Michael Phelps Digging Into the Junk Food, "Letting Himself Go"

A recent article in People magazine notes that U.S. Olympic hero Michael Phelps, winner of 8 gold medals in various swimming events during the Beijing Olympic Games, hasn’t been in the pool for quite some time and has stopped the rigorous training regimen that was the source of his success. Phelps, who is 23 years old, has won a total of 14 gold medals in his Olympic career, but news about the young Olympian of late have centered more on his personal life – he recently brought his Las Vegas girlfriend to meet his Mom over Thanksgiving – and the fact that he’s "just having fun."

Phelps, a native of Maryland, has been spotted at Baltimore Ravens games each of the past two weeks and apparently watches game film with Al Michaels and John Madden, the announcers for last week’s Sunday Night Football lineup that featured the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins. The broadcast showed footage of Phelps in a luxury box, sporting an Ed Reed #20 jersey, joking with friends and mugging for the cameras. Said Phelps on a recent appearance on the Colbert Report, "I’m out of shape right now."

During another interview on 60 Minutes, Phelps took Anderson Cooper on a tour of his apartment, which he showed to be stocked with a wide variety of junk food. Phelps also admitted to weighing in at 205 pounds, after never topping the 200 mark in his life. While the young swimmer still eats between 8,000 and 10,000 calories per day, he still has the tendency to lose weight if he doesn’t keep up that eating schedule, a luxury many dieters would kill for.