Is Erling Haaland’s 6,000-Calorie Diet Healthy?

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Norway’s World Cup star Erling Braut Haaland reportedly consumes 6,000 calories per day, via foods like organ meat and raw milk — a diet that has garnered attention given the striker’s recent success on the field.

But is a dietary routine like Haaland’s actually feasible — or healthy? It depends on a number of factors, and it’s certainly not for everyone, experts told MedPage Today.

Consuming 6,000 calories in a single day, “it’s definitely high,” Lauren Link, MS, RD, CSSD, assistant athletics director for sports nutrition at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, told MedPage Today. “But it’s not absurdly high in our world.”

Link, who also serves as president of the American Sports and Performance Dietitians Association, said that in elite sports, “almost nobody would be eating 2,000 calories,” which is the general guidance for the average person. “A very low end would be maybe 3,000,” she noted. “And then it’s quite common to see [4,000 or 5,000] plus,” and even up to 6,000 or 7,000 calories per day.

“Now, that higher end definitely is going to be either your offensive linemen, who maybe are trying to gain weight, your really high-expenditure people, your swimmers, who are swimming 4 or 5 hours a day, your soccer players, perhaps like [Haaland], who are running many, many miles in a game,” Link explained.

“So, yes, it is high,” she said. “It’s definitely not out of the realm of what we see, though, in the world of sports nutrition.”

Giancarlo Carvalho, DPT, a physical therapist at Northwell Health STARS Rehabilitation in East Meadow, New York, concurred.

“Every athlete is different,” Carvalho said. “Their nutritional needs are different, how they take in and process nutrients is different, but for the most part, if you are a high-level athlete and your goal is to increase lean muscle mass, this is pretty typical.”

He pointed to Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps, who reportedly consumed as many as 10,000 calories per day while competing on the world stage. “He was one of the leanest guys you’ve ever seen,” Carvalho noted.

At about 6’5″ and 207 lbs, Haaland also is largely lean muscle mass with very low body fat, Carvalho said. “He’s a genetic anomaly.”

He likely needs about 3,200 to 3,500 calories per day “just to break even” and not lose weight, Carvalho said. However, “if you want to put on lean muscle mass, that takes a lot of energy … 6,000 calories sounds about right.”

As for some of Haaland’s specific food choices, both Carvalho and Link noted that organ meat is very nutrient-dense.

“It can be a very healthy part of a diet,” Link said. “I would always put an asterisk for people if they were seeking out organ meats in their diet to just make sure they’re well-sourced.”

Link felt differently about raw milk, however, even though it has become “quite trendy.”

She said its only real difference versus “regular milk” is that it has not been pasteurized, which kills harmful pathogens. Someone like Haaland “can have really well-procured items,” Link noted, but there is always a concern with raw milk about bacteria that has not been removed.

Link noted the importance of moderation for athletes and the average person when it comes to red meat, broadly. “We do know that red meat in excess can lead to negative — cardio, especially — outcomes,” she said.

Link also cautioned against an especially high-protein diet for the average person. A general daily recommendation is “about 1 g of protein per kg of body weight,” she noted. Overdoing protein “can have negative impacts for your wallet,” and potentially for cardiovascular health.

She often advises athletes that roughly one-third of their plate should come from carbohydrates, one-third from a protein-rich source, and one-third from fruits and vegetables.

If an individual is really wondering about their diet or how many calories they should consume on a daily basis, Carvalho recommended consulting a licensed professional. “They will create a plan for you to either gain or lose weight, or optimize your ability to either put on muscle or lose body fat,” he said.

Haaland likely has “some of the best people in the world doing this for him,” Carvalho said. “And if you look at him, he’s doing a pretty good job. So, that means they’re doing their job. What you put in is what you get out.”

Indeed, there are many positives when it comes to Haaland’s diet, Link added. “He tries to eat a lot of whole food. He eats lots of fruits and vegetables. He gets protein. Those are all good things.” At the same time, an athlete of his caliber typically has “significantly better access and money to be able to get some of these things.”

“I wouldn’t want somebody to look at this diet and think, well, I need to eat — insert half the things he mentioned — to have a healthy diet,” Link said. “You can have an extremely healthy diet by just trying to include more fruits and vegetables in your diet, trying to make sure that you have protein present consistently.”

There are things people “can take from his diet,” Link said, “without feeling like you need to do what he’s doing.”