The diets of athletes vary greatly from one sport to another. Some athletes, such as wrestlers, follow a very strict diet that is designed to limit their calories and help them maintain their body weight. Others load up on carbs and protein to facilitate their tough workouts.
Swimmers fall in the latter category and have been known to eat a tremendous amount of calories every day. In 2008, the 12,000-calorie per day diet of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps went viral during the Beijing Olympics, and people were blown away by just how much Phelps ate. The swimmers diet included two pounds of pasta, a full pizza, three slices of french toast and three pancakes.
While Phelps diet is definitely an extreme, it is not uncommon for swimmers to eat colossal amounts of food. Soren Dahl, a senior on the NC State swimming and diving team and member of the 2016 Danish Olympic team, discussed his daily eating habits.
Im not sure how big my calorie intake is exactly, Dahl said. I do know for sure that I dont think about or care what I eat exactly. I can just eat whatever I want to, because the workouts are so hard and take so much out of me. Basically, I need to keep on eating all day. I have probably about five meals a day, spread out over the day.
Dahl doesnt count his calories because he doesnt need to. Swimming is widely regarded as one of the hardest workouts, and a student-athlete who spends hours in the pool each day doing it competitively burns enough calories to eat whatever they want.
For Dahl, the day consists of multiple, high-calorie meals to help fuel him. He uses a mix of on-campus dining options and food at home to sustain him throughout the day. His meals are big and he eats all kinds of foods.
I start out in the morning having oatmeal and some sort of protein probably like an omelet or something, Dahl said. Later in the day, around 10 or 11, I will eat some fruit or some snacks, something like that. Then I eat a big lunch around 1. Usually, I go to the Atrium and get a wrap and then maybe two orders of fries. Theres a chance Ill get a sandwich or something too.
At NC State, student-athletes have the option to eat at Case Dining Hall for dinner. While Case is open to all students for breakfast and lunch, in the evening it is exclusive to student-athletes and is somewhere that Dahl frequents for dinner. He said he normally eats two plates of food. He also eats a late-night snack before bed, which he said was normally some form of protein.
While Dahl likes to dine at the on-campus options, he also enjoys meals off-campus as well. He says his favorite places are sushi restaurants and Which Wich. He also expressed that his favorite meal from his homeland of Denmark was called kebabs, which are similar to Greek gyros.
While the dining halls and other options on States campus are enough to fuel the Olympian, Dahl was able to experience a whole new level of dining halls while in Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Dahl said along with a McDonalds, he was able to experience all kinds of foods in the Olympic Village.
They had a humongous dining hall, Dahl said. Probably like 15 times the size of any of the dining halls here on campus. They had eight or nine different stations. They had an Asian station, then African food and European food and American food. A lot of different kinds of foods.
Dahl eats a lot and often, maybe not quite as much as Phelps, but still an incredible amount compared to the average person. Many may envy this type of diet; however, it is well earned by swimmers for the amount of work that they put into the pool.
Read more:
Dahl carves Olympic appetite - N.C. State University Technician Online
