As the only Olympian to win eight gold medals in a single Games, swimmer Michael Phelps always sets his standards high. And that, apparently applies to meals as well as his races. While training for Beijing, Phelps would routinely down around 12,000 calories a day to fuel his six-day-a-week, five-hour-a-day training schedule. Breakfast included three fried egg sandwiches, an omelete, a bowl of grits, French toast and three pancakes, while lunch and dinner included a pound of pasta at each meal, along with an entire pizza, all washed down with energy drinks and shakes. It’s enough to make nutritionists shudder, but Phelps needed the calories, and burned them more quickly than the average adult his age, owing to his intense swimming routine.
But even Phelps curbed some of the excess before heading to London this summer, trimming his first meal of the day down to a bowl of oatmeal, an omelet, fruit and coffee. But that didn’t keep people from seeking out the astounding diet that fueled the most decorated Olympian ever.
TREND TRIGGER: If an Olympic athlete can eat that much and look that good, then so can I, right?
CLAIM: 12,000 calories a day
IS IT FOR YOU? No, unless you also burn close to 10,000 calories a day, which only elite athletes who work out four to five hours daily tend to do.