Travis Kelce’s diet totals 4,000 calories a day and includes whole chickens

• Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce is one of the most dominant tight ends in NFL history.
• The 6-foot-5, 260-pound superstar needs approximately 4,000 calories to fuel his body each day.
• Quench that huge appetite with tons of protein, sweets, and occasionally junk food.

Travis Kelce is hungry for more than just touchdowns.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ 6-foot-5, 260-pound superstar tight end demands an absurd amount of food to fuel his outstanding efforts on the football field. During a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kelce confirmed that he consumes “approximately 4,000” calories each day.

By comparison, men in his age range typically need between 2,200 and 3,000 calories a day, according to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

But how exactly does the future Hall of Famer quench his seemingly insatiable appetite? We found answers from his childhood friend turned personal chef, Mama Kelce and Papa Kelce, and from the man himself.

Kelce’s high-protein diet can be described as “healthy steakhouse cooking”

In 2016, the tight end asked his old friend, Kumar Ferguson, to help him monitor his diet and nutrition so he could improve how he prepared for football. The former truck driver answered the call; He quit his job and headed to Kansas City.

Ferguson takes the job very seriously, telling Startland News that “everything about Travis’ diet and what we do is intentional.”

“It’s all about fuel, comfort, hydration and nutrition. There’s a purpose behind every plate,” Ferguson added. “You go to the grocery store with that mindset. You go to the kitchen with that mindset. You put that intention into food and then you hope it translates into optimized health.”

Ferguson described his approach to Kelce’s diet as “healthy steakhouse cooking” that includes “steaks, chops, chicken and things like that.” The tight end loves a good steak most of all, Chef Ku told Startland News.

Sure enough, Kelce ordered a “coffee-rubbed aged steak, Caesar salad (keep the anchovies), a side of ‘triple-cooked’ French fries and a glass of water” when he and WSJ writer JR Moehringer dined at a steakhouse. in downtown Kansas City. And after joining global superstar Taylor Swift on a tour in Buenos Aires, Kelce praised the “good food” the couple found south of the equator during an episode of the “New Heights” podcast, which he hosts with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles. starting center Jason Kelce.

“We had some empanadas and steak,” Kelce said. “They’re really good with all the different cuts of meat. I got a good steak there, man.”

Kelce’s diet these days isn’t far from what he ate when he lived in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In an episode of “New Heights,” her father, Ed, insisted that the brothers eat “meat and protein at every meal.”

Their mother, Donna, told Food and Wine that she fed her children “a lot of chicken, meat, pasta and a lot of carbs” which they drank with gallons of milk. She also told Moehringer that her children would “sit around and eat whole chickens” when they were teenagers.

Although he has improved his diet in recent years, Kelce still enjoys junk food.

According to their father, who joined his children on an episode of “New Heights,” the Kelce brothers ate a lot of Hamburger Helper and Bagel Bites during their childhood. The family also regularly ordered from Georgio’s Oven Fresh Pizza, a local pizza chain in northeast Ohio, Ed said.

Years later and more than 1,000 miles east, Kelce’s younger brother is still prone to having “some kind of pizza delivered to the house” when hosting friends and family for home games in Kansas City, he told Inside Hook. Sometimes, he even opts to “ask a food truck to come by,” he told the outlet.

Kelce also doesn’t stop eating fast food from time to time. He and Jason ranked their favorite burgers from popular drive-thru joints in “New Heights,” with the Chiefs star choosing Burger King Whopper, Wendy’s Baconator and In-N-Out Double-Double as his top three, respectively. As far as it is concerned, they may contain mayonnaise and onion.

He also likes fast food breakfast. A McDonald’s commercial that aired during the 2020 Super Bowl revealed that Kelce of the Golden Arches’ favorite order is a McGriddle, two Sausage and Egg McMuffins, a hash brown, and a cup of black coffee.

He has a pretty outstanding sweet tooth.

Kelce’s diet may seem salty, but the big man loves to indulge in a sugary treat whenever he can.

He’s been very open about the fact that “every pregame meal has consisted of French toast and strawberries since I’ve been with the Chiefs,” as he told Inside Hook in 2022. Moehringer also wrote in his WSJ profile that Kelce tends to eat their French Toast “dripping with whipped cream and syrup.”

However, the eight-time Pro Bowler’s love of sweets transcends the breakfast table. His mother told Food and Wine that her youngest son loves any dessert that contains white chocolate. She also recalled making “marshmallow rolls” for her children when they were children.

“You put a marshmallow in the middle of a cinnamon sugar muffin batter and when you bake them, the marshmallow turns into a sweet coating on the inside,” Mama Kelce told Food and Wine. “Very good, but just an occasional treat.”

The Chiefs star has even turned to sweets during NFL games. According to Mashed, Kelce would sometimes eat a handful of gummy bears to give him energy during the final minutes of the game.

Since then, he found a healthier, yet still sweet, alternative to Haribos. Kelce founded and co-owns a line of nutritional performance gummies called Hilo that he now relies on for an end-game boost.

Believe it or not, there are some foods that Kelce doesn’t like.

Sure, Kelce has a pretty healthy appetite. But that doesn’t mean she’ll eat alone anything; He has preferences like anyone else.

During his father’s appearance on “New Heights,” Kelce rejected the idea that he ate vegetables regularly growing up. She certainly gave the impression that she did not like to consume anything green, and she cited spinach as a food that she eats solely because it is good for him.

Kelce will not eat foods housed in a “wrap” of some kind, such as hot dogs and sausages. He admitted on an episode of “New Heights” that tubular meats scare him, with Polish Boys, a sausage sandwich originally from Cleveland, being his only exception.

And while he’s not explicitly against ketchup, Kelce is definitely not as enthusiastic as his good friend and quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. While the two-time NFL MVP slathers just about anything with ketchup, his favorite target finds it “absolutely disgusting” that he uses the condiment on eggs and other foods, as Kelce told Inside Hook.