Colin Jackson only ate 800 calories a day

There was a programme on last night about Welsh hurdler Colin Jackson.  During his athletic career he said he only ate between 500 and 800 calories per day!  That really shocked me.

He would only have 4 cups of black coffee, low fat yoghurt, jellie sweets, almonds, salad leaves and prawns.

How on earth did his body survive this and win medals/break records and not damage his heart?

  There's no way on god's green earth he could have had a calorie intake that low and survived.

 He may have thought he only had 5-800 calories a day, but I guarantee you he wouldn't be able to get out of bed on that little, let alone train - and never mind compete. Besides - What, jellie sweets and almonds? I've been ambushed by those little darlings before - I thought I had 200 calories' worth, but it turned out to be about 800 calories of almonds in two handfuls.

 But nah, if he'd tried to pull that low-calorie stunt while being an athlete, his coach would have force-fed him if neccesary.

He didn't mention his coach at all but surely they must have noticed.  He said that it was only when a friend mentioned that he had bones sticking out where they shouldn't be that he realised that he should eat more.

His Mum nagged him to eat more and apparently when he was still living at home she would put his food onto a large plate but pile it up in the middle so that it looked a smaller portion.  He obviously had a skewy take on portion control so it's quite possible that he got his sums wrong.  There can't be any other explanation really can there?

That Romanian gymnastics coach Bela whateverhisname used to starve his gymnasts on 900 cals a day, and  those are 4'9", 85lbs girls. The mens team would sneak them food during training!

*Giggles* Maybe he just said it to sabotage other athletes.

or maybe its actually true. The only reason why we eat the amount we eat here and in other countries like ours is because we can. Some of the athletes in the olympics from these third world countries KNOW about nutrition but do not have the means to support a nutritious lifestyle. Your body would adapt and your training would suffer if you ate only 900 calories a day but you would not die. I have done this as low as 800 calories a day when im preparing for a bodybuilding show. This is of course was only for two weeks however.

I'm not sure how it works, but Dont people in very good/fit shape use less calories? Sprinter, I would guess he (dont know who he is) probebly weighs 120-140ish? I would also bet he was eating some food (protien?) mostly for endurance, not healthy /balanced. The Strict calorie thing. I personly (opinion only!!!!!!) think its set at what it is becuase quite simpley we (dieters, athletes, etc) are simply not smart enouhg to police ourselves (not everybody, but some out there just do not have common sence). NO 2 BODIES are the same, there are people who eat nothing but crap (junk food, etc) and dont gain weight, its just simply true. If doctors, or diet people said, well eat 900 calories in print (not personal one on one so they could watch you) and some fool did it and also worked out 4 hours a a day and died, somebody else would sue um. i think the established calorie numbers are probebly pretty dang close for "most" people. But a few, maybe not.. I work in an office with all women (im male) and 75% of them are on diets. Thye all count calories, and not a one does it even remotly correct. salads that are 300 calories with enouhg ranch dressing to gag a horse, they dont count that, or think 5 Tbs looks like 1Tbs .. I myslef am guilty of that, I started truely logging every snack, every item on a sub, every cracker i put in my soup, etc.. and found i was quie often 2-400 calories off. opps getting off base here. I can belive its true, but I bet they dont stay on that diet except when trainning.