Phelps - 12,000 calories per day !!!!

War_Eagle

Okay, I'm only studying to be a veterninarian doctor, and I'm not totally sure if what I'm about to say is true (I'll check with my professors today), but I would not suggest putting an animal such as a racing horse through this amount of rigor.  It just doesn't seem health to me.

6 times the normal amount of activity.  There is a point where you exert too much on yourself.

But like I said, I could be wrong.  I'll get back on that.  I'm going to ask in class today.

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PHELPS' PIG SECRET: HE'S BOY GORGE

By CLEMENTE LISI with Post Wire Services

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Michael Phelps cheers on Peter Vanderkaay, who was swimming the last leg of the Men's 200M freestyle relay, earning Phelps his 11th gold medal.

PHOTOS: Best Olympic Athletes of All Time

Last updated: 10:00 am

August 13, 2008

Posted: 3:59 am

August 13, 2008

Swimming sensation Michael Phelps has an Olympic recipe for success - and it involves eating a staggering 12,000 calories a day.

"Eat, sleep and swim. That's all I can do," Phelps, who won two more gold medals today, told NBC when asked what he needs to win medals. "Get some calories into my system and try to recover the best I can."

VACCARO: Phelps Is Top Of The World

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By comparison, the average man of the same age needs to ingest about 2,000 calories a day.

Phelps, 23, will swim 17 times over nine days of competition at the Beijing Games - meaning that he will need all the calories he can shovel in his mouth in order to keep his energy levels high.

Phelps' diet - which involves ingesting 4,000 calories every time he sits down for a meal - resembles that of a reckless overeater rather than an Olympian.

Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase "Breakfast of Champions" by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.

He follows that up with 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.

At lunch, Phelps gobbles up a pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread - capping off the meal by chugging about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

For dinner, Phelps really loads up on the carbs - what he needs to give him plenty of energy for his five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen - with a pound of pasta and an entire pizza.

He washes all that down with another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Phelps remains on course to at least equal Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won at the 1972 Munich Games.

At these Summer Games, a typical day for Phelps starts with a 5 a.m. wake-up call. Most of his races have taken place between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET when in China - 12 hours ahead of East Coast time.

Draenor

Yeah I heard about this yesterday...for Breakfast he eats something like four poached eggs, an emolete, french toast with powdered sugar, and four chocolate chip pancakes

 

It's really not unhealthy that he's doing this though, anything less and it would be very unhealthy...if a guy is 6'4 and 210 pounds or whatever Phelps is, and has a physique like that, then he's definitely not doing it wrong.

 

Now, if he were to do this for very long periods of time, then yeah it would probably get to be unhealthy, but in short bursts like this it's really the best thing that you can do for your metabolism to stay at the top of  your game.

Enigma

interesting to see what his Cholesterol is.

bluberryhaze

Lipitol to keep the cholestorol in check. heh

thats a sick intake. wouldnt want to be around for the output.

peeee-U

Dekron

Originally posted by Enigma


interesting to see what his Cholesterol is.

I was more concerned with the issue of him pushing that load out at the end of the day. It must be 100 curichs.

waterlilly

How does he digest so much protein without causing liver damage. Olympics and competition sports have become weird, it used to represent healthy people, it's kinda icky now.

Illius

Yep, it's all about performance.  Pretty soon they'll start wiring batteries to their testicles to make them go faster.

paulscott

same thing for the tour de france bikers when they're on tour.

Tyres100

These guys burn over 10k calories a day. 12k calories a day is what he needs to keep healthy. Without that he would start to have severe muscle break down and weakness.

Athletes need high intakes of calories a day to survive. I remember watching a guiness record thing on tv back in 1989 or 1990 (not sure) where this guy worked out for 48hrs strait. He would do 3hours of weight lifting, then 3000 sit ups, run 5miles then do other things. All while taking breaks to eat several big macs and Mcdonalds food and other junk foods. He took in over 30k calories every 8hrs or so. If I could find the video off the internet I will link it, it is really old but it was interesting at the time the guy was burning more calories then he was taking in.

Enigma

I can understand having to eat a lot of calories for the physical activity he's doing. But he can eat MUCH better foods higher in calories.

War_Eagle

Originally posted by waterlilly


How does he digest so much protein without causing liver damage. Olympics and competition sports have become weird, it used to represent healthy people, it's kinda icky now.

I think it's more about the kidneys when it comes to over intake of proteins. 



Unless an animal has some form of liver disease, then the liver usually has no problem handling the ammonia produced by the intestines breaking down proteins.  It's the conversion of that ammonia by the liver to urea that is then dumped back onto the kidneys that causes stresses.

At least that's the way it works in the animule kingdom. 



I asked my professor today about this and he said if a person does this for a little while, then the body will be able to recover.  But if he trains like this constantly, then it will take its toll.  He said that these people push their bodies to the limit and usually pay for it later on in life.  Something that he would not recommend.  He did say that at least he doesn't have to worry about a lot of the other injuries that other types of athletes get because he is in the water instead of pounding the ground.  He also said that depending on the temperature of the water coupled with his low body fat, a lot of those calories can be burned in maintaining homeostasis of his body temperature.

Zindaihas

Phelps is not the first (thin) person known to have consumed 12,000 calories per day.  I remember back in the early 80s it was reported that Sylvester Stallone also ingested 12,000 calories a day.  I was right around the time he made Rambo and there was so much press about how insane his workout routine was just to maintain his ripped build.  One thing I also remember is that he was criticized by some for eating that much considering there are so many people starving in the world.

I'm pretty sure, 25 years later, that Stallone no longer eats that much food and I don't think Phelps will be able to keep eating that much after his swimming days are over or his will blimp out in a hurry.