What did they gain so much?

Question

Have you ever noticed? When we see Olympics sportsmen and women competing, they have slender or muscular bodies that look extremely fit. In fact, so suited are their built that many of them even look attractive. For example, during the swimming heats that was completed recently, I notice many of the lady swimmer have slender bodies. They are not only fit for the sports, but I personally feel they are attractive enough to take part of the beauty pageants.

The same can be said of the guys. They looked so fit and manly in appearance, especially in gymnastics they the pommel Roman rings.

However, upon retirement, a number of these athletes seemed to gain a incredible amount of weight and the size increased tenfold. What they are after retirement is a far cry from what they look before they retired. Many of the retired athletes I noticed tend to bloat up to an incredible size. They are not quite like the average middle aged person who only somewhat gain some weight.

Why?

Answer 1

Athletes who train at that level have to take in a lot of high calorie foods in order to fuel their workouts.  You may have heard that Michael Phelps eats about 10,000 calories a day - about 5 times more than a normal person.  Once an athlete stops training, if he doesn't adjust his diet, he'll gain weight.  Even if he does adjust his diet, he may gain weight, because his metabolism slows down and he doesn't burn the calories as quickly as he used to.  That's why many athletes tend to gain weight after they retire.  But most go back to a normal weight after a while... it just takes some time for their bodies to adjust.

Answer 2

It's because they go from being extraordinary to being average as opposed to being average to being older but still average! It's just a more severe change.