Michael Phelps eats 12,000 Calories a day

Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 9:15 pm EDT

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day

By Chris Chase

After he retires from swimming, Michael Phelps might want to try his hand at competitive eating. The Olympic star recently said he consumes 12,000 calories per day, or 9,500 more than the FDA recommends for an active, young male.

Phelps has to keep his intake up in order to compensate for all the calories he burns during the 30-hours per week he spends in training. He told NBC that an average day might have the following menu:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Three years ago, Phelps told an interviewer:

I eat pretty much whatever I want. I don't have a strict diet. It's all about cramming in as many calories into my system as I possibly can. To be honest with you, I have a tough time keeping weight on.

Michael better be careful there. There's no surer way to turn new female fans into former female fans than by complaining about how hard it is to keep on weight.

 

 

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog /fourth_place_medal/post/Michael-Phelps?urn=o ly,100671

LOL This is awesome. Fun stuff. 

I remember hearing that before the Olympics started. It doesn't surprise me: I eat as much as 3,500 a day and I weigh 109 lbs., am female and 5' 3 1/2", and am not a professional athlete. So someone like Phelps? Yeah, he'd have to eat a ton to do what he does.

elite athletes need the calories. tour de france riders do about the same 12,000 calorie/day routine during the tour.

one stat i saw showed that phelps swam 5.16 miles in a single day earlier this week; probably swam it all really fast too. talk about a calorie incinerator!

I can't imagine being able to physically get that much food in my body. I don't think I could and believe me, I have tried.

Michael Phelps is kicking ass. Good on him. :)

Oh i hate him. :)

It may sound like a dream come true, but if you really thought about it, it would be a nightmare to have to eat that much food every single day, just to maintain your weight.

Think about it.  Look at his menu.  This is every meal, every day.  Think of how sick you would feel if you at a pound of pasta at lunch and at dinner, not to mention all that other food. 

Now I know it would be different if your body was burning through it, but still, the burden of needing that much food is not a fun burden to have.  Ask anyone who needs to eat that much, they'll tell you.

It's not really surprising... if I can burn off 600 calories pottering up and down the pool for an hour, a real athlete must burn a zillion times that... and as a top-notch Olympian, he's training his butt off every single day day in and day out. Not to mention that he's a big tall muscular guy to begin with... he's got the metabolism of a race horse!

ew thats gross...anything above 3000 just sounds disgusting...id hate food!

i don't envy people who need to eat a lot.  and eating THAT much sounds like a lot of effort/expense.

Lol, yeah, I heard such advice given to those who plan on bicycle trips - get on a bike and tour Europe for several weeks kind of thing, you know? - that they should put on weight first because it is so straining to your body.

I don't know if I remember correctly, but it was rather significant amount of weight, like 5-7 kg, which would be 10-15 lb. Now, for most of us, that is 10% of our body weight.

Imagine how much an elite atheletes in training would need.

Can I just tell you how much I hate the name Michael Phelps? My most recent and painful breakup was with a guy named Michael Phelps....yea 7 years of dating and then POOF done. Meanwhile we both live in Baltimore Maryland where Michael Phelps the athlete is from so his name is just EVERYWHERE! First thing in the morning when Im watching the news MICHEAL PHELPS, get in the car to turn on the radio MICHAEL PHELPS! there is no escaping it lol

xosugar - that's really unfortunate for you :(  You shouldn't hear his name quite as much after the olympics but now that he is the single greatest olympian, I don't think he will ever really go away.

I, on the other hand, love Michael Phelps!

I wish I could say that that doesn't sound good but damn I would love to burn that many calories in a day without wanting to kill myself. I guess I need to find some more activities that I love more than what I'm currently doing....I love my currently workout schedule because it challenges me every 3 days to more weight or slower reps or lower sumo squat...my fave.

I've been watching him swim and he is the bomb. Every time I think he wont be able to catch up he takes that last turn and proves me wrong. I love to watch him swing his arms back and forth before he swims...broadcasters make such a big deal about the fact that he is double jointed.

estarriol 10% is my maintenance goal well actually 10-12% BF..looking forward to one day competing in fitness competitions, so I will need to be even less than that to place well...naturally.

xosugarbabieo5ox, I was also in a relationship for a long time; one of which I was engaged to the guy and Now years later I look at it differently because he unbelievably helped make me into the woman I am today...what ever doesn't kill you will only make you stronger, it is so true.

ugh... the perils of having a killer metabolism. It's weird though bc I have heard most body builders eat 3500-5000 cals in a day but then I know a lady friend of mine who is a body builder... she eats 2000 when she's carbing up (loading up on cals) and 1300cals when she's slimming up. I honestly think I cannot eat more than 1500 cals without hindering my weight loss and I work out like a savage most of the time. I just think my metabolism is slow. So far I have found to keep my weight but lose inches I can eat 1200-1400 cals a day, and to lose I really have to cut down to 1100. which btw I hate so I'm coming to the conclusion that 140lbs of solidity is where I'm at for life. lol.

I hate michael phelps... I want choco ship pancakes

I wish i could afford to put that much time into my exercise, as it is I find it hard to get that 1-1.5 hours a day.  But as they say time is money.

Original Post by shandykat:

It may sound like a dream come true, but if you really thought about it, it would be a nightmare to have to eat that much food every single day, just to maintain your weight.

Think about it.  Look at his menu.  This is every meal, every day.  Think of how sick you would feel if you at a pound of pasta at lunch and at dinner, not to mention all that other food. 

Now I know it would be different if your body was burning through it, but still, the burden of needing that much food is not a fun burden to have.  Ask anyone who needs to eat that much, they'll tell you.

 One of my room mates has a medical condition (what it is, she and her doctors don't know) and she has to eat well above 3000 calories a day to maintain (hell, she's barely maintaining) a weight of 90 lbs. She's little, about 5'3, so there's no reason for her to be eating that many calories and still not being able to hold on to any weight. It's very sad (she gets incredible stomach pains associated with some foods, or just for no reason), especially since she's the nicest and most positive person I know.

That's a lot of calories, and certainly the numbers don't add up through conventional calorie-in calorie-out thinking. He's just a traditional ectomorph I guess.

I can't even imagine having to eat that many calories a day, but has anyone else noticed, it's still not a very balanced diet!

There are no servings of fruit and veg in there - NONE AT ALL!!!!! If he is eating 12000 calories, surely he could afford to include some of this food group???? Sure, he probably takes vitamin pills, but any nutritionist will tell you it's better to get the real thing.

There is also very little dairy products. Apart from the cheese in his sandwiches, where is he getting his calcium?

It seems to be almost entirely protein, fats and carbs, all the macronutrients, but where is he getting the vitamins and minerals??

I swam NCAA in college and was taking in about 5000 - 6000 calories a day and I was never eating veggies. They were considered "a waste of stomach space".  For us it was Carbs, protein, more carbs, and then more protein.  I ate a ton of eggs and chicken and topped it all off with lots of bread and pasta.  The problem came when I graduated from college and was no longer swimming.  My body was used to taking in all those calories, but I wasn't worknig out nearly as much.  I went from an EXTRMEMELY toned 134lbs. to a very flabby 158 (now I'm a not so toned not so flabby 113).  It was hard for me to adjust.  And while I realize Michael Phelps will always be a swimmer and have some sort of swimming career, I imagine I am not the only college athlete who struggled with weight after graduation.