Holy Moly! Michael Phelps Diet...
 

Swimming sensation Michael Phelps has an Olympic recipe for success - and it involves eating a staggering 12,000 calories a day.

"Eat, sleep and swim. That's all I can do," Phelps, who won two more gold medals today, told NBC when asked what he needs to win medals. "Get some calories into my system and try to recover the best I can."

By comparison, the average man of the same age needs to ingest about 2,000 calories a day.

Phelps, 23, will swim 17 times over nine days of competition at the Beijing Games - meaning that he will need all the calories he can shovel in his mouth in order to keep his energy levels high.

Phelps' diet - which involves ingesting 4,000 calories every time he sits down for a meal - resembles that of a reckless overeater rather than an Olympian.

Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase "Breakfast of Champions" by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

At lunch, Phelps gobbles up a pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread - capping off the meal by chugging about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

For dinner, Phelps really loads up on the carbs - what he needs to give him plenty of energy for his five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen - with a pound of pasta and an entire pizza. He washes all that down with another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Phelps remains on course to at least equal Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won at the 1972 Munich Games.

At these Summer Games, a typical day for Phelps starts with a 5 a.m. wake-up call. Most of his races have taken place between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET when in China - 12 hours ahead of East Coast time.

I am guessing that Roaf probably had to take in 20,000 cals a day to keep his weight on

I used to be on that same diet. It hasn't worked out quite as well for me.

I hope that he waits an hour or so before getting back in the pool.

I wish I had the balls to go out and exercize for 5 hours a day. I'd be pretty ripped pretty quickly, and be able to eat whatever I want. Sounds like a hell of a life.

I should have thought of that one. Nice. REP!

True, but some of us have jobs, kids, families, errands, bills to pay, lives to live..

I am lucky that I get 30 minutes a day to workout...

Phelps is no Jake Gyllenhaal

Ha, ****er! Stole my post.

It doesn't take that much. Only about 1.5 hours per day to be able to eat whatever you want. Obviously, as your energy expenditure goes up, your caloric intake needs to increase. But there's really no "secret" to it.

he's on the Mangino diet

Do you think he spends 10 hours a day in the pool like Phelps?

Pool of his own sweat.

he rates his own bathroom
on the other side the commons

Power poops!