---
title: Usain Bolt Ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets in 10 Days in Beijing Olympics
description: That's 47,000 calories… without Sweet 'N Sour sauce
canonical: https://time.com/3912896/usain-bolt-chicken-mcnuggets-olympics/
author: Laura Stampler
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2013-11-04T18:09:30.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:38.109Z
og:title: Usain Bolt Ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets in 10 Days in Beijing Olympics
og:description: That's 47,000 calories… without Sweet 'N Sour sauce
og:url: https://time.com/3912896/usain-bolt-chicken-mcnuggets-olympics/
og:site_name: TIME
og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2c78a092dc4cfca/6988537655a859898aa8c63b/79236266.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
og:image:width: 5120
og:image:height: 2880
og:image:alt: Usain Bolt Chicken McNuggets
og:type: article
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: Usain Bolt Ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets in 10 Days in Beijing Olympics
twitter:description: That's 47,000 calories… without Sweet 'N Sour sauce
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2c78a092dc4cfca/6988537655a859898aa8c63b/79236266.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
---
# Usain Bolt Ate 100 Chicken McNuggets a Day in Beijing and Somehow Won Three Gold Medals
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## Video: Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of?
[Watch (HLS stream): Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nGOOAY0j.m3u8) (5:05)
_Published 2015-01-20. Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of?_
by
[Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/)
## Laura Stampler
Nov 4, 2013 6:09 PM UTC
Dipping a chicken nugget in ketchup
Dipping a chicken nugget in ketchup Getty Images
by
[Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/)
## Laura Stampler
Nov 4, 2013 6:09 PM UTC
Michael Phelps might have singlehandedly upped pasta makers’ 2008 Q3 sales by carbo-loading on 12,000 calories a day prior to the Beijing Olympics, but Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt had a different dietary secret to success: Chicken McNuggets. Lots and lots of Chicken McNuggets.
In the ten days Bolt spent in Beijing, he downed approximately 1,000 nuggets, averaging 100 a day. At 940 calories per 20-piece box, that means that Usain ate about 4,700 calories worth of Chicken McNuggets a day and 47,000 calories over the course of his stay in China. (And that’s without Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce, which, let’s face it, only a fool would pass up.)
“At first, I ate a box of 20 for lunch, then another for dinner,” [Usain writes in his soon-to-be released autobiography _Faster than Lightning._ ](http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/usain-bolt-reveals-he-devoured-1000-chicken-mcnuggets-during-the-2008-beijing-olympics-8920870.html)“The next day I had two boxes for breakfast, one for lunch and then another couple in the evening. I even grabbed some fries and an apple pie to go with it.”
All because he thought Chinese food was “odd.”
Rather than [leading to hospitalization](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763%5F162-57367638-10391704/british-teen-stacey-irvine-hospitalized-after-eating-nothing-but-chicken-nuggets-for-15-years/) or limitation to movement via the [floating chairs you saw the amorphous blobs use in _WALL-E_,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg) Usain’s diet resulted in three Olympic gold medals for being really, really fast.
“Man, I should have gotten a gold medal for all that chowing down,” he writes.
How has there not been a commercial about this??
### QUIZ: Should You Eat This or That?
Which is better for you: Half cup of ice cream or 3 scoops of sorbet? Getty Images (4)
Answer: A half cup of ice cream If you eat what you’re craving, you’re more likely to feel satisfied and eat less. And scoop for scoop sorbet contains twice the sugar with none of the filling dairy protein and fat. Getty Images (5); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Real butter or spray on fake butter? Getty Images; Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: Butter Serving size for spray butters (even low-calorie ones) are around a 1/3 second spray. What on earth does that mean? You're better off using a small amount of real butter as opposed to guessing how much you're using of the mystery melange of up to 20 ingredients. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: A turkey burger or a sirloin burger? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Sirloin burger Restaurant turkey burgers are often made with dark meat and the skin, so they’re not necessarily better for you (and for the record, they aren't low-fat). You can get a sirloin burger that’s 95% lean meat and gives you 20 g of protein. Just be careful with the toppings. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Almonds or pretzels? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Almonds Almonds are high in protein, fiber and fat and will keep you feeling fuller longer. Give high-sodium pretzels about an hour and you'll feel hungry again thanks to the high-carb no-fat or protein content. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Special K or eggs? AP; Getty Images
Answer: Eggs In the morning, you want a meal that will fill you up. Eggs offer protein and fat for satiety, but Special K cereal really only offers carbs and, well, air. If you want carbs to kick off the day, you're better off pairing eggs with a slice of 100% whole grain toast. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Fat free salad dressing or regular salad dressing? Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: Regular salad dressingTo absorb fat soluble vitamins like Vitamins E and K in vegetables you need to consume them with a fat to aid nutrient absorption. Fat-free dressing, meanwhile, is low-calorie but gets its flavor from added sugar and salt. Tara Johnson for TIME (5); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: A low fat cookie or dark chocolate? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Dark chocolate “People believe fat free is calorie free,” says Keri Gans, a registered dietitian in New York City. “Go for the real thing.” Fat free cookies tend to be high in carbs, sugar and fake sugar. Try a nice piece of antioxidant-rich dark chocolate instead. Getty Images (2); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Low fat Greek yogurt or 100 calorie Yoplait yogurt? Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: 2% Greek YogurtA little fat is good in the morning to keep you full—plus it has upwards of 17g of protein per container. Fat-free "fruit" yogurt is high in sugar—7 to 10 g per serving—and lower in protein. Tara Johnson for TIME (2); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
_Read next:_ [_How Your Favorite Fast-Food Meals Are Changing_](http://time.com/3896465/taco-bell-fast-food-changes/?iid=time%5Freadnext)
[_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article)
## Transcript
[00:00] After graduating college I worked a lot of late nights as
[00:03] an engineer. And when I'd get out of work the only
[00:05] thing that was open was McDonald's. My favorite thing
[00:08] was the fries. But, the thing is, I stopped eating them.
[00:13] I felt guilty about eating their food. So that's why when
[00:16] they asked me to help you find answers I was little
[00:18] skeptical at first. But then I thought. Maybe this is a
[00:21] chance to get to the truth. Now, as an engineer I
[00:24] normally take a bunch of components and put them to
[00:26] gether to form a machine. Any machine can be
[00:29] deconstructed. And by looking at the assembly
[00:31] process in reverse, you can get a better idea of how
[00:34] it's made. And that's what I'm gonna do with
[00:36] McDonald's french fries. I'm gonna reverse engineer
[00:39] the whole process. I'll start with the fully finished fry,
[00:43] and in the end, hopefully. I'll have a potato that came
[00:46] straight out of the ground. So Coco, Ive been asked by
[00:50] people, " Are the fries even made out of potatoes ?"
[00:51] " Are they ground up and mashed into the fries
[00:55] shape ?". Sure, that is why I am glad you are here
[00:58] today. We are going to take you through the whole
[01:00] process so we can make sure you have your answers.
[01:02] Ok, so from the very end, all the way back to the
[01:04] beginning Yes. We are at the end of the freezer tunnel.
[01:08] Now I know what you are thinking. These look like
[01:11] potatoes, but are they really potatoes? Let's
[01:16] go check out the rest of the process. All right. So this
[01:20] whole thing is the freezer tunnel. Yes, it's about
[01:24] 50 yards in length. So the fries go in unfrozen, they
[01:28] come out .>> Frozen. What about me. What if I went in
[01:30] one side and came out the other? It would turn you a
[01:33] Grantcicle. [ LAUGH ]. SO what's before freezing. So
[01:38] these are actually cooked. Yeah they're partially frying
[01:41] and then the final preparation is done at the
[01:43] restaurant. WHy do you partially fry them. Well we want
[01:47] to make sure we get that crisp outer shell. Yes, I like
[01:51] that part. Yeah. So before they're partially fried what
[01:55] happens? This is the ingredient dip where we control
[01:58] the color and we're adding dextrose, a natural sugar
[02:02] to make sure we get a consistent color no matter what
[02:05] time of the year it is. Also, a sodium acid
[02:08] pyrophosphate. What is that? That's gonna make sure
[02:11] that we control the grain after freezing. So this is all
[02:14] about maintaining. Consistency all throughout this
[02:18] process. Yes. It's no wonder that the fries always
[02:22] taste the same. They always taste really good. Well
[02:26] let's keep going back. All right Coco so here's a big
[02:30] one. Now, I've been asked by people to show them the
[02:34] machine where you take the mashed up potato goo
[02:37] and you inject it into these molds in order to make the
[02:41] perfect french fries .>> They don't do that here.
[02:43] Behind us you can see whole potatoes coming at
[02:46] us .>> Yes, and I see this thing that, that looks like a
[02:50] cannon .>> It works similar to a cannon. We're lining
[02:53] up the potatoes in a tube with high pressure water.
[02:56] And shooting them through a water knife here. It's
[02:58] precision cutting. What? Check that out. This is crazy.
[03:03] How fast do they fire through here? 60 to 70 miles per
[03:07] hour. So Coco. Where does the ammo for the potato
[03:11] gun come from? Let's go find out. So these are all the
[03:14] potatoes coming in. I think some of these are huge.
[03:18] That one's as big as my forearm. Are you using GMO
[03:21] potatoes? No. We don't use GMO potatoes for
[03:24] McDonald's fries. But we do use different varieties. So
[03:27] we have russet, burbanks and umatillas. Potatoes are
[03:30] just like people. They come in different shapes and
[03:32] sizes. [ LAUGH ] And they're all beautiful. They're all
[03:35] beautiful. So I've been all through this
[03:39] factory and I've seen the potatoes come off the trucks.
[03:43] I got one final question, where does this come from? So
[03:47] all around us, under these vines, we'll find what makes
[03:50] Mac fries. All right. Clear the vines away, start digging.
[03:56] Am I doing good? [ LAUGH ] You're doing well. It's like
[03:58] an Easter egg hunt. > [ LAUGH ] Oh, this is like the
[04:02] worst Easter egg ever. Oh, look. This is it, right? See?
[04:11] A real potato. This is where it all begins. So you
[04:14] wanted to know McDonald's fries come from, or if
[04:16] they're even made out of potatoes. So I went to. I went
[04:19] backwards through the whole process, saw exactly
[04:21] how they're made and traced it all the way back to
[04:24] here, to this potato. Pretty simple.
[04:28] I know you have questions. I have questions, too. So
[04:31] keep asking and I'll find the answers.
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