Posted November 10, 2017

What a football player eats in a day

Dear diary, Today I will eat at least 5,000 calories and burn, like, half of them lifting and playing football. K, so Cole Boozer doesn’t actually write that in his diary, or have a diary at all. But if he did he would totally (maybe) write that. What we’re writing in our diaries is that we wanna know what Boozer’s eating all day to keep up with that TUFB life. So, we asked him! Or we followed him around with a camera while he ate. Same thing.

An illustration of a double bacon cheeseburger that has a football as a bun.

Cole Boozer is on the football team’s offensive line. For those of us who don’t totally *get* football, what that means is that he’s gotta be a big dude (almost 300 pounds big) because he has to stop all of the other big dudes who are trying to get the ball.

Cole Boozer, No. 79

Height: 6 feet 5 inches
Weight: 298 pounds

How long it took to gain 30 pounds: About 25 weeks
What it takes to gain 1 pound: 3,500 calories
How many calories burned per day: Nearly impossible to say. One day he could stay the same weight, one day he could lose 4 pounds.
What the players snack on the night before a game: Ice cream with tons of toppings
What the players eat before a game: Usually pasta with chicken

To be in that position, he has to do some serious chowing down to maintain his weight. After gaining 30 pounds to make the switch from tight end to offensive lineman, we can say that Boozer is an eating guru and our food hero. But, wait a sec, he had to gain 30 pounds???

Like we said, you have to have some serious weight on you to be on the offensive line, and as a tight end at 268 pounds, he just wasn’t big enough. So, Boozer had to train himself to eat. And eat. And eat. It sounds like a dream to us, until we heard about all of the hard work stuff—between lifting, practicing, running and actually playing, it’s pretty difficult to keep weight on.

Here’s how Boozer does it.

ALL DAY
Gallon of water
A gallon water jug with a stick that says Cole Boozer.

A gallon water jug with a stick that says Cole Boozer.

BREAKFAST
J&H, 8:30 a.m.

Belgian waffle with syrup
2 glasses of milk (chugged after waffle)

Calorie estimate: 700+

SNACK
Edberg-Olson Athletic Hall

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
2 small cartons of milk

Calorie estimate: 800

LUNCH
Student Center, BugerFi, 12:15 p.m.
A burger and french fries

Double bacon cheeseburger with fried egg
Regular fries with ketchup

Calorie estimate: 1,500+

DINNER
Diamond Club, 4:30 p.m.
Two plates of spaghetti, meatballs, rice and potatoes.

Two plates of spaghetti, meatballs, rice and potatoes.

Cole Boozer holding up a cookie with a bite taken out of it.

Plate 1: Spaghetti and meatballs, scalloped potatoes, brown rice, approximately four green beans
Plate 2: More spaghetti, more meatballs
Chocolate chip cookie

Calorie estimate: 1,500+

SNACK
Edberg-Olson Athletic Hall

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
2 small cartons of milk

Calorie estimate: 800

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- Samantha Krotzer