Bean, Olympian?

Like most Americans, Donna and I were talking about Michael Phelps last night. I asked how many endorsement contracts the Golden Boy of the Olympics will be signing when he returns home from China. Her answer? All of them! I have to agree with her.

But not so fast, Mad Men! Michael Phelps and I have a great deal in common and I am far, far cheaper to hire as your pitchmen. True, I am not much of a swimmer and have not even won one gold medal - much less a dozen - but we are practically twins when it comes to training. 

At least the eating part. The New York Post just broke down what Phelps (and I) eat every day during these Olympic Summer Games.

"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 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."

Me too! And by-the-way, I have that same body that Michael is forcing you to look at above. I just don't feel the need to walk around on TV all day with no shirt on. Sheesh, what a show-off!

Comments

[Tracy]

You both have one more thing in common. The personality of a sponge.

[Raul]

Yup...you and Phelps will be on a Wheaties box together!

[Diane]

Not to mention that you are both bulldog aficionados.

[me again]

Yeah, when I was 23, I was throwing rocks....

.....well, you all know the rest of that story!

[alisa]

holy cow! that sounds like a sumo wrestler's diet. no offence...

[db]

When his metabolism slows down in a few years and he continues to eat like that he will look just like Dom Deluise

[Lynne_T]

Yeh Bean, I think you are right! I noticed the similarity of the belly button right off the bat! Check it out. You two could be twins.

[Melvin]

if i ever was diagnosed with an incurable disease, i would totally go on Phelps’s diet and exercise regiment sans exercise regiment

[cathy g.]

gee bean, do you have the shaved chest and pitts too??

[Ana]

You go boy!!!

[Anna]

I can't wait to see what he looks like in 10 years. Also, eating all that fat would still be clogging up his arteries right? Just because you go swimming everyday does not mean that you are immune to the effects of bad eating habits.

[Fred G.]

I call BS. I think his PR team is just listing a bunch of food for potential endorsements (Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Gatorade, Olive Garden) Isn't this how you got your 7-11 / Taco Bell gig, Bean?

[steve-o]

i have that body too, bean. its just hidden under all this fat :(

[Jerkface]

Bean, yours is a more cabbage-patchian physique, no?

[stacey]

2,000 calories/day of energy drinks?

So that's how come he can swim so fast: sugar rush!

Just wait until the sugar crash comes in a few years - it's not going to be pretty.

As for all the other stuff he's shoveling into his mouth, I'd hate to see his cholesterol readings.

[Rochelle]

Sometimes cholesterol levels more a factor of genetics than diet...

Sugar is sugar, he eats a lot of it! Whatever he's doing is working for him, so I say bring on the chocolate chip pancakes! (Crap now I'm hungry!)

[Keith Lowell Jensen]

So many comments on where that diet will have him down the road a bit.
I say it'll have him winning more gold medals. Competitive eating just found a new champion!