Being a champion athlete is not something that comes easily. It requires years of hard work and determination. It also requires discipline- in terms of practice and diet. Being able to maintain and follow a strict diet is something not everyone can do. While some sports require less calorie intake, others require loads to ensure proper energy levels. The legendary 12,000-calorie diet of Michael Phelps is an example of one such diet.

Eating so many calories in one day would also be an expensive affair. Surprisingly, (but not so much) NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was spending more on food than Phelps’ 12k-calorie diet. So the question arises: How much were they spending on food every month?

Comparing Michael Phelps’ monthly food expenses with Shaquille O’Neal’s

Standing in at 6ft 4in, Michael Phelps‘ body fat percentage would often surprise his fans, especially because of the number of calories he ate. Michael would eat anywhere between 8 to 12 thousand calories in a day, costing him a fortune. Meanwhile, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who is known for his lavish spending, was spending more on food than Phelps. So exactly how much were they spending?

CNBC once researched how much Phelps was spending on his dietary needs around the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. They divided the approximate costs into three-one for each meal of the day. For breakfast, Phelps spent $11.30 per meal in 2018. Each day’s lunch was burning a $6.39 hole in Phelps’ pocket. Every night, Michael would dream about the $10.58 that he’d spend on dinner. Besides the $28.27, Michael would spend money on his drinks and grits. This brought the total up to $38.57, which means Michael was spending roughly $1157.10 per month on his food!

READ MORE: Shaquille O’Neal’s Ultimate Heartwarming Gesture for Michael Phelps Left Sports Fans Hearts Melted Once

Meanwhile, Shaquille O’Neal once revealed his monthly expenses when going through a divorce from Shaunie O’Neal. The big man with deep pockets would dent his checkbook for $1.3 million every month. Amongst many significant expenses, Shaq disclosed he was spending roughly $12,775 on food every month.

 When Shaq and Phelps went head to head in a swimming contest

In 2009, ABC Network aired a series called ‘Shaq VS,’ which saw Shaquille taking on athletes from different backgrounds in a 1v1 contest. In the 5th episode of the series, Shaq took on Phelps in a series of swimming competitions.

Three races were planned to see who would come out on top. The first event was freestyle, where Shaq had to swim 25 yards while Phelps would swim 50 yards with a 5-second head start. Shaq did the 25 yards in 23.14s while Phelps did his 50 yards in 24.03s. The next race was a 200m medley where Shaq and three other female Olympic swimmers would take on a one-man army of Phelps. Michael gave out the lead to Shaq’s team early on before coming back in the last 50m to win the race with a margin of fewer than 2 seconds.

As the scores were level, the tiebreaker race came on. The final race was another freestyle, but this time Shaq had to cover 50 yards while Michael would swim for 75. Shaq clocked a time of 38.76 seconds, but it fell short of Michael’s 38.59 seconds. Michael was declared the winner of the episode, as he won the three-race series 2-1.

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Shaq proved to be a good sport and an elite athlete. He showcased tremendous talent but just fell short of beating the ‘flying fish.’