BRO Science...

People believe that you can lose weight and get ripped while eating any garbage you feel like, as long as you follow a specific calorie macro.

Though I do not disagree with this way of thinking, I would love to see someone win a marathon while sticking to such a diet.

Any takers for this challenge?

I don't think you need any takers, you could probably find some athletes who have done marathons fuelled by junk food diet. Just look at Michael Phelps..etc.

I'd bet my left arm that no Olympic athlete has been eating junk food to get where they are.

Where can I collect that arm?

Michael Phelps typical daily diet:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

I find it strange that people are so confident of their beliefs when they have done zero research on the topic. Or not even research, most people have heard through the grapevine about the crap Phelps eats.

People believe that you can lose weight and get ripped while eating any garbage you feel like, as long as you follow a specific calorie macro.

Though I do not disagree with this way of thinking, I would love to see someone win a marathon while sticking to such a diet.

Any takers for this challenge?

I don't think you need any takers, you could probably find some athletes who have done marathons fuelled by junk food diet. Just look at Michael Phelps..etc.

I'd bet my left arm that no Olympic athlete has been eating junk food to get where they are.

Where can I collect that arm?

Michael Phelps typical daily diet:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

He's an endurance athlete and he needs to store energy. No one in here is an endurance athlete that trains 6 days a week for 5-6 hours. The guys basically burns about 7000-8000 calories from training alone. There are people who are extremely out of shape that are eating 5000-7000 of what he is eating with no exercise at all.

So what? The "challenge" was that no elite athlete can get to where they are by eating junk, and just concentrating on how many calories they require. There was no distinction between what type of athlete or how much they train. Would it matter if he trained less, and ate less pasta / etc?

Looks like Phelps fits the bill to me.

Oh, you mean junk food like eggs, cheese, bread, lettuce, tomato, onion, eggs, flour, some sugar?

I thought you meant ONLY junk food. Like the original hypothesis. You know, a Twinkie diet, with hot dogs and gummy bears. No eggs (protein - cheese - protein and good fats - lettuce, tomato, onion - um, veggies - pizza, still not unhealthy - pasta - yes, proportionally everyone needs carbs)....I don't consider Phelp's diet to be junk food. Just normal food. With a lot of protein. He probably ate a dozen eggs that day, too. He eats 10,000 cals, ferchissakes. No one could eat that in Twinkies and hot dogs.

But thanks for playing.

And where was "junk food" defined to mean only twinkies in this thread? Phelps' diet has a ridiculous amount of carbs, not "proportional" at all.

And where was "junk food" defined to mean only twinkies in this thread? Phelps' diet has a ridiculous amount of carbs, not "proportional" at all.

This thread was not very specific, but it seems to be referring to athletes who don't make any particular effort eat healthy, not ones that strictly try to eat completely unhealthy foods. Like athletes that are on a strict diet versus those that eat as they please, which of course wouldn't be all junk. At least that's how I interpreted it.

I ate stacks of pancakes, biscuits, waffles, drenched in all the flavored syrups, every Saturday morning while on my contest prep and the night before my bodybuilding show. At cookies at the show, and I even had chick fil A between the morning show and the night show.

Olympic athletes have to eat a ton of food because of how much they burn. It would be practically impossible to eat that many calories in all whole, healthy foods... they would be eating all day long.

People believe that you can lose weight and get ripped while eating any garbage you feel like, as long as you follow a specific calorie macro.

Though I do not disagree with this way of thinking, I would love to see someone win a marathon while sticking to such a diet.

Any takers for this challenge?

I don't think you need any takers, you could probably find some athletes who have done marathons fuelled by junk food diet. Just look at Michael Phelps..etc.

I'd bet my left arm that no Olympic athlete has been eating junk food to get where they are.

Where can I collect that arm?

Michael Phelps typical daily diet:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

He's an endurance athlete and he needs to store energy. No one in here is an endurance athlete that trains 6 days a week for 5-6 hours. The guys basically burns about 7000-8000 calories from training alone. There are people who are extremely out of shape that are eating 5000-7000 of what he is eating with no exercise at all.

So what? The "challenge" was that no elite athlete can get to where they are by eating junk, and just concentrating on how many calories they require. There was no distinction between what type of athlete or how much they train. Would it matter if he trained less, and ate less pasta / etc?

Looks like Phelps fits the bill to me.

Let's say if the 12,000 calories to a million calories were to be true which only the media
and fools would believe this bullcrap lets maybe considered a few things.

Facts:

Phelps began swimming as a competitor at the age of 7
Phelps hasn't ate like this all his life obviously.
Phelps didn't begin training this intense until this became his job, or up until his training required him to eat this much.
Phelps made the Olympic team at the age of 15
Not everything he is eating is actually junk food.
Guy has been fit and active all his life almost.
Once in a lifetime athlete in his sport, and any sport

Pasta is a healthy source of fiber. If he doesn't have any type of ailment related to diabetes and his glucose levels are fine
then there is no reason for him not to eat pasta.

White bread is not considered junk food unless you have medical issues. We practically been eating
white bread for years.

Bananas are not junk food

Eggs are not junk food even if fried with a clean source of oil

Lettuce is not junk food

Tomatoes is not junk food

Grits are healthy and are a great source of fiber.

Ham and cheese even while processed are considered healthy to eat

Anyways, the funny thing is that we haven't see any videos of Phelps actually eating 12,000 calories so if you guys choose to believe this kool aid that has been questioned for some time then feel free to do it. What we do see videos of is idiots in youtube trying to take the "michael phelps challenge". He has been asked in interviews about him eating 12,000 calories and his reply to it sounds more like someone that is unsure or something that you would expect from someone not really complying with what is believed. In one interview his reply was that he eats as many calories as he can and didn't say he was eating all the food that was shown to him. Never did he directly said that he eats all that. Another Olympic trainer and nutritionist that has worked with many runners and athletes in the past also believed he ate closer to 8000 calories more likely. Eating 12,000 calories would require the athlete to spend most of the day eating.

Back to topic

The thread starter basically wanted to see a marathon runner get by having a diet that is fueled by junk food.

Define junk food for me? A marathon runner needs to be fully hydrated, and carb load before a marathon from good sources such as pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and lots of greens such as the ones that come from spinach, broccoli and etc. A food that contains no fiber, or the essential minerals to keep your body function is what is considered junk food. No fiber, no potassium, heavy on sodium, low in protein, simple carbohydrates, full of bad fats, vitamin deficient, nutrient deficient, and etc.

No athlete would get by at all with a junk food diet such as the one that I describing. You would have no play no sports, or never have if you don't understand this. Most strength coaches in high school for football even with a mediocre knowledge of nutrition will tell their athletes to rest the day before the event, get rest, eat lots of pasta, drink lots of water, and eat as much healthy food that you can for a reason.

But the OP said you can't get ripped and lean while eating junk food then compared that to a marathoner. So is he talking about being ripped and lean or is his talking about performance? You can get ripped and lean eating crappy food as long as your macro-nutrients support ripped leaness and you energy expenditure is in balance with your intake.

lol

I hear this a lot but no one ever comes up with a junk food plan for getting ripped and lean. I also really doubt you eat junk food to look like you do.

People believe that you can lose weight and get ripped while eating any garbage you feel like, as long as you follow a specific calorie macro.

Though I do not disagree with this way of thinking, I would love to see someone win a marathon while sticking to such a diet.

Any takers for this challenge?

I don't think you need any takers, you could probably find some athletes who have done marathons fuelled by junk food diet. Just look at Michael Phelps..etc.

I'd bet my left arm that no Olympic athlete has been eating junk food to get where they are.

Where can I collect that arm?

Michael Phelps typical daily diet:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

I would like to point out that this IS a rather clean diet. By "garbage" I generally mean processed garbage like chicken fingers, frozen pizza, candy, cheap ice cream, soda, etc etc etc.

Eggs, bread, ham, pasta, any vegetable, etc., (Basically everything in M. Phelp's diet) IS good nutritious foods. Sure, it can be fried, but if he's using olive oil, he's getting good fats. More fats than a endurance athlete will want, but swimming is more of a sprint-type sport where big muscles and glycogen stores are more important than long-term stamina.

I'll just reiterate: That diet, aside from the energy drinks and pizza, is a good diet.

Read my post above ejean86, I basically requested people here to define junk food but ended up defining it myself, and providing some information.

I would like to point out that this IS a rather clean diet. By "garbage" I generally mean processed garbage like chicken fingers, frozen pizza, candy, cheap ice cream, soda, etc etc etc.

Eggs, bread, ham, pasta, any vegetable, etc., (Basically everything in M. Phelp's diet) IS good nutritious foods. Sure, it can be fried, but if he's using olive oil, he's getting good fats. More fats than a endurance athlete will want, but swimming is more of a sprint-type sport where big muscles and glycogen stores are more important than long-term stamina.

I'll just reiterate: That diet, aside from the energy drinks and pizza, is a good diet.

Can you also quantify your original post?

Are you questioning athletes who would consume a diet that is 100% junk? 50% junk? 20% junk? I think this is an important distinction.