Just came across this awesome video of callers asking Ali questions and several times the subject of food came up and on one such occasion Ali tells the caller what he had for lunch that day. The caller asks Ali what his faults are and Ali admits that he eats too much. Now I’m a big eater, but Ali’s meals would put even me to shame. I know that he would gain weight in his later career and burn it off before a fight, but did he also have weight troubles in between fights in his early career or was he blessed with a speedy metabolism in his youth? His lunch on that day consisted of the following: 2 pieces of pie 5 scoops of ice cream 2 orders of veal 2 orders of dressing (stuffing) 3 slices of bread 1 green salad 1 bowl of chili Here is the video, the first appetite portion starts at 3:55 with the callers question: This content is protected
In a later question (I don’t have the time stamp) he talks about his diet when on the road heading to a fight and in training camp as well. A lot of good information and a fun listen. I recommend listening to the whole video if you have time.
If you get the time, definitely worth listening to the whole broadcast. He answers all kinds of questions. A ton of real gems of information in this one.
“If my fans think I can do everything I say I can do, then they’re crazier than I am" - Muhammad Ali.
Now look, you guys are all probably smaller to average sized folks so it might be skewing your idea of an acceptable meal size also factoring in serving sizes of the era too would help. Muhammad was 6ft2 or so and a big fellow who happened to be on a champion boxers schedule he was always gonna eat a lot. We know he had an appetite because even on his schedule the man could come in overweight. I’m a smaller guy myself but that doesn’t look like all that much. I could do it, but that’s till you factor in breakfast, snacks, dinner etc then I don’t have a horse in the race.
I have a book that says Sonny Liston had 2 dozen rashers of bacon and a dozen eggs for his breakfast!
Metabolisms even the fastest ones have a small difference in terms of calories required to burn off the extra weight. I believe a difference of 300 or so calories, that’s one slice of pizza really.
Look up what the olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was chowing down back while he was active. About Ali's size as well and burning massive amounts of calories training. Nothing too unbelievable, especially when we know Ali turned to diuretics late in his career as the weight caught up to him.