What Olympians eat in a day

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps reportedly ate a jaw-dropping 12,000 calories a day. Now for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Phelps has said he’s changed his ways by swapping out grilled chicken for pizza and reducing his calorie intake substantially. We wondered how other Olympic athletes approach nutrition – might they follow a 2008 Michael Phelps diet or a 2016 Michael Phelps diet?

In this video, we break down what a select group of Olympic athletes eat in a day based on previous statements about their diets and using the USDA’s online nutritional and calorie calculator. As we expected, the Olympic athletes we profiled eat in line with a healthy diet according USDA guidelines and that included their total calorie intake.

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Video: Here’s what five Olympic athletes eat to fuel their training. (Daron Taylor, Jayne Orenstein, Dani Johnson/The Washington Post)

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URL: http://wapo.st/2asaoPM

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