I ate like an Olympic athlete for a day – and it did not go well
Olympic fever has swept South Africa and the rest of the globe, but many viewers might not be aware of the insane diets athletes have to follow, which the average person – myself included – may be unable to stomach.
The Paris Olympics will end this Sunday, 11 August, and amid the excitement, we decided to try to act like Olympians for a day—minus the intense exercise regime and natural genetic advantages.
Notably, Olympic diets vary dramatically depending on the sport. A fencer is unlikely to follow the same diet as a shot-putter.
When conducting research, I initially thought of doing British Diver Tom Daley’s diet, as he regularly posts videos breaking down what he eats in a day.
However, there was a slight problem.
I think I eat more than Tom Daley already, despite being roughly the same size (we’re both around 1.80m tall and weigh 75 kilograms.)
He mainly eats about five eggs in the morning, followed by protein-rich salads for lunch and dinner.
For context, he eats a single rice cake as a snack—I could probably eat a whole packet of rice cakes and still be hungry.
So, to make this an actual challenge, I decided to follow the diet of the greatest individual performance at a single Olympics – Michael Phelps’s diet during the 2008 Beijing Games, where he won 8 Gold Medals.
Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 28 Medals (23 Golds), and his diet has been extensively covered, making me believe that it was great for this challenge.
It turns out I made a terrible decision.
What I have to eat
Phelps’s diet is legendary due to the enormous amount of calories he consumed during training and competition days.
He averaged around 8,000 to 10,000 calories per day – roughly what four fully-grown men need per day.
It is important to note that Phelps trained for six hours a day, 365 days a year, at world-record speeds to burn those calories.
Despite eating a huge amount of food, Phelps weighed only 85kg in 2008, which is light for an athlete who stands at 1.93m.
The Olympics website states that his muscle-intensive physique and his metabolism converted food into energy much faster than that of an average man.
I, however, can be best described as an average man.
My job also means that I burn most of my energy typing on a keyboard while sitting down, which is unlikely to give me a six-pack.
This challenge would probably be better if I were also exercising to burn off some of the energy, but I’m in the final stages of recovery from a chest infection, limiting my ability to do any intensive exercise.
Some may also be surprised to see how much “unhealthy” food is in Phelps’s diet.
For breakfast, he would have three fried egg sandwiches, three chocolate-chip pancakes, an omelette and three slices of French toast. He also has two cups of coffee, which I often drink with my breakfast anyway.
Lunch is “just” half a kilogram of pasta and two ham and cheese sandwiches alongside some energy drinks.
Dinner is also another 500g of pasta with carbonara sauce, a large pizza, and some more energy drinks.
How it went
Despite spending roughly R700 on food (Phelps doesn’t cook, and neither do I) and getting the attention of the majority of my colleagues for assembling a massive mountain of food, I could not finish the challenge.
My eyes were clearly larger than my stomach (the task seemed achievable when all the food was on the table), with the breakfast alone almost impossible to stomach while also working.
Although I knew it would be challenging to eat so much, I didn’t imagine that eating such a large amount of food would make me feel worse than the 20+ energy drinks I drank last year as part of our Prime challenge.
I started late, only eating breakfast at around 9h15 and hit trouble at about 10h30 after finishing two egg sandwiches and the three pancakes.
I was quite surprised by how quickly I crashed, but Phelps’s diet offers almost no relief. Every single item is heavy and becomes a chore to eat. The lack of vegetables or fruit became a problem the more I went on.
I waited about an hour before finishing the final sandwich and having the omelette.
This is when some concerns about my health started to arise.
I started sweating, my chest became tight, my left arm started getting numb, I became nauseous, and I had a pounding headache.
To make matters worse, I drank my coffee too quickly, and I decided to use an Energy Drink to wash down parts of my breakfast, which probably ensured that I had a caffeine crash on top of my food crash.
I generally eat pretty light and small breakfasts, so the sheer scale of my eating probably shocked my system.
I then decided to do a few laps of our office park to burn some calories. Although this helped a little with my more severe symptoms, I still felt quite sick.
I admitted defeat at around 14h00 when I could only stomach about half of the French Toast (yes, I was still on breakfast), and I started feeling awful again.
As much as I love the BusinessTech audience, I will not kill myself for this article.
Instead of finishing the whole thing, I decided to see how much of the diet I could actually finish.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working and, surprisingly, was able to work up an appetite for when I got home.
Back at home, I was able to finish the rest of the French toast (yes, still breakfast) and a large portion of pasta intended for lunch.
I accepted defeat after that, leaving behind: two ham and cheese sandwiches, a large pizza and a carbonara pasta.
Overall, I was able to eat:
- 3 Fried Egg Sandwiches
- 3 Slices of French Toast
- An Omelette
- 3 Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- A large portion of spaghetti bolognese
- 2 Cups of Coffee
- 2 Slayer Energy Drinks
I ended the day feeling tired and disappointed in being unable to finish the challenge.
It was probably obvious from the start, but eating like the greatest-ever Olympian requires training like the greatest-ever Olympian.
Read: We taste-tested South Africa’s top pizza chains – and the winner was clear
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