Right now most of the world is making a big deal about this guy named Michael Phelps. Something about some swimming medals.  Apparently a lot of medals. 

But his aquatic dominance is not the only thing making a splash in the papers… his reported 12,000 calorie diet has been making some serious waves. (I think 2 puns in one sentence deserves some applause, don’t you?  Regardless I’ll stop.)

 

BEGIN TANGENT Multiple clients – like 8 or so have come to me separately and told me how much I resemble Michael Phelps.  First off, if anything he would resemble me as I am older, but I still don’t see it.   Dammit – I think it might be the ears END TANGENT

 

The average American Phelps’ age consumes about 2000 calories per day and that means Phelps consumes 6 times the norm.

We already know Phelps is an uber quick, alien-human-fish genetically engineered mutant, surely the result of a super secret Area 51 project. But the mad scientists responsible for his manufacture might not have fully realized the energy required to run such a sophisticated machine.

12,000 calories a day is a massive amount by anyone’s standards.

So you might first ask why the hell isn’t Michael Phelps fat?

It all comes down to consumption and expenditure.  The guy may eat like a Dyson vacuum on crack, but he trains like he is possessed by mighty Poseidon himself.

He simply expends as much energy as he consumes, and that keeps his weight constant.  I even heard him say that he can’t seem to break 200 lbs even though he stands 6′4″.

So what happens after the Olympics are over, and his training stops? There is a simple answer to that as well.

Phelps at the 2012 Olympic Games?

If Phelps continued to consume at his current rate and ceased all physical activity he would in all likely hood blow up like a blow fish (dammit, another pun).  I actually see this a lot in former college athletes who graduate and then get a real job and “normal” life- (the getting fat part that is, they do not actually resemble sea creatures).

To maintain weight, expenditure must equal consumption.  To lose weight expenditure has to exceed consumption.  Pretty simple (on paper anyway).

In truth I don’t think Phelps will ever have a big problem for a few crucial reasons:

1. His normal metabolism is probably really high
2. He is probably one who has to force himself to eat
3. He needs to be in the water for several hours per day or his gills dry out

 

Not many of us are blessed with the seemingly super-charged metabolism of Michael Phelps.  If you or I tried to consume 12,000 calories in a day you would probably wind up in the hospital. I’m sure Phelps worked up to it.

But it all comes down to what comes in and what goes out. If you want to lose weight you need to (God help me I am going to quote Oprah) move more and eat less.

It’s just that simple.

(Big) butt like I said earlier this very simple concept, when placed into our real world everyday lives, can be quite difficult to put into practice.

You can either learn to deal with it, make adaptations and choices conducive to the way you want to look and the health you need to thrive, or end up looking like Jabba the Hutt and get buried in a giant cargo crate at a very early age.

The other slightly less practical option is to swim and workout for 6 plus hours per day. Who knows, you might win a few medals of your own.

I think I’ll workout 3 or 4 times per week for 30 minutes, and watch what I eat 90% of the time and eat like Phelps 10% of the time.

That works for me.

What works for you? Or maybe a better question is what *IS NOT* working for you?

 

Joshua Carter
http://carterfitness.com