The crazy diet of Olympic champion Michael Phelps. Phelps' diet: pasta, pizza, mayonnaise, sugar, energy drinks Michael Phelps nutrition

Depending on a particular discipline, athletes adhere to different diets: some limit themselves in calories, while others eat everything they see (so much so that even their jaw hurts). the site has selected the most interesting and varied diets of Olympic athletes. We read, envy or sympathize.

Alexandra Raisman, artistic gymnastics (22 years old)

American gymnast Alexandra Raisman won two silver medals and one gold at the Rio Olympics. To achieve such results, the athlete trains six days a week, and in order to have the strength to perform complex routines, she has to watch her diet.

The gymnast gets up at seven o'clock in the morning and immediately drinks a glass of warm water with lemon. A typical athlete's breakfast consists of a bowl of cereal with skim milk, two wheat toasts, and sometimes she eats jelly for dessert. Carbohydrates are great for energizing in the morning, and thanks to physical activity, all the “fuel” is quickly burned. At 8:30 Alexandra is already in a hurry to train; she works out in the gym until 12:15.

Lunch is scheduled at 1:00 pm; in the afternoon, the emphasis in the diet is on proteins and complex carbohydrates - grilled chicken breasts, brown rice and vegetables:

My diet includes a lot of vegetables, chicken and fish. I always try to stay away from white bread and all sorts of goodies,

- the gymnast admits.

After lunch and training, the girl can take a nap for a couple of hours. When she wakes up, she snacks—frequent meals are important to keep her metabolism active. In between meals, Raisman can indulge in Greek yogurt with cereal and a banana.

For dinner, the girl prefers grilled chicken or salmon and vegetables (she especially likes broccoli and carrots). After a hard day, the gymnast prefers to lie in bed and watch her favorite TV series “The Vampire Diaries” - no nightly raids on the refrigerator!

Other gymnasts, for example, Gabrielle Douglas, who won a gold medal for the USA at these Games, adhere to a similar diet with only some differences. Gabrielle's classic breakfast consists of oatmeal and a banana, for lunch - chicken breast, asparagus and dessert in the form of a handful of almonds and a piece of chocolate, and for dinner - grilled salmon, some pasta and green peas fried with garlic. Sometimes in the evening the girl allows herself homemade sweet ginger bread, and the classic six hours of training a day.

Michael Phelps, swimming (age 31)

Even Sherlock Holmes would not be able to detect Michael Phelps’ body fat, and this despite the fact that the athlete consumes 12 thousand kilocalories a day! In principle, such “gluttony” can be justified by the fact that Phelps is 193 centimeters tall, and he trains six days a week for five hours, so his body needs high-calorie “fuel”. The athlete's diet, if such a diet can even be called that, consists of a huge list of goodies.

A swimmer's breakfast includes three scrambled eggs, cheese sandwiches, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise - and that's just the beginning. Phelps then polishes off the meal with two cups of coffee and three slices of French toast dusted with powdered sugar, and the swimmer fills the remaining stomach space with chocolate chip pancakes.

Lunch is no less satisfying: pasta with tomato sauce, two large white bread sandwiches with mayonnaise, ham and cheese, as well as energy drinks. For dinner, Michael eats pasta again, a whole pizza, and drinks a few more energy drinks.

Nutritionists explain Michael’s enviable menu by the fact that the athlete has an excellent metabolism, and during training all kilocalories are burned, because swimming is one of the most energy-consuming sports. If you think about it, there is nothing phenomenal in such an athlete’s diet: with Phelps’ parameters, his norm of kilocalories per day is about five thousand, and training burns another 5-7 thousand, depending on the intensity.

By the way, another athlete of the American swimming team, Ryan Lochte, is not far behind Michael - his menu includes products for 8000 kilocalories.

When I first started swimming professionally, I ate peanut butter and jelly and sandwiches. I was just constantly eating, but now I have stopped. My jaw was tired from eating and began to cramp. But because I ate so much for 12 years, now if I don't eat, I feel like something is wrong,

- the athlete admits.

Ryan chooses almost the same dishes as Phelps, although Lochte adds a little more vegetables and fruits to his menu.

By the way, swimmers can afford almost everything: burgers, French fries, sweet coffee drinks, soda. Sports nutritionists even insist that nutritious and high-calorie foods for future champions are healthier than new-fangled superfoods and vegetable smoothies. One of the sponsors of the Olympic Games, McDonald's, is located in the Olympic Village and feeds the competition participants completely free of charge.

Athletes from all over the world can be seen tucking into free food in the cafeteria at four in the morning. One can easily take 27 cheeseburgers, 40 nuggets, 12 servings of ice cream and diet cola,

- says Australian swimmer Melanie Schlanger.

Usain Bolt, athletics (29 years old)

The invincible Usain Bolt followed a rather monotonous diet before the Beijing Olympics: for 100 days in a row he ate 100 nuggets a day (940 kilocalories in a package of 20 pieces).

At first I ate 20 pieces for lunch and dinner, then two packs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All this with French fries, and in the evening also apple pie,

- said the athlete.

During the day, the Jamaican athlete eats to stay active during training, but at night before going to bed, he eats all the food in his path.

The trainer advises to eat vegetables... Sometimes I eat broccoli, but I'm not a fan of such food,

- said Bolt. No wonder: the taste of broccoli is much inferior to nuggets. When an athlete is not preparing for the Olympics, he eats quite normally: he eats an egg sandwich for breakfast, pasta and corned beef for lunch, Jamaican beef patties and fried chicken for dinner, and Usain snacks on fruit.

South African runner Wade van Niekerk from Cape Town won gold in the 400 meters a few days ago and set a new world record. The athlete's diet is very different from Usain Bolt's. The bulk (60 percent) of his diet consists of proteins - chicken breast, fish, beef. He also eats fruits and vegetables (30 percent of the daily diet) - bananas, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranate, pineapple, broccoli, spinach. The remaining 10 percent is fat: peanut butter, almond butter, avocado.

Jordan Burrows, wrestling (28 years old)

Athletes who engage in gymnastics and sports where weight category matters are most often forced to adhere to a more ascetic diet and you won’t see them in line at McDonald’s in the Olympic Village. Such athletes have to keep themselves in shape during the competition so as not to unexpectedly move to another weight category. For example, Olympic champion Jordan Burrows eats 1200-1500 kilocalories per day (for comparison, the calorie norm for a man of this weight is three thousand).

To pass the threshold during weigh-ins, wrestlers resort to various tricks: drinking diuretics, sweating in saunas.

Jordan’s diet during the Games can be called exemplary: for breakfast - fresh juice of ginger, turmeric, cabbage and beets, for lunch - vegetable soup, and for dinner - chicken breast or a small burger, and the same fresh juice before bed. However, when Burrows is not competing, he indulges in pizza, milkshakes, spaghetti, chicken wings and other not-so-healthy foods. In normal times, the average wrestler weighs six kilograms more than his weight category allows.

During meals in the Olympic Village, some athletes are accompanied by coaches or nutritionists who do not allow them to eat too much, and sometimes they themselves assemble a tray for their charges.

24-year-old Turkish taekwondo player Nur Tatar is also forced to limit herself in nutrition: no more than 1,500 kilocalories during preparation for competitions (Nur competes in a weight of up to 67 kilograms). Her breakfast consists of a boiled egg, toast, a piece of cheese, several olives and freshly squeezed juice, for lunch - a portion of pasta with cheese and a green salad, and Nur has dinner with dietary beef cutlets with a vegetable side dish, and a snack - an apple.

Elena Isinbaeva, athletics (34 years old)

The Olympic pole vault champion has been following a diet before competitions for many years, and she doesn’t relax during her free time from training. This year, due to a doping scandal, Elena and other Russian athletes are excluded from the Olympics, but Elena is unlikely to give herself any slack and break her diet.

Isinbayeva adheres to “separate nutrition” and eats four times a day. For breakfast, the athlete usually has oatmeal, a sandwich with butter and fruit juice, and for dessert fruit juice of grapefruit and orange. At lunch, the athlete always eats meat or fish with vegetables and washes it down with a glass of tomato juice. Elena's dinner turns out to be quite meager - yogurt, kefir or cottage cheese.

After six in the evening Elena does not eat, but during the day she can indulge in tea with a small piece of chocolate. Elena does not allow herself any other indulgences: according to the athlete, tempted by one pancake, she puts on sneakers and goes for an hour-long run.

The diet of another Russian athlete, swimmer Yulia Efimova, at some point was even more strict than that of Isinbayeva. Yulia’s diet was handled by the famous specialist surgeon, chiropractor Homayoun Gharavi, who created a rather strict diet for her. The athlete had to give up flour products, sugar (almost completely), and eat mainly meat and vegetables.

Sugar is the silent killer. If you want to get problems with your body, eat sugar. White rice is not very good, pasta, pizza are poison for our body,

- says Gharavi.

The most difficult thing for Yulia was giving up her favorite chocolate cakes, but along with the restrictions comes the result: the athlete’s well-being became better, her stamina increased, and her skin problems disappeared.

Obviously, athletes' diets are not suitable for a person with a normal lifestyle, so you shouldn't load up on nuggets to run like Usain Bolt, or overeat before a swim like Michael Phelps, after all, after pizza, pasta and ice cream, you can generally go to the bottom.

Instagram photo

Michael Phelps differs from the rest of humanity not only in his phenomenal athletic results (23-time Olympic champion), but also in his mind-blowing diet.

Is it even normal to consume that many calories in a day? Let's figure it out.

Michael Phelps's diet, which in terms of the number of calories per day is rather designed for 3 adult men, does not actually contain any gigantic amount of healthy foods - there is bread, mayonnaise, and even energy drinks. At the same time, Phelps trains 6 times a week, 5 hours a day, and at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps had to participate in 17 swims over 9 days.

Breakfast looks like this:
- Three sandwiches with fried eggs, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise;.
- Five egg omelette;
- A plate of oatmeal with berries;.
- Three pancakes with chocolate;.
- Three French toasts with powdered sugar;.
- Two cups of coffee.

Dinner:
- 500 grams of pasta with tomato sauce;.
- Two large sandwiches with ham, cheese and mayonnaise;.
- Energy drink.

Dinner:
- 500 grams of pasta;.
- Huge pepperoni pizza;.
- Energy drink.

To finally understand Michael Phelps’ diet, we asked endocrinologist and nutrition specialist Vadim Krylov to comment on the non-standard choice of dishes for an athlete and the impact of such a diet on the body of an ordinary person.

Vadim Krylov:
- I worked with many Russian Olympic champions and still continue to work with some of them.
Let's start with the simple things. First of all, let's figure out why we eat. We eat in order to live. Food is a source of energy and building material for our body. Thus, if we consume more energy than we expend, we gain weight, if less, we lose weight.
Look at Michael Phelps's diet. What immediately catches your eye? Most of the diet is carbohydrates, a combination of “fast” (sweet energy drinks, sugar) and “slow” (cereals, pasta, bread) carbohydrates throughout the day. This is not surprising, since swimming is one of the most energy-consuming sports, and carbohydrates are fuel for our body, like gasoline for a car. As a percentage, there is not much protein in the American diet; an athlete does not really need to gain weight. Considering the overload, the Phelps diet is quite suitable for him, however, even here it would be nice for him to take care of his future, about what will happen after he “Hangs up his Swimming Goggles on a Nail.” You can obtain the required amount of fat in another way so that the vessels do not become clogged with atherosclerotic plaques and the risk of cancer does not increase.
Is this diet right for you and me? Firstly, we are not Olympic champions, and we will not use up such a huge amount of energy even within a few days, even if we train 3-4 times a week. Secondly, you still need to think about the future and not eat unnecessary foods. What should we learn from the greats? The will to win and the determination to achieve results. So eat right and enjoy life. (C) Challenger magazine.

Michael Phelps differs from the rest of humanity not only in his phenomenal athletic results (he is an EIGHTEEN-TIME Olympic champion), but also in his mind-blowing diet. Is it even normal to consume that many calories a day? Artyom Sokolov understands.

Michael Phelps's diet, which in terms of the number of calories per day is more likely designed for three adult men, does not actually contain any gigantic amount of healthy foods - there is bread, mayonnaise, and even energy drinks. At the same time, the American trains six times a week, five hours a day, and at the Beijing Olympics (this is 2008), Phelps had to participate in 17 swims over 9 days.

The breakfast of the most titled athlete in history looks like this:

• three sandwiches with fried eggs, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise;
• five egg omelette;
• a plate of oatmeal with berries;
• three pancakes with chocolate;
• three French toasts with powdered sugar;
• two cups of coffee.

The Olympic champion's lunch consists of:

• 500 grams of pasta with tomato sauce;
• two large sandwiches with ham, cheese and mayonnaise;
• energy drink.

Phelps' dinner is

• 500 grams of pasta;
• huge pepperoni pizza;
• energy drink.

What does a professional nutritionist think about this mess?

To finally understand Michael Phelps’s diet, we asked Vadim Krylov, an endocrinologist, nutrition specialist and author of the step-by-step instructions for proper nutrition of the “Wright Diet”, to comment on the non-standard choice of dishes for an athlete and the impact of such a diet on the body of an ordinary person. - I have worked with many Russian Olympic champions and I still continue to work with some of them. Let's start with simple things. First of all, let's figure out why we eat. We eat in order to live. Food is a source of energy and building material for our body. If we consume more energy than we expend, we gain weight, if less, we lose weight.

Look at Michael Phelps' diet. What immediately catches your eye? Most of the diet is carbohydrates, a combination of “fast” (sweet energy drinks, sugar) and “slow” (cereals, pasta, bread) carbohydrates throughout the day. This is not surprising, since swimming is one of the most energy-consuming sports, and carbohydrates are fuel for our body, like gasoline for a car. As a percentage, there is not much protein in the American diet; an athlete does not really need to gain weight. Considering the overload, this diet is quite suitable for Michael, however, even here it would be nice for him to take care of his future, about what will happen after he “hangs up his swimming goggles.” You can get the required amount of fat in another way so that the vessels do not become clogged with atherosclerotic plaques and the risk of cancer does not increase. Is this diet suitable for you and me? Firstly, we are not Olympic champions, and we will not use up such a huge amount of energy even within a few days, even if we train 3-4 times a week. Secondly, you still need to think about the future and not eat unnecessary foods. What should we learn from the greats? The will to win and the determination to achieve results. So eat right and enjoy life!

Sports history includes more than one legendary name. Famous athletes have reached incredible heights in their favorite activity thanks to willpower, ambition, and discipline. When studying the specifics of training and nutrition of many record holders, one cannot ignore a person who went down in the history of sports not only as a talented athlete, but also as a person whose training program is different from everyone else. His name is Michael Phelps. The special diet of this American swimmer is called the Michael Phelps Diet.

Who is Michael Phelps

In the entire history of swimming, Michael Phelps is the most titled - he is a 19-time world champion in swimming. His victories were marked by 28 medals, 23 of which were gold. The athlete was born on June 30, 1985 near the city of Baltimore, Maryland - the Towson area. The family had three children, Michael was the youngest. After some time, my parents divorced and my father started another family.

At the age of 7, Michael began swimming seriously. Many believe that everything happened at the insistence of his sister. In the 6th grade, the teenager was diagnosed with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. It is believed that he served as an impetus for victories, but this statement is very controversial. Doctors who examined the Olympic champion claimed that he had hypermobility syndrome, or excessive flexibility of the spine and joints.

At the age of ten, Michael Phelps became the national record holder in his age group. His coach, Bob Bowman, was actively involved in the teenager's sports career. The swimmer received the nickname “Baltimore Bullet” after a number of his sparkling victories. When the athlete was 15 years old, Phelps first took part in the Olympic Games held in Sydney, where he became fifth in the 200-meter butterfly. The result pleased the novice athlete, but did not satisfy him. Nine months later, Michael Phelps became the first and youngest record holder at the same distance.

Features of the Olympic champion's diet

Michael Phelps is known not only for his sporting achievements. The truth about the swimmer's diet shocked many. It’s difficult to call an athlete’s diet a diet. Phelps's body structure is a large amount of muscle mass. A swimmer's metabolic rate is much higher than that of the average man. The peculiarity of the Phelps diet is the daily consumption of large amounts of calories. Such a nutrition system is quite suitable for three adult men. From the outside it looks like gluttony, but such a high-calorie diet helps the champion achieve results.

Calorie nutrition

Michael Phelps' food system has been criticized repeatedly. In addition to a successful career as a swimmer, he can easily become a world champion in terms of the amount of food he eats. The athlete’s body is similar to the figure of Michelangelo’s “David” statue, but Michael’s nutritional system is very far from the concept of “food of champions.” Every day a swimmer consumes 10-12 thousand calories. An athlete’s very intense training requires such high-calorie meals, so the Phelps diet is not suitable for the average person. With this amount of calories, weight gain can reach up to 1 kilogram daily.

The ratio of BJU in the diet

The balance of BZHU is the ratio of proteins, fats, carbohydrates in optimal quantities. It often happens that athletes do not receive the required amount of carbohydrates, which are very necessary to fuel muscle mass. When following a diet for weight loss, it is important to reduce carbohydrates and increase protein foods. The Phelps Diet provides swimmers with the nutrients they need for intense training.

Physical activity on a high-calorie diet

According to the record holder himself and his coach Bob Bowman, those who claim world records must devote a lot of time and effort to training. They must be regular and “hard”. Michael Phelps approaches his classes very responsibly; the program consists of a 6-day split, which includes:

1. Five-hour swim six days weekly.
2. Circuit training 3 times a week in the gym.

Michael Phelps' physical activity on his high-calorie diet required a certain approach. The swimmer never used heavy weights for training because of the danger of increasing muscle mass. This would negatively affect swimming speed and the final result. For an athlete, not only endurance is important, but also the ability to maintain the lowest possible weight with a minimum percentage of subcutaneous fat. To keep himself in the necessary shape, Michael used the same training system as for bodybuilding.

Michael Phelps is a fan of compound, or multi-joint exercises: pull-ups, classic presses, dips. Bodyweight exercises formed the basis of strength training. All this led to the fact that muscle mass did not increase, but was always in good shape. With a body fat content of about 8 percent, the energy release during training is colossal - up to 1000 calories per hour. For comparison: an ordinary person in 60 minutes. doing fitness spends about 240 kcal.

Michael Phelps diet

An athlete’s nutritional system does not consist of any special healthy products. Bread, mayonnaise, energy drinks, chocolate, pasta, cookies, ham, hearty sandwiches - all this is included in the swimmer's food basket. Constant intense training requires maintaining a high calorie diet. With less energy consumption, muscles will not have time to recover after serious sports activities. As for the water regime, there was a case when Michael Phelps drank 91 liters of water in a day. This fact was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

Breakfast

The Phelps diet features a very hearty breakfast. The entire amount of food an athlete eats is difficult for the average person to eat. The breakfast menu is as follows:

• sandwich with fried eggs (3 pieces) with cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, mayonnaise;
• egg omelet (5 pcs);
• a bowl of oatmeal porridge;
• pancakes with chocolate (3 pcs);
• French toast with powdered sugar (3 pcs);
• coffee (2 cups).

Dinner

It is estimated that Michael drinks up to 8 cans of energy drink per day. Genetics plays an important role, but a swimmer’s accelerated metabolism helps him consume such an amount of food. Phelps' lunchtime diet is based on the following dishes:

1. Pasta with tomato sauce (500 grams).
2. Two large sandwiches with cheese, ham, mayonnaise or meatballs.
3. A couple of cans of energy drink.

Dinner

The diet of the world's most famous swimmer has long become a legend. Michael Phelps consumed deep-fried foods for all his meals. Phelps' diet includes unhealthy foods and a large amount of fast food. The Olympic record holder's dinner consists of:

• half a kilogram of pasta;
• huge pepperoni pizza;
• a couple of cans of energy drink.

Is the Phelps diet suitable for ordinary people - the opinion of nutritionists

Any nutritionist or endocrinologist will say that food is a building material for our body, a source of necessary energy. All this is important for the normal development of the body and ensuring its activity. When more energy comes in than is expended, weight gain inevitably occurs; when less energy is consumed, a person loses weight. When studying the Phelps diet, the first thing you need to pay attention to in a swimmer’s diet is the combination of “fast” and “slow” carbohydrates: sugar, sweet drinks, cereals, pasta.

This diet can be explained very simply: swimming is one of the most energy-consuming sports. Carbohydrates are the “fuel” for the body. Thanks to constant training and maximum loads, I do not gain weight. The downside is that after finishing a sports career, there is a high risk of blood vessels becoming clogged with atherosclerotic plaques and the occurrence of cancer.

There are those who support Phelps' way of eating. It’s all explained this way: when studying athletes, it was found that after entering the body with a portion of carbohydrates, record holders significantly improved their results. Given the metabolic characteristics of Michael Phelps, such nutrition is recommended for him. The only thing that diet supporters advise is to replace some foods with healthier ones.

Whether the Phelps diet can be used by a non-athletic person is known for sure. This nutrition system falls into the “do not repeat on your own” category. Michael Phelps is a 193 cm tall, 87 kg man who has a very good metabolism and trains intensely for five hours every day. To make such a diet everyday for an ordinary man means to cause serious damage to health. After a week of eating this way, a simple person will increase his own weight by several kilograms.

Video

After American swimmer Michael Phelps triumphed at the Olympics in Beijing and London, the media write a lot about him. Journalists want to know how he lives, how he trains, and most importantly, what and how much he eats in order to be a champion.

The truth about Michael Phelps' diet shocked many. And it’s hard to call it a diet. It turns out that the champion swimmer eats more than twelve thousand calories a day!!! Of course, looking at his appearance, this is very difficult to allow. But you also need to take into account that Phelps spends more than six hours every day in the pool, training all the time.

So, let's talk about the athlete's daily menu.

For breakfast, he eats three sandwiches with scrambled eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Phelps also eats a five-egg omelet and a cup of cereal. The swimmer drinks two cups of coffee. And for the morning dessert - three French toasts with powdered sugar and three pancakes sprinkled with grated chocolate.

Lunch consists of 450 grams of pasta or pasta, two large white bread sandwiches with ham and cheese, with mayonnaise. The drink for the Olympic champion is an energy drink that contains 1000 calories.

Michael Phelps's dinner is quite modest - only 450 grams of pasta or pasta and pizza. The athlete washes this down with two energy drinks.

Doctors explain such a large amount of food consumed by an athlete by the rapid burning of all calories. After all, Michael Phelps puts his body through enormous physical activity every day and burns about a thousand calories per hour.

However, some scientists argue that the Olympic champion is unique, because even cyclists consume 8-10 thousand calories a day, and Phelps – as much as 12 thousand! The amount of food an athlete consumes could feed five healthy adult men.

But even if you are a big fan or admirer of Michael Phelps, you don’t need to imitate him in the “diet”. After all, every body is unique in its own way, and the Olympic champion achieved this through years of training and planning his diet.

In other matters, athletes need a diet that is rich in carbohydrates and fats. Thanks to it, the necessary energy for competition is provided. The diet of every future or current champion is planned over many years. It is important to choose your diet so that you get enough calories and spend them during training. Thus, most athletes do not feel heavy after eating. Moreover, Phelps gets several thousand calories a day from energy drinks and shakes, which are easy on the stomach and provide energy.

In addition to the nutrition itself, it is also important to plan meals correctly. Then the body will receive calories and nutrients in a timely manner and there will never be a feeling of heaviness or hunger.

An ordinary person who is only indirectly related to sports needs to eat according to general principles and absorb about 2000 calories per day. Take into account gender, age, weight and level of physical activity.

Michael Phelps is a unique person in the history of sports. When they say that you need to follow the champions, this does not mean that you need to follow their nutritional principles. Each person is unique in their own way, thanks to the principles of healthy eating you can look and feel great. The ideal diet should be tailored just for you, taking into account your lifestyle. The Phelps Diet is just a great example of how a person can feel great by maintaining a balance between nutrition and exercise.