10 famous athletes and their crazy diets

One of the benefits of being a professional athlete is the huge amount of food you can consume after a hard day of grueling workouts. When your work depends on physical strength, every calorie counts. Yes, professional athletes and heavyweights are at the peak of their fitness, and few of them are sitting on cabbage and kombucha. Some have chosen for themselves more than… sparing diets, making such "dishes" as McNuggets the basis of your diet (oh, horror!). But no matter what they eat, the amount of food they consume can blow their brains out.

1. Matt Kalil

Sport: American football.

Average number of calories consumed per day: 7000.

Despite the fact that the Minnesota Vikings forward lost 10 kg after pneumonia, he manages to maintain his body weight of 142 kg, sitting on a diet of fast food. In 2012, for breakfast, he ate bacon, eggs, fruit, cottage cheese, toast and sausages. Sounds harmless enough, doesn't it? But at lunch, Kalil ate pizza, burgers, and other types of fast food. In recent years, the diet of this football player consists of high-calorie protein shakes, pasta and many, many snacks.

2. Michael Arnstein

Sport: marathon.

Average number of calories consumed: 4000-6000.

Long-distance runner Michael Arnstein, who calls himself a Fructorian, lives on a diet of 80/10/10, consisting of raw vegetables and fruits (80% of carbohydrate foods should account for 10% of protein and fat). Arnstein has run more than 50 marathons and attributes his success to this raw-food diet, which brings him 6,000 calories a day. This transition helped him achieve better athletic results. Every ten days, Arnstein buys 225 kg of fruit to feed not only himself, but also four members of his family.

3. Michael Phelps

Sport: swimming.

Number of calories consumed: 12,000.

The diet of the absolute record holder for the number of awards in the history of the Olympic Games, to put it mildly, is impressive. In preparation for the Olympics, the swimming star consumed as many as 12,000 calories a day. His daily diet consists of half a kilo of pasta, a whole pizza, three fried egg sandwiches, oatmeal, and French toast. When the public learned about his diet, a flash mob called "The Michael Phelps Challenge" appeared online — people tried to eat like a famous swimmer all day.

4. Nick Hardwick

Sport: American football.

Number of calories consumed per day: about 5,000.

After leaving the San Diego Chargers, the former linesman changed his NFL diet and dropped 38 kg in 5 months. But before that, he was eating ice cream buckets and drinking 700-calorie protein shakes. Today, Hardwick follows a paleo diet consisting mainly of whole foods.

5. The Rock

Sport: wrestling.

Number of calories consumed: 5000.

What's the Rock cooking up again? Looks like brown rice and fish again. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson eats a lot of seafood — cod alone 370 kg a year. Of course, such a diet will quickly get bored. That is why Johnson arranges for himself legendary days of cheating, during which he eats an incredible amount of fast food.

6. John Call

Sport: acrobatics.

Average number of calories consumed: 3400-4500.

The inventor of acrobolix-a hybrid of acrobatics and power loads-found his current form thanks to the fact that he ate more than 45 kg of chicken a week. Once a week, Coll prepares his famous lunch, which includes 6 kg of potatoes and 12 cups of rice.

7. J. J. Watt

Sport: American football.

Average calorie intake: 9,000.

The Houston Texans quarterback started "eating avocado" after realizing his body needed extra fuel. To increase the fat layer, the player increased the daily consumption of potatoes and began to combine breakfast and lunch. JJ's typical meal consists of French toast and a potato omelet.

8. David Carter

Sport: American football.

Average number of calories: 10,000.

This 136-pound athlete manages to maintain his weight by sitting on a strict vegetarian diet. He consumes 10,000 calories a day, and his diet consists of greens, rice, quinoa, nuts, and legumes. Carter eats every two hours, and a lot of it. Every morning, he starts with a bucket of bean smoothies (100 g of protein) and drinks this drink throughout the day.

9. Riff Raff

Sport: wrestling.

Number of calories consumed: about 4000.

Although Riff Raff is primarily a musician (rapper), his transformation into a 108-pound beast proved that Jody Highroller is a serious athlete. With Hulk Hogan's blessing, Riff Raff ate pizzas, burgers, shrimp, and lots of meat in the evenings to reach his weight goal and join the world of wrestling.

10. Usain Bolt

Sport: track and field.

Number of calories consumed: 5500.

Despite the fact that many people say that going to McDonald's often is harmful, Usain Bolt regularly does it every day. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Olympic champion ate 47,000 calories of chicken McNuggets. And he has medals to prove that it has done him good. Bolt used to eat nuggets and French fries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and his usual snack was apple pie.