How Michael Phelps Ate His Way to Becoming the Greatest Olympian

Michael Phelps is a swimming powerhouse: the most decorated Olympian with 22 medals (including 18 golds) to his name and now the first male US swimmer to qualify for five Olympic Games, ahead of Rio 2016. But have you ever wondered exactly what Michael Phelps' daily diet involves and what he has to eat to achieve such Herculean sporting feats?

Well, Phelps was once famous for a daily 12,000–calorie diet to accompany his punishing six hours a day, five days a week exercise schedule (here he is discussing his diet back in 2012). But, now 31, he’s cut down the exercise to two to four hours a day and his daily diet now has drastically changed.

While his pre–Beijing 2008 12,000–calorie diet (see below, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) involved huge helpings of pasta, fried foods and energy drinks, now Michael Phelps’ daily diet largely involves salads, such as cucumber, tomato and asparagus, and grilled chicken and steaks. No word on the exact calorie count, but you can be sure its nowhere near 12,000, unless he’s eating a lot of grilled chicken.

Watch Phelps discuss his new healthy eating diet in a Facebook live session below.

 

Posted by Michael Phelps on Friday, May 20, 2016

Michael Phelps' 2008 meal Plan

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelette. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound (0.45kg) of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

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