If it is true that you are what you eat, then here is the suggested intake if you want to become history’s most successful Olympian: For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.
For lunch: 950 grams of enriched pasta; two large red meat and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks. For dinner: Another pound of pasta, possibly with a white creamy sauce, followed by a big pizza and more power drinks.
That mixture may not sound very well, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five regular men for a day. But the menu is apparently all in a training day’s eating for title holder swimmer Michael Phelps, who won five gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics and is aiming for seven this time surrounding.
“Eat, sleep and swim, that’s all I can do,” said the US swimmer, post winning his 11th Olympic gold. Judging by the amount he swims and takes down, that is not altogether astonishing. Even though the 23-year-old spends a solid five hours of each day burning off those calories, the diet still seems excessive. Is he following some sort of dietician guru’s programme?
Barbara Lewin, a nutritionist who has advised intercontinental athletes on their dietary health for approximately two decades, thinks not. “Health-wise, if he were eating like this long-term, he’d perhaps be having to see a cardiologist regularly,” Mrs Lewin told the BBC.
She recommended cutting out the egg yolks, replacing the white bread with whole-wheat, throwing some fruit and vegetables into the mix, and spreading the food out over the day with regular snacking. But while the quality of the calories consumed by the six-foot four-inch (1.93m) swimmer may not seem healthy, Ms Lewin suggested there are good reasons behind Mr Phelps’ diet.
“I’ve worked with more than 1200 endurance athletes – swimmers and runners – and one of the most common problems they have is glycogen exhaustion – the result of not getting enough carbohydrates,” she said. “Ten out of 11 times the reason an athlete doesn’t reach their personal best is because they’re not getting enough carbohydrates and that’s what your muscles need for food.”
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