(no subject)

[commotiocordis]

Re: that article that's making the rounds about the swimmer Michael Phelps' diet while training. And it being something like 12,000 calories a day. It includes a 1000 calorie energy drink (twice a day), supposedly. I began to wonder what that would be like.

Let's do some math. One gram of lipid is 9 calories. That means that 1000 calories would be about 111.11 grams of fat.

If 1 tablespoon of pure oil is 120 calories, that makes each tablespoon about 13.333 grams.

111.11 grams divided by 13.333 grams is about 8 and 1/3 tablespoons.

That's half a cup plus a teaspoon. (Sad that I can do that off the top of my head, innit?)

Can you imagine downing half a cup of oil twice a day? Sure, mixed in with other crap to disguise the taste, but fats deliver the most calories in the smallest package, so the bulk of the calories in this drink would logically stem from emulsified lipid. And who wants to drink a gallon of energy drink a day; so it's probably not cut with very much of said other crap for sheer minimization of guzzling time.

Summation? Blech.

Comments

[xakana.livejournal.com]

Not all calories stem from lipids, though. Well known to me because I'm supposed to be consuming 2800 a day (pregnancy adds 300 and breastfeeding adds 500) which of course I don't reach, but I have to keep my fat grams under 40g a day (average person is 60) due to not having a gallbladder and more important, avoid cholesterol as I have no way to break it down now (especially being pregnant). Also, I'm supposed to figure out how to get 80g of protein in, too (I fail). It's a PITA, but it IS possible and without the fat.

In one 120 calorie, high protein booster, you get 0g of fat, but in another, at 100 calories, you get 2g (so a thousand would be 20g of fat). On the other hand, a bodybuilding calorie drink which has 1090 calories has only 1g of fat with 50g of protein (it's a fruit punch).

So, it's not likely that he's consuming fat calories, which are useless in athletic diets, but something more like the body building mixer.

[crashcart9.livejournal.com]

That's true. I was looking at it purely in terms of bulk, though, and since fat packs the most caloric punch, if you wanted the most calories in the smallest package just to keep you going (like Phelps prolly needs), you'd be taking in more fat than most people. And because I think most of those energy drink things are absolutely disgusting and bodybuilding types even worse and wouldn't relish having to choke down more than absolutely necessary. So though health-wise I'd take it all in protein for muscle building and all that (something he doesn't want? Perhaps low on protein due to the increased drag in the water of building bulk?), for non-gagging purposes (and not having to spend 7/9ths of my day sitting somewhere with a straw working on the energy drink from hell), I'd go with the fat.

Plus, his reported sample diet wasn't exactly low-fat/high protein (a whole pizza?)--I was surprised at how little protein there was in there. Another reason that perhaps the list of foods shouldn't be being presented as a typical day in the land of Phelps, because I'm very, very skeptical that it is. No matter how much he exercises, too much fat's gonna kill you, last study I read.

On the other hand, a bodybuilding calorie drink which has 1090 calories has only 1g of fat with 50g of protein (it's a fruit punch).

Wow--the sugars have to be killer in this. Something like 220 grams of carbs, if my math is right?

And man, if only my problem was not being able to reach the calories that I need. But the cholesterol together with increased calories, I see how that's got to be downright near impossible, as that prevents you from just scarfing down a pizza at the end of the day to make sure you hit your target.

[xakana.livejournal.com]

Yes, your carb math is exact, lol. And it's HFCS (ew) so it's bad carbs at that. Yeah, I wish I could include a whole pizza in my daily diet! It would make things a lot easier.