Sunday, August 17, 2008

olympic proportions

Now that the Michael Phelps Olympics® has ended you can get on with being productive in your life. As much fun as it's been to watch someone invincible, here's a sad fact of life. The average American gains 4.5 lbs during the Olympics.

The reason for the weight gain are believed to be several. One, sitting on your ass and watching 6-8 hours of television a day isn't very healthy. Second, apparently watching world-class atheletes perform at levels well beyond the reach of the average Gallup poll respondent tends to increase one's metabolic rate, although not to the exent of the atheletes who are competing for 1 million dollars bonuses and the rights to wear an $800 swim suit.

Professional atheletes, like Phelps and Tour de France cyclists, consume 10,000-12,000 calories a day to provide the fuel they need to power their way through multiple competitions or over the Alpe D'Huez. If you're swimming 1500 meters just to warm up, or riding 150 kilometers a day to stay fit, you can pretty much eat anything you want. If you've skipped a few workouts this week to keep up with the Olympic coverage, you'd be better off dialing the nachos down a knotch since Americans who watch the Olympics tend to consume about 3,000 calories per day when 2,500 would do.

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