without a doubt. That's why I weigh 370 pounds now. :)
Quite informative. Excellent layout.
I tried this diet WITHOUT the swimming and now I weigh 319 pounds. I want my money back... I need it to clean out my colon.
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