Mariners prospect Nick Franklin eats 6,500 calories per day to gain weight

Seattle Mariners infield prospect Nick Franklin is looking to gain weight. The 21-year-old wants to bulk up for the upcoming year to better prepare himself for handling the rigors of a long baseball season, but he is not relying dietary supplements like most other pro athletes would. Instead, Franklin has just been stuffing his face and pounding shakes.

According to The Seattle Times, Franklin has been on a 6,500 calorie-per-day diet since last fall. The regimen includes alternating meals between an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant and a pasta bakery. He has also taken a liking to milkshakes.

“Last year, during the season, I felt my body starting to collapse on me,” Franklin said. “At the end of August, I weighed 162 pounds and I was hitting balls to the gap that probably should have been out and they ended up going off the wall. One of them bounced to the wall. Those balls could have been out, so I wanted to put a lot of weight on and try to get to at least 200 pounds by the end of the spring, take the season from there and see whether I can maintain it.”

The former first-round pick, who split his time between Double-A and Triple-A last season, finished the year weighing in at 162 pounds. He arrived at spring training weighing 196 and is setting his sights on 200 pounds. So what does a day in the life of Nick Franklin look like?

To start his morning, Franklin says he enjoys six scrambled eggs and a protein shake. By about 10:30 a.m., he throws down another shake and a 1,500-calorie lunch. A 500-calorie shake follows at 2 p.m., a 250-calorie shake at 3 p.m and then a 500-calorie shake later in the day before his 1,500-calorie dinner. He uses popular restaurants like Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Bar and Grill and Carrabba’s Italian Grill to pack on the calories when he doesn’t have time to cook.

Sounds like heaven, right? Not exactly.

“Honestly, there are some days where I just want to let it all go,” Franklin explained. “It’s hard to hold it down sometimes. Other than that, I feel like I’m on a full stomach the entire day. There’s not one point where I’m hungry. I’m always full when I’m eating, let’s just say that. I’m always eating when I’m not supposed to be eating.”

If Franklin has to eat all that just to get to around 6,500 calories per day, we can understand why this Michael Phelps diet turned out to not be true. Whatever the youngster is doing, it’s working. You think losing weight is tough? Try gaining more than 30 pounds in a few months.