Weight Watcher — Inside Nicholas Petit-Frere’s Glorious 8,000-Calorie-Per-Day Diet

Nicholas Petit-Frere is living the American dream one bacon sandwich at a time.

Actually, make that two bacon sandwiches.

And yes, that second sandwich needs to have kielbasa on it as well.

And egg is understood. It should not have to be requested.

In fact, let’s go ahead and make that the rule for bacon as well.

You see, Petit-Frere — Ohio State’s redshirt freshman right tackle — has been saddled with a high metabolism, which is great for most people, but not so great when your job requires you to a) weigh around 300 pounds; and b) do a lot of exercising.

Like a meteor that hits Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates before ever reaching the ground, a rack of nachos burns up before ever even impacting Petit-Frere.

In fact, the only impact crater is on the plate.

As great as it sounds, it has not exactly made things easy for the offensive lineman. But then achieving the dream never is.

“I’ve been eating like 8,000 calories a day. It’s basically like six meals a day. Huge meals,” Petit-Frere said. “Waking up in the middle of the night and eating something else. It’s a constant battle.”

This is not a new struggle for Petit-Frere, but it’s one that he has been able to keep under wraps. Provided those wraps also have bacon.

He hasn’t had to go it alone, however. Strength coach Mickey Marotti, offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, and anybody else in Ohio State’s football facility that runs into him has words of encouragement for him. And probably also an egg sandwich.

“Coach Mick and Coach Stud’s been on my case about it to make sure I get it right,” he said. “All of my training liaisons. Sean [McMickle] from nutrition. Everybody’s been making sure I eat. It’s really been a whole growing nature of everybody, from the trainers to the coaches – even coaches that aren’t my coach or on the other side of the ball – like, ‘Nick, you need to eat. Nick, you need to gain weight because we need you.’”

When Petit-Frere arrived at Ohio State, he weighed just 268 pounds. Basically like a baby bird who had fallen out of his nest. Before stepping on a scale in front of Coach Mick the first time, he drank a bunch of water and weighed in at 271 pounds. Now he’s tipping the scales at 295 pounds, and don’t worry, it’s not water weight.

Want proof? Here’s what he had on Sunday.

“Okay, I woke up,” he began. “I had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. And then I had a bacon, kielbasa, egg, and cheese sandwich. I had some cereal as a snack. I ordered some Buffalo Wild Wings. I think I had 12 wings in total. I had one of their mac & cheese bowls that they have. For dinner, I ordered some Five Guys. A burger. Actually, two burgers. ‘Ten Guys.’ Then I started drinking some shakes at night because I was a little light, so I wanted to make sure I made weight today.”

As the assorted sportswriters wiped at their tears during Petit-Frere’s telling of his day, he knows that being asked to eat so much is the envy of many, many people.

There can, however, be drawbacks.

“Yeah, that’s what everyone says. ‘You have it lucky,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, but when sometimes you feel like you’re about to yack and you’ve got to have that extra burger…’ You’ve got to do it. Take one for the team. That extra burger, you take one for the team.”

Seflessness before beeflessness.

That’s the kind of things teammates do for each other.

Petit-Frere is still taking in his recommended daily allowance of vegetables, but his food pyramid looks more like a giant granite block. And on top of this block happens to be a dozen wings, two burgers, a chocolate shake, some pepperoni sticks, and absolutely no shame.

Rather than looking at a delectable dish and thinking, “No, I shouldn’t.” He looks at that dish and thinks, “I probably ought to.”

Yes, Nicholas Petit-Frere is living the American dream.

Even if sometimes by around calorie 6,527 he really, really wants to yack.