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Michael Phelps has figured out his gold standard for staying healthy. The Olympian shared how his eating habits have changed since retiring from competitive swimming, which required he keep a diet that consisted of 10,000 calories per day. "I probably eat cleaner now than I used to," Michael exclusively told E! News at the June 26 premiere of his docuseries Fueled By, "and that's just because I'm not eating as much as I used to.
" In order to hit his calorie goal when he trained for the Olympics, the 38-year-old confessed that he often resorted to consuming junk food in the past. "There's no way you can just eat clean and get all those calories," Michael explained. "So, I was trying to cram ice cream and whatever I could into my system.
" Now, the gold medalist has the freedom to be "more picky" about his diet. As he put it, "Eating was a full-time job for so long, so now I kind of just eat what I need and what I want to—not just pretty much devouring everything in my sight." That's not the only way Michael's lifestyle has evolved since leaving professional swimming behind.
These days, the athlete—who took home a record 28 medals before retiring from his sport in 2016—spends a lot of his time making sure his four kids Boomer , 8, Beckett , 6, Maverick , 4, and Nico , 6 months, with wife Nicole Johnson stay active and healthy. It's a mission that also extends to his beloved pup. That's why he was excited to team up with Purina Pro Plan for Fueled By , a docuseries that exp.