Eric Fehr's 6,000-calorie diet



(By John McDonnell - TWP)



Wednesday morning, Katie Carrera wrote about Caps winger Eric Fehr, whom many have targeted as a breakout-year candidate. Katie wrote about how Fehr added weight in the offseason, and how he's attempting to tweak his game.

"I want to emulate my game a little more after [Mike] Knuble," said Fehr, who has two goals and three points entering the Capitals' game against the New York Islanders on Wednesday at Verizon Center. "Just seeing the way he works every day, how he's a big guy and gets lots of goals around the net and just finds a way to contribute....I've really been trying to see how he does it."

Fehr had previously talked with various media members about how he added 10-to-15 pounds in the offseason, and how much of an impact that would have. Here's from Mike Vogel's recent Fehr story:

"I feel a world of difference," says Fehr. "I've put on a lot of weight and I've become a lot stronger. Now I feel I can compete with a few of the bigger guys in front of the net and just feel a little bit more confident with my ability. I used to think I would have to be a little bit lighter to keep up with the pace. But as the seasons have gone on, I've realized that you can put on weight and just get a little bit stronger and you can keep up."

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with Fehr about something else, and then asked him how he had put on those extra pounds.



"Just eating a lot,"he said, "eating a lot of meals throughout the day. I think having a summer to be able to work out just helped me get a little bit bigger and put on a little bit of muscle."

What was he eating?

"A lot of protein shakes," he said. "Any time I was supposed to be eating but I wasn't hungry, I'd just drink a protein shake, so that helped me."

He said he downed a minimum of two, and sometimes three protein shakes virtually every day during the offseason. So I asked him how many calories he was taking in a day, and he said it was well over 6,000.

"Michael Phelps!" someone chirped from a nearby stall. In fact, Phelps's famous diet was something like 12,000 calories a day, so it wasn't quite that, but 6,000 sounds like a lot, anyhow.

"I got my resting calorie intake thing done, and it was really high," Fehr explained. "So I had to get above that to try to put on weight. So I did."