Imagine being able to eat 12,000-calories a day and win 8
Olympic Gold medals and still have a six-pack?
I think the media has blown this out of proportion
and I don’t believe he consumes 12,000-calories a day -
maybe 6,000 to 8,000 max. But for the sake of entertainment
and discussion, let’s entertain a typical day…
Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese,
lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of
coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices
of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-
chip pancakes.
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese
sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing
1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy
drinks.
Yes, that’s insane!
I personally assign meal plans from 2,000 to 6,000 calories
for my skinny guys and I rarely meet anyone who needs more
than 4,000-5,000 calories to get super muscular in
conjunction with high intensity weight training.
NFL lineman don’t even consume that many calories yet Phelps’s
is able to maintain not a single ounce of fat on him.
Some interesting thoughts…
–> Phelp’s plan is the equivalent of eating of 25 Big Mac’s
each day, yet he is still able to maintain single digit body
fat despite the massive amount of unhealthy fats and lack of
veggies and fruits in this diet.
Take home lesson:
Perhaps the saying, "Your abs are made in the kitchen," is not
completely true if you can train 5 hours a day and 6 days a week.
Unless you can increase your overall training volume then
you’ll have to take your diet much more seriously. I am not
saying you need to train 30-hours a week but perhaps you
could consider more often for starters?
–> Many would argue that Phelp’s diet is full of "garbage"
yet he has proven to be one of the most decorated Olympic
athletes of all time.
Take home lesson:
If you’re training up to 5 hours a day then you need calories
or else you’ll "hit the wall" and be completely drained the
last 2 hours of your workout. (I just hope that all the
saturated fat in Mike’s diet does not result in heart disease
in the next ten or twenty years… )
As far as building muscles goes, it’s practically impossible
to bulk up by resorting on just veggies and fruits (unless
you want to live on the toilet) so be prepared to do more
cardio training to counteract the excess calories and
remember you can only build 3-4 pounds of dry muscle each
month and anything else will be fat so don’t attempt to
"force feed" your muscles into growth.
–> Phelp’s is ULTRA skinny and your classic hard gainer so
he has a super charged metabolism which allows him to consume
about 6x more (2,000-calories a day) than the average man.
So how the heck is he an alien-human-fish instead of a fat
whale?
Take home lesson:
It’s all about about energy in versus energy out. If his
weight is staying constant, which it is, then he’s obviously
burning the same amount that he is taking in.
You’re probably wondering, what’s going to happen now
that the Olympics are over… I don’t think he’ll have a
problem of maintaining his weight because his metabolism is
so high and he still needs to be in the water several hours a
day.
Don’t worry, I’m like you and if I tried to eat like Mike
than I would end up in the hospital too. I don’t mean to
sound like Dr. Phil but as you can see it all comes down to
what comes in and what goes out. If you want to lose fat
then you need to move more and eat less.
If you want to gain weight then you need to move less and
eat more. It’s that simple.
If you are looking for a more sensible way of gaining muscle
without training 5 hours a day and six days a week then I
highly recommend you grab a copy of my No Nonsense Muscle
Building program.
About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of
"No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain"He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.Check out his award winning site at: http://www.HowToBuildUpMuscles.com