Michael Phelps: 12,000 Calories A Day

The face of the Olympics. Of course, Michael Phelps has to eat broccoli, carrots, tuna and protein shakes…or does he? Thanks to our friend Khoi and the fine people at Guardian, we get an inside look at the human dolphin’s eating habits. This guy is truly a FoodBeast:

Breakfast

Phelps kick starts his day and his metabolism with three fried-egg sandwiches, but with a few customised additions: cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and, of course, mayonnaise.

Amuse-bouche out of the way, he throws back two cups of coffee and sits down to an omelette – containing five eggs – and a bowl of grits, a porridge of coarsely ground corn. He’s not finished yet. Bring on the three slices of French toast, with powdered sugar on top to make sure there’s no skimping on the calories. And to finish: three chocolate chip pancakes.

Lunch

With breakfast wearing off and the hunger pangs biting, Phelps downs half a kilogram – ie a whole packet – of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches. On white bread with loads of mayo on top. To remove any chance that his body will run out of fuel, he washes this down with about 1,000 calories of energy drink.

Dinner

Time to load up on carbs for the next day’s training. Another half kilo of enriched pasta goes down the hatch with a chaser of an entire pizza and another 1,000 calories of energy drinks. And so to bed. As Phelps told US television channel NBC yesterday: “Eat, sleep and swim, that’s all I can do.”