Articles | The 12,000 Calorie Diet |
The UDSA recommended daily caloric intake is about 2,000 calories. For most people at common activity level this is bearable, But for those competing in an event as epic as the Olympics this is a mere snack! Take Michael Phelps for instance; he eats twice the normal intake in just 1 meal! Many of us can find ourselves eating somewhere around 2,000 calories a day, but this amount pales in comparison to swimming champion Michael Phelps. On a daily basis you can find Michael waking up at around 5:30 to his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan to start his daily routine. However, I wouldn't find his routine comparable to most any ones. What on earth would allow a person of Michael's statute (6'4" - 195 pounds) to consume so many calories. Metabolism is the simple answer. Here is a video depicting the joy Ann Arbor restaurant owners had when they heard Michael was moving in. 
In the morning, you can find him scarfing down three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, Pancakes, french toast, and 2 cups of coffee for breakfast. This amount of food is comparable to the average persons entire day. Obviously Michael is not the average person. His ability to eat this much food spawns from the amount of time he spends in the pool daily. Michael trains in the pool about 5 hours daily, swimming mile upon mile of laps designed to work every area of his body. He spends so much time in the pool in fact, Michael has never stepped foot on the treadmill or lifted a single weight in the gym. For lunch, when he finishes training of course, Michael eats another massive meal. This time he eats a pound of pasta, 2 enormous ham sandwiches loaded with mayo, and washes it down with over 1000 calories of energy drinks to keep his energy levels elevated. The Pasta is covered in sauce and cheese, only adding to the calorie count. Then for dinner you can find him eating more pasta and an entire pizza to himself! Pizza hut has both items on the menu, and would not be restricted from his diet. of course you need something to wash all these carbs down with, so why not another 1000 calories worth of energy drinks? Since Michael is in the pool 5 hours a day 6 days a week, his diet has close to no restrictions. Provided he keeps up his training regimen, Michael can eat anything that gives him hundreds of carbs to be burnt. Michael's training regimen is designed for an Olympic athlete, boosting his metabolism to superhuman levels. If we all trained at the same intensity, and for the same periods, a 12000 calorie diet is not unreasonable, but due to the lack of proper scheduling and exercise this kind of diet is unfeasible for the rest of us. Several other sources have posted similar articles and can be found at ESPN, New York Post, and freep.com
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  written by Greggor247, August 20, 2008
Like the super human he is, it would take a super human to take in that many calories and not be 800 lbs. Olympic athletes have a job and it is training. Several hours a day takes a specific diet that usually consist of more calories that the average person. It also has to do with the type of calories you take in, think of it like fuel for a hi performance engine. The average person puts in the cheapest and usually the worst fuel available, but the most elite athletes usually focus on a higher quality diet. What would you put in a high performance engine? Its hi octane for me.
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 written by Pete, August 25, 2008
I guess to get to those levels of cals you would have to eat some of the junk that they are talking about there, but it's still amazing to see that an athlete of this level eats Pizza Hut on a regular basis!
 Hi Octane, but how gunky are the valves long-term?
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 written by timcohen77, September 10, 2008
That's a good question! I wonder if you burn the calories off fast enough, does the cholesterol have time to form on the walls of the arteries? Does anyone out there know?
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 written by Joseph_NL, February 01, 2009
Don't forget that swimming with basic stroke at normal speed burns around 700kcal/hour. So imagine what they would use while training all kinds of strokes at the speeds they reach in the water. I don't think it's unlikely that they use up around 1500kcal/hour during training. So obviously they have to eat a lot.
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