Gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin says she eats closer to 1200 calories day when she is training.

“Gymnasts eat totally different,” A typical breakfast is “eggs or yogurt or oatmeal,” said Liukin, who took the gold for the individual all-around in Beijing. “Then for lunch I’ll have a salad with chicken or fish or some sort of protein and then for dinner I keep it really light with probably just a piece of fish and vegetables. That lean combo is just enough “to keep me energized,” she said, “but I do have a few power bars before my practices.”

Not that this sounds particularly unhealthy for a petite 18 year-old girl, but it does sound like a miniscule amount of food for an Olympic athlete. Eating disorders run rampant through a lot of female dominated sports, gymnastics and ballet being the worst. The morale of this story is to put your 5 year in old daughter in swimming lessons and not tumble class.

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