Daily diet of an Olympic athlete

Creative project brings athletes' meals to life

If you’ve ever wondered just how much food an Olympic athlete puts away in a day, wonder no more as two creatives have brought to life the daily diets of five Olympians.

ABOVE: A day on my plate: female 100m sprinter. Photographed by Michael Bodiam and Sarah Parker for Nowness

The A Day on My Plate project is the brainchild of creatives Michael Bodiam and Sarah Parker, who have graphically re-imagined Olympian nutritionist Dan Benardot's ideal diets for five star athletes, from a 17-year-old gymnast's 2282-calorie daily diet to the blueberries and chocolate milk intake of a male triathlete.

ABOVE: A day on my plate: male figure skater. Photographed by Michael Bodiam and Sarah Parker for Nowness

Using oversized table-settings made of cardboard and paper, Bodiam and Parker filled the plates with, what looks like tiny servings of food, but are in fact real-life portions of everything from fruit and vegetables to pieces of chicken, salmon fillets and even chips.

ABOVE: A day on my plate: female hammer thrower. Photographed by Michael Bodiam and Sarah Parker for Nowness

Speaking about the project commissioned by the Nowness website, set designer Parker said: "I wanted people to be able to draw direct comparison between the diets, and to produce something quite playful that subtly hinted at the sport each athlete participated in."

ABOVE: A day on my plate: male triathlete. Photographed by Michael Bodiam and Sarah Parker for Nowness

While the idea of diet filled with chips, chocolate milk and pieces of salami may at first appear counter-intuitive to the lean, muscular physiques we normally associate with Olympians, sports nutritionist Benardot explains why the athletes have no trouble handling the extra calories:

"Many of these athletes have such enormous energy requirements and they're so metabolically capable you could practically throw anything down the gullet and they'd be able to burn it," he told Nowness.