--- title: Here's What Ryan Lochte's Insane Daily Diet Consists Of description: The Olympic swimmer shares his daily diet, including his go-to breakfast and ritual Friday evening meal. Warning: calorie overload ahead. canonical: https://time.com/4439596/pancakes-fettuccine-and-tofu-heres-ryan-lochtes-free-for-all-daily-diet/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-04T20:13:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:08.932Z og:title: Here's What Ryan Lochte's Insane Daily Diet Consists Of og:description: The Olympic swimmer shares his diet — and it's not for the weight-loss set og:url: https://time.com/4439596/pancakes-fettuccine-and-tofu-heres-ryan-lochtes-free-for-all-daily-diet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Ryan Lochte's Insane Daily Diet Consists Of twitter:description: The Olympic swimmer shares his diet — and it's not for the weight-loss set twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Pancakes, Fettuccine and Tofu: Here's Ryan Lochte's Free-for-all Daily Diet > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 4, 2016 8:13 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 4, 2016 8:13 PM UTC Ryan Lochte, the 11-time Olympic medalist, consumes almost 8,000 calories a day with a diet that’s a veritable free-for-all of calorie-rich foods. Of course, that’s because he’s burning so much as he preps for the ultimate face-off against Michael Phelps next week in Rio. Still: a lot of food. He told [_Bon Appetit_](http://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/ryan-lochte-olympics-diet) “if I’m not eating, then something is wrong.” [Eight thousand calories](http://time.com/4433184/most-calories-chain-restaurant-meal-applebees/) demands both a great deal of chewing (at one point, he said, his jaw got sore from all the consumption) and a great deal of food preparation, so luckily he has the help of a personal chef, Glenn Lyman, who previously worked for basketball champ Lebron James. Breakfast is a major undertaking, involving five to six eggs with spinach, tomatoes, and ham; hash browns or some kind of potatoes; pancakes; oatmeal; fruit; and a French vanilla coffee with sugar and milk. With his grueling training before a match, carbo-loading is important; he’ll double down on pastas like Fettuccine Alfredo and proteins like chicken and steak. A few hours before a match, he’ll chow down on another whole meal, too. There are countless other staples you might not expect from one of the world’s best athletes. 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