2,500 Calories see food diet, don't medal with it

19th August 2008

Mark Spitz hailed Michael Phelps as "the greatest athlete of all time" after he equalled his 1972 feat of winning seven gold's in a single Olympic Games. Phelps then promptly won an eighth, to become the greatest Olympian of all time. But what of the lifestyle of this truly great athlete? In peak training phases Phelps will swim at the very least an astonishing 80 km a week whilst training each and every day for 5 hours, doing nothing but sleeping, eating, swimming and eating. And eating: With a calorie intake of roughly 12,000 a day (an average man is around 2500) required to power this man or mermaid, he certainly looks more at home in the pool than in front of the cameras. This is an unalloyed sign of a 'true', honest and dedicated athlete.

Let's look at that food intake again. Take the big man's first meal of the day: three - yes, three - fried egg sandwiches just to shake the sleep from his head. And they are merely a taster for the five-egg omelette that follows. Oh, and the French toast. Not to forget the three chocolate chip pancakes that pick him up just enough for his gruelling morning session. Cholesterol intake of this industrial strength may be more recognisable from a Mid-west diner but for someone swimming from London to Aberdeen every week, or the equivalent of cycling from Petra to the Red Sea (in 1 day on an Exodus Cycle holiday), it is forgivable. Unfortunately, this sort of fast-food diet would also not be out of place on 14 decked cruise ships or vast all-inclusive hotels where any sort of exercise is a strict no-no, except that it might earn the 'healthy heart' tag if the eggs were free range. This "scoff till you drop" or worse "show your wrist if you wanna get pissed" mentality is just plain gluttony: with food prepared en mass by the bucket load, high in sugar, salt and fats, combined with enough alcohol to anaesthetise the whole Chinese delegation after their hurdler limped out yesterday morning, no wonder people return from these holidays not only feeling unhealthy, but also looking it - certainly not what the yearly "recharging" holiday is meant to achieve.

However it is not just about singing for your supper, it is the healthy quality of life that comes with it. To share a fat slice of freshly stone baked pizza in a snug mess tent at 5000 metres in Ladakh or a thick stew after a 25 kilometre cycle ascent in Morocco is reward for an appetite well-earned. Sitting on a lodge terrace high up in the mountains looking over glaciers and ice caps also wins aesthetically over the Olympic canteen. People come back refreshed and revitalised, frequently having achieved their own gold medal. Many of them come back several times a year, but even they may blanche at those chocolate pancakes.