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Comment by mvieira38 | Hacker News Reader

Would you say Luka, Neymar and others are outrunning their diets? Did Shaq, too? You don't automatically get a good physique by being an athlete, you still have to earn it. People just see that all of the top athletes have earned it and take it for granted, like they don't have world class dieticians and a huge financial incentive to maintain a strict diet

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Michael Phelps did outswim his diet. He famously ate a lot of junk food and pizza, and yet remained fit because of his huge daily calorie expenditure. A direct quote from an interview with him, where he states: "I just sort of try to cram whatever I can into my body. It’s pretty much whatever I feel like eating, I’m going to eat".

I think the challenge with swimming is that there is thermodynamics of swimming through water to also contend with. So your body is also having to keep warm whilst losing heat to better heat conducting fluid (water vs air). But I still agree, if Phelps was running or even walking with the same effort he could eat similarly.

How many hours per day was he swimming?

A lot. But a possible amount.

Clearly a possibly amount since he did it.

Would it be possible for someone who was not supporting themselves that way? I.e. for someone with a 40 hr / week job?

I don't know about possible, but I'm sure the Michael Phelps regimen is wildly impractical for everyone, including Michael Phelps.

My personal experience is that "outrunning" a poor diet is absolutely possible, and I kind of did it unintentionally. I started biking to work out of necessity. I wasn't planning to lose weight, but it happened. I had no weight loss ambitions or plans, but it was probably a good thing.

The problem is comparing the average person to one of the greatest Olympic athletes is completely pointless because of genetics.

Shaq could easily dunk a basketball weighing 300lbs. You can't infer from that then that any person can weigh 300lbs and dunk a basketball.

I'm not the one who brought up Michael Phelps. Much less extreme cases have worked too. It's probably easier than dunking a basketball.

Sure, but I think we can still safely say you can't outrun a bad diet when only less than 1% of people who try are successful at it.

I can't take this Luka slander. The guy carried the ungrateful Mavericks team for 6 seasons averaging 35mpg. He's not out of shape. Same thing with Jokic, 10 seasons of 32mpg average. Their mpg also go up in the playoffs.

People need to stop thinking about <10% body fat as the "athletic standard". Some players are super skinny, some players have more mass to them and use it to their advantage.

I do agree with regards to Shaq, the guy coasted in his talent later in his career and let himself go. Had he a better work ethic he could have been in the conversation for one of the greatest players ever.

I'm a Luka fan, but he does look a (hehe) little chubby these past 2 seasons and it has impacted his game noticeably. Just compare the explosiveness from his first seasons to now

Doesn't matter how you look, if you can play those kind of minutes and perform like they do you're in athletic shape. Luka and Jokic don't need to be super slim like Edwards, Morant and Westbrook because they don't rely on supernatural athleticism - they rely on other facets of their game where having a bit more mass is advantageous or at the very least not detrimental.

In any case, Doncic got bullied and embarrassed by Mavs FO's comments about his weight and work ethic(complete lies to try and save face for their terrible and shady trade) so you can look forward to a slimmer Luka next season.

When I did my first two fights in muay thai I wasn't watching my weight neither changing my diet during fight camp and came in 6kg underweight.

I was absolutely shredded and still ate stuff like katsu curry weekly

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