Men and women are estimated to eat an average between 2,300 and 2,800 calories a day and workout for half an hour. But for the world’s best athletes, this is nowhere near enough. Learn more about some famous athletes and their diet plans.
We just want to discover the secrets of the world’s most successful people. Of course, part of their success can be attributed to natural ability. But some of their lifestyle habits and routines can also be applied to the rest of us.
This article focuses on the eating habits of elite athletes.
Food influences our performance. Whether in sports or business, more than any other lifestyle factor.
We then sought to learn how the best athletes in the world eat and what things we would be able to take and apply to our own lives.
Here are the popular athletes with their diet plan:
1. Andy Murray: A Famous Tennis Athlete
Sport: Tennis
Calories: 5,500
Exercise: 5.5 hours a day
On a regular day of training, Murray eats muesli or porridge accompanied by eggs, bacon, and beans for breakfast. Fruit smoothie and protein and veggies are on the menu for lunch. According to Men’s Health, dinner contains soup, fish, or salad starters, followed by chicken, potatoes, and vegetables.
The tennis champion is meditating to remain focused, according to Ladbrokes.
2. Michael Arnstein
Sport: Marathon runner
Calorie count: 4,000-6,000 calories
Long-distance runner Michael Arnstein, who is nicknamed the Fruitarian, lives off consisting mostly of raw food. Arnstein has competed in more than 50 marathons and credits his successes to his 6,000 calorie raw vegan diet. The switch helped him to shave off his racing time for 17 minutes. Every ten days, Arnstein buys 500 lbs of fruit to feed himself and his four other family members.
3. Athlete Nick Hardwick: Famous American Footballer
Sport: Football
Calorie count: ~5,000 calories
Since graduating from the San Diego Chargers, the ex-liner transformed his NFL diet and dropped 85-pounds in five months. Until retirement, the previously 300-pound player ate nighttime pints of Ben and Jerry’s before bed, and 700-calorie protein shakes. Today, Hardwick is sticking to a Paleo diet consisting mostly of whole foods.
4. Athlete Ronda Rousey: A Famous Professional Wrestler
Sports: Wrestling
Calories: 2,706
Exercise: 6 hours a day
UFC star Rousey practices “The Dolce Diet,” according to Cosmopolitan. This diet contains all the nutrient-rich ingredients that are essential for building muscle mass and encouraging recovery. While she says she doesn’t count calories, her diet often consists of:
- A chia bowl and coffee for breakfast,
- Scrambled eggs for lunch,
- Something like turkey chili for dinner,
- And Greek yogurt for dessert.
5. JJ Watt
Sport: Football
Average calorie count: 9,000 calories
The Houston Texans defensive lead began “crushing avocados” after he learned that his body needed some extra fuel. To increase his body weight, the player increased his regular intake of sweet potatoes and fell in love with brunch. A typical JJ Watt brunch meal includes a stuffed French toast and a potato pancake omelet.
6. Wayne Rooney
Sport: Football
Calories: 4,575
Exercise: 6 hours a day
The footballer eats a bowl of coco pops on the matchday of the morning, according to Ladbrokes. And he also practices visualization exercises to check his mental state.
In his book “My Decade in the Premier League,” he wrote: “The club likes us not to go overboard to eat and drink at the end of the season, so if I go abroad, I want to go to the hotel gym three days a week to work on the treadmill and do some weight work. That way, when we get back to training, I will be sharp, and running will feel better when the pre-season games start.”
7. Matt Kalil
Sport: Football
Average calorie count: 7,000 calories
Despite losing 20 pounds after coming down with pneumonia, the Minnesota Vikings offensive player maintains his 315-pound frame by indulging in a diet high in fast food. Back in 2012, the menu included breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, fruit, cottage cheese, toast, and sausage. Sounds harmless enough, but Kalil will indulge in pizza, burgers, and sloppy joe’s come over for lunch. The 7,000-calorie NFL diet contains high-calorie protein shakes, pasta, and lots of snacks in more recent years.
8. David Carter
Sport: Football
Average calorie count: 10,000 calories
Despite being a 300-pound football player, David Carter was able to maintain his size and, at the same time eating a strict vegetarian diet. The 300-pound defensive lineman eats 10,000 calories a day, consisting of greens, rice, quinoa, nuts, and beans. Carter eats every two hours, according to GQ, and eats hard. Every morning, he begins with a huge batch of bean smoothies in his Vitamix blender (a total of 100 grams of protein), which he divests over the course of the day.
9. Athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill: A Famous Olympic Champion
Calories: 1,749
Exercise: 6 hours a day
The now-retired Ennis-Hill practiced almost twice as much as Usain Bolt. According to Women’s Fitness, she mixed up her routine to “surprise” her body, from circuit workouts to crunches, press-ups, jumps, planks and dips to sprints.
According to Ladbrokes, the gold medal heptathlete is still walking her dog as part of her workout routine.
In terms of diet,
- Breakfast includes bread, cereal, or granola with yogurt
- Milk, fruit, or cereal bars for a mid-morning snack,
- Burgers, pastries, salads, or soups for lunch,
- Curry, stir-fry, pasta, salmon, risotto, or lasagna for dinner. She even indulges in an odd glass of red wine.
10. The Rock
Sport: WWE Wrestling
Average calorie count: 5,000 calories
Could you smell what The Rock is cooking for? It turns out there’s a lot of brown rice and fish. Dwayne’ The Rock’ Johnson eats a diet so dense in seafood that his annual cod intake amounts to 821-pounds of fish per year. Understandably, such a routine diet can easily become monotonous. That’s why Johnson indulges in legendary days of stealing. If you feel like you may want to take The Rock’s Diet on your own, watch the Sean Evans Complex try a day in The Rock’s life and fail miserably.
11. A Famous Martial Artist and Boxer: Athlete Conor McGregor
Calories: 3,186
Exercise: 8 hours a day
While eight hours a day might sound like an excessive amount of exercise, FC Champion Conor McGregor doesn’t stick to a strict fitness routine, according to Bodybuilding.com.
He wakes up, drinks water, stretches, begins to loosen up, and then he continues moving throughout the day. He’ll hit the gym or whatever he feels like at that particular time, or he’ll take a class of taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, yoga, or capoeira. Sometimes, he’ll box. Variety is the best way. For him, the regime doesn’t work.
He added that he’s always consuming healthy food and that he’s rarely caught eating take-out.
Conor loves plain and coconut water, but he never drinks energy drinks ever. He just eats good, quality meat and keeps hydrated.
