The water cooler talk of the week has to be, “could you eat Michael Phelps’ diet?”

The man is a sporting miracle. He has also happens to be an eating miracle, apparently* scoffing his way through 12,000 calories a day.

Forget about getting a free meal if you eat a 32 oz steak at your local pub, this is serious eating.

The Guardian’s Jon Henley thought he was man enough to have a go himself.

“It just smells so horrible,” says the photographer, helpfully, as we survey the table before us. On it are a large bowl of porridge; three doorstep-sized sandwiches of white bread, butter, fried egg, fried onion, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise; a five-egg omelette tastefully garnished with parsley; three slices of French toast liberally sprinkled with sugar; three pancakes topped with chocolate chips; and two large cups of coffee. That’s breakfast. Yummy.

You can watch Jon Henley try and manage his way through the day’s diet.

Monty Python’s Mr Creosote springs to mind.

Looking at Phelps’ diet, I’m surprised the the calorie count only comes out about 12,000: there’s just so much fat, sugar and gunk in there. I’ve always harboured a secret desire to turn Pukka Pies into a health food – it looks like they’ve missed the sponsorship opportunity of a lifetime.

*My cynical PR radar is just going off. I remember reading this story in The Metro earlier in the week, but I do wonder where it originally came from. Still, like all good stories, it’s got people talking.