I don’t know if this is entirely accurate, but the New York Post has published an article outlining American golden boy Michael Phelps‘ diet, which apparently consists of 12,000 calories per day made up largely of foods that most people would consider to be “bad for you”. Here’s the breakdown according to The Post:

Breakfast: three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise; 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.

Lunch: a pound of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread; about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Dinner: a pound of pasta; an entire pizza; and another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

According to Wikipedia, Phelps is 6′4″ and 90 kilograms, so clearly as a larger-than-average man who is also an elite athlete his calorie requirements are going to be very high. But 12,000 calories? Some loose math suggests that a semi-active man of Phelp’s size would only need around 3,000 calories per day to maintain his weight, so that’s some serious calorie expenditure to put down to training and muscle maintenance. It’s incredible to consider.

Regarding the choice of foods, it’s a given that if you’re going to consume 12,000 calories then a large portion of that is going to be made up of “bad” foods - (eating 12,000 calories of salad would be nigh impossible) - but still, foods like cheese, mayonnaise, extra sugar, chocolate-chip pancakes and pizza are hardly foods that you would normally associate with fitness freaks.

Whether the diet is quality or not, though, nobody is going to argue with Phelp’s recipe.

More on Phelps: The Age has some more interesting insight on Phelps’ genetic and mental conditions which may have contributed to his success.