Sports

Eating Machine: Phelps' 12,000-Calorie Diet

Most Successful Olympian In History Is Human Dolphin In Pool, But A Shark When It's Time For Chow

NEW YORK (CBS) ― This is a story about the breakfast of champions – and their lunch, dinner and snacks.

Now, not only is Michael Phelps getting attention for his medal count, but also for his calorie count.

Phelps is known as the human dolphin, and is the most successful Olympian in any sport with 11 gold medals.

So how does he do it?

The cliché "you are what you eat," might not hold true when it comes this champion.

What better place to cook-up Phelps' daily diet than the Olympic Flame diner. That's where CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City went on Wednesday afternoon to try to recreate the mountain of food Phelps east on a daily basis.

For breakfast, Phelps has:

* Three fried egg sandwiches with cheese lettuce tomatoes, fried onions and mayo

* One five-egg omelette

* A bowl of grits

* Three slices of French toast with powdered sugar

* Three chocolate chip pancakes

* Two cups of coffee

That's 4000 calories!

For lunch:

* 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks

* A pound of pasta with tomato sauce

* Two large ham, cheese and mayo sandwiches on white bread

For dinner:

* Six to eight slices of pizza

* Another pound of pasta with tomato sauce

* And wash it down with another 1,000 calories of energy drinks

All together …12,000 calories a day!

New Yorkers were stunned to learn of the Olympian's eating exploits.

"I would probably eat that in three weeks," ballet dancer Taylor Cassisi said laughing.

"It's incredible, a little hungry myself right now," said Gene Spinosa of Bay Ridge.

Phelps is 23, stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 195 pounds. He has so much muscle mass nutritionist Keri Glassman says he needs all that energy.

"He can deal with all those calories, swims about five hours a day and he's probably burning about 1,000 calories an hour swimming," Glassman said.
Phelps is a calorie burning machine, but for the average person it takes forever. For a one-hour vigorous walk you'll burn about 170 calories. If you walk with your dog you'll burn about 240 calories.

An hour of tennis will shave off 560 Calories, while biking with shed 730. An hour of running at 6-minutes a mile equals 1,126 calories, and the big burner, cross country skiing, will burn 1,160 calories.

Glassman says a diet like that is only for an athlete like Phelps.

"Stay away. Don't even think you can do that. He's in the Olympics. He's not the norm," Glassman said.

Still, some fans are ready to give it a try.

"[I'm going to] start eating all that food and get in shape the same way," said Clayton Ward of Bushwick.

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