Bryson DeChambeau is a big fan of bacon — and protein shakes.
Bryson DeChambeau/Instagram
Suddenly, everybody wants to know Bryson DeChambeau’s secrets. And he’s eager to share them. Well, some of them.
“I won’t go too into detail because this is some of the secret sauce that we’ve figured out,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference in Detroit on Tuesday. DeChambeau often says things like that to the media — laying out some of his strategies while suggesting there’s more proprietary info lurking beneath the surface.
(Note: We broke down Bryson DeChambeau’s rise (with his help) on this week’s episode of The Drop Zone, which you should listen to below or at one of these links: iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Stitcher)
In all, DeChambeau was jovial in his Rocket Mortgage presser. What’s not to be happy about? In his last six PGA Tour starts, DeChambeau’s worst finish is T8, and his gains off the tee (and, to be fair, in the rest of his game, too) are paying off. Validation is a heck of a feeling.
But to the naked eye, one thing still jumps off the TV screen: DeChambeau’s size. How ’bout his diet? How has he gone from 195 lbs to 240? DeChambeau was willing to lay that out:
“Well, I’ll start off by saying I don’t necessarily eat anything or everything I want,” he said. “There is this overlying principle of a two-to-one carb-to-protein ratio, so that is first and foremost. I try and retain that throughout the whole day with everything I eat and drink.”
If you’re among the group that considers breakfast the most important meal of the day, you’ll find no disagreement from DeChambeau, who starts off with an aggressive first meal.
“I would say that in the mornings I usually have four eggs, five pieces of bacon, some toast and two [Orgain] protein shakes,” DeChambeau said. There’s some visual evidence of this mega-breakfast in DeChambeau’s [insert adjective here] comeback video which graced the internet a couple weeks ago.
But Bryson is just getting going at breakfast.
“Throughout the course of the day, I’ll have a GoMacro bar here and there, I’ll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I’ll have another protein drink, I’ll have at least two protein drinks on the golf course, at every six holes, and then after the round I’ll have one.”
Hard to imagine that DeChambeau has much time left to play golf with all that on-course consumption. Still, this is just the afternoon.
“After that, I’m snacking when I’m practicing after,” DeChambeau continued. “Go back to the hotel, eat a dinner, steak, potatoes. I’ll have two protein shakes with it there as well. So I’m consuming around, I’d say, around six to seven of those Orgain protein shakes a day now where I used to be two or three. With the weight up, I just had to consume a lot more. Luckily, I like the taste of those shakes so I can take those pretty easily.”
Good thing indeed. In all, DeChambeau estimates consuming somewhere between 3000-3500 calories per day, although he admitted he had no real idea. Let’s lay that out for you in case you’re interested in giving the DeChambeau Diet a go:
-Orgain protein shake every six holes (three total)
Post-round
-Snacks, protein shake
Dinner
-Steak
-Potatoes
-Two (2) Orgain protein shakes
DeChambeau stresses that it’s his strength, not his size, that has been the key to increased distance and speed. He also cautions against any potential imitators going all in on the same strategy.
“It can be a very difficult process to go through if you don’t have the right training, the right teaching,” he said. In the meantime, it’s full steam ahead on the Bryson Train. And that engine demands plenty of fuel.
Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.