As US swimming sensation Michael Phelps sets his sights on more gold medal wins at the Beijing Olympics this weekend, the BBC examines the part an extraordinary diet has played in the sportsman's remarkable success. If it is true that you are what you eat, then here is the suggested intake if you want to become history's most successful Olympian:

For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.

For lunch: half a kilogramme (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks.

For dinner: Another half-kilogramme of pasta, perhaps with a carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.

That combination may not sound very healthy, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five average men for a day.

The Phelps diet is not recommended for everyone. Due to his muscle-intensive physique, the swimmer's metabolism - the process of converting food into energy - far exceeds that of a more average man, said Jeff Kotterman, director of the US National Association of Sports Nutrition. "It's a combination of peak performance coupled with the fact that he has an enormous metabolism - he burns more calories sitting at a desk than a lot of people burn walking," Mr Kotterman told the BBC.

He suggested Phelps, with an estimated 8% body fat, probably burns 1,000 calories per hour during his swimming training, compared to the equivalent exercise for an average person - vigorous walking - that would burn between 170 and 240 calories. Consequently, trying to emulate the Phelps diet by consuming up to 12,000 calories a day in order to attain his physique would more than likely come to a wobbly end. One pound of fat has roughly 3,500 calories, so an ordinary man could put on almost three pounds of fat a day. But then again, Michael Phelps - who has now won the 400m medley, 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 4x100m free relay, 4x200m free relay and the 200m medley in world record times - is clearly no ordinary man.