I’m only talking about the claims about his nutritional/fitness habits. These bits sound too much like the person who says they only get a couple hours sleep a night but they really sleep 4-5, meaning that they do get less sleep but then greatly exaggerate the claim when describing it. Some relevant quotes from the article:
and
Not debating that HW is still all tore up but the claims about his routines seem dubious. 3-4 days without eating and then putting in a 7hr intense workout? :dubious:
Calories in calories out. Maybe its ‘uber bread’ and he eats a ton of it. The 4 day thing I could imagine as a one off, but he’d be significantly reduced in performance Id think.
I basically eat once a day. I have coffee in the morning and have my big meal at lunch then dinner I’ll eat about 200 - 300 caloires. I’ve been eating this way almost all my life.
When I was young I worked in hotels and you’d get one free meal a day, so I’d fill up on it.
He says he eats salad and bread? Well what’s in the salad. Beans and grains are a complete protein. How much does he eat at one sitting?
Not eating for three or four days, unlikely. Oh it’s possible, people in Africa don’t eat every day. Many tribes eat every other day. It depends on their food supply. Western nations are spoiled like this. But four days straight? 96 hours without food and still not feeling effects? I doubt that. Of course you can easily go that long without food, but you’d feel it.
Situps and pushup, that’s easy if you’re in shape, I can easily do 2,000 situps. I don’t do push ups but if you get a routine it’s not hard.
I’m sure the claims are exaggerated a bit, but it’s nothing really extro
Never heard anything about that eating stuff. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me. Having seen him in person, I can confidently say he is a genetic outlier.
Remember we frequently discuss how many calories are available in beverages when we discuss diets here also … how many calories in an 8 oz glass of whatever it is he may swill during the day?
I bet he drinks soda, gatorade, perhaps even ‘power shakes’ - how many calories is there in a chocolate shake? I bet he could be drinking a chocolate shake during the day and not even thinking that it has 500 calories or more. Since he claims total disinterest over what he is eating, I would bet that he doesn’t go for diet drinks.
One thing’s for sure, he’s not like the rest of us. His physical abilities, demonstrated again and again by world class performances in a variety of disciplines, I think put him in a place where conventional expectations run some element of risk. The two artices written what, 18 years apart, are pretty consistent as to his regimen. I remember his NFL teammates talking about his 3000 sit ups/day. Seems most teammates and coaches he’s had have witnessed and accepted what rightfully leaves us incredulous.
Who’s to say if every aspect as written is sacrosanct but what he does and how he does it goes orders of magnitude beyond what most will find near unbelivable.
Oh I agree, that part as stated does seem to fly in the face of everything we know to be rational. It is unquoted so I wonder if the author is over-generalizing what makes a meal or if Mendez’s observations were misunderstood or what. That’s a bit of a stretch, so off to see if I can find some corroboration…
I remember reading that earlier article when I was in high school, what, 28 years ago? Egads. But after I read it I figured I’d try to do what he did- situps and pushups during commercials while I watched TV at night. I think I lasted through maybe one episode of The Love Boat.
Although I was searching on the ‘not eat for days’ part, most of the articles I came across include the workout claims, the one late meal a day “He eats one meal a day, at night,” he said of Walker’s meal plan. “He has salad, soup, maybe chicken soup, and bread, and he’s not afraid to put butter on it. He eats no meat and no fish.”, and the relative lack of sleep.
What seems to be left out of the ones I saw was exactly what we found most questionable, the “without having eaten for 3 or 4 days” part. They agree on everything else but that part’s omitted. So it’d be nice if CNN’s Madison Park was clearer as to where that came from.
If he is drinking non-diet drinks, he’s consuming calories.
He might not eat a meal, but if he is downing sports drinks and other drinks with calories, he might very well classify that as not eating, but he could down thousands of calories just by drinking them.
I would tend to say that this would make a few days without solid foods possible and not shocking at all.
Also, the ‘no meat, no fish’ bit suspiciously ignores poultry, which can handily fit into many salads.
I don’t care about how remarkable and different he is from us, there’s a lot of hype in this one.