Relative to the (admittedly tad-crazy-and-overboard) Olympic coverage in the US, the UK media coverage of the Olympics is pretty sedate. But it’s still highly entertaining. I laughed out loud reading this Guardian article describing the types of food Michael Phelps eats every day to get his 12,000 calories:
“… a large bowl of porridge; three doorstep-sized sandwiches of white bread, butter, fried egg, fried onion, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise; a five-egg omelette tastefully garnished with parsley; three slices of French toast liberally sprinkled with sugar; three pancakes topped with chocolate chips; and two large cups of coffee. That’s breakfast. Yummy.
Next to it is lunch, which consists of 1lb (that’s a very large bowl) of pasta with tomato sauce; two large ham-and-cheese sandwiches with more lettuce, tomato and don’t forget the mayo; plus four bottles of a proprietary high-energy sports drink that always makes me burp.
For dinner, it’s another pound of pasta, a large cheese-and-tomato pizza, and another four bottles of the same proprietary high-energy sports drink that always makes me burp.”
I don’t know about the rest of you food lovers out there, but I think it’d pretty fun to eat 12,000 calories a day and look 1/10 as buff as the Golden Boy. It would probably be less fun to swim ten miles a day, though.
Oh my goodness. Is that what he really eats? That’s a shocking amount of food. Well, I guess whatever gets you there.
What really struck me was amount of carbs and lack of protein and vegetables. But I guess that’s what these athletes need!
Hi Cathy and Su-Lin: yes, I guess there’s no arguing with the results in his case. There was some dialogue in the press among nutritionists, and while he could be eating healthier, more high-energy food, the consensus was that it’s hard to take in 12,000 calories a day, so it might as well be food you really like eating. I’m guessing those energy shakes he drinks are probably protein drinks with scary names like “Weight Gainer 2000.”
I read that Michael Phelps has been craving a cheeseburger instead of all that pasta he’s been eating and that’s what he’s most looking forward to now that he’s done swimming!
Hi Ann, I saw that too (about the cheeseburger) and wondered why he could eat tons of other junky foods but not a cheeseburger. Is red meat somehow “worse” than other foods that he was eating?