I’m a bodybuilder — I eat 17,000 calories on my ‘cheat day’

To maintain his figure, this bodybuilder scarfed down 17,000 calories on his cheat day.

Jack Manchester, 29, has been crowned the “Cheat Day King” after sharing his impressive spread, nearly double that of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s indulgences.

He touted stacks of pancakes swimming in maple syrup, towers of bagels and multiple pizzas, polishing off the savory items ahead of his decadent dessert, which consisted of brownies, cookies and ice cream.

“I’m a cookie man, so I love cookies, that’s my staple [for cheat days],” the Harrogate, North Yorkshire, native told Kennedy News.

The young gym fanatic had recently lost weight after catching COVID-19, earning him the green light from his coach to over-indulge.

“I started off with peanut butter oats, then pancakes at home, then some pancakes out,” he said, followed by “five bagels and a whole Tesco carrot cake.”

“I went out for tea and had a pizza for starter, a pizza for mains, then sticky toffee pudding for dessert,” he continued.

Then, he came home and chowed down on three cookies with ice cream and sauce, followed by two brownies and 16 Domino’s cookies.

He swears his cheat day buffet was neither a physical nor mental challenge, saying his “relationship with food is really good.”

“I was full but I felt absolutely fine. I wasn’t forcing anything down,” he explained, noting that he had not even worked out that day.

“I’ve got a naturally really high appetite and high metabolism.”

His next challenge is to test his limits and see how many calories he can down in an hour, shooting for at least 20,000.

The fitness enthusiast normally downs about 8,000 calories every day to maintain his muscle mass but exceeds the suggested serving amounts by more than tenfold.

On a typical morning, he crushes a bowl of cereal 15 times the serving size that is topped with berries. The rest of the day, he usually eats “a few plates” of chicken or steak paired with rice.

Manchester’s high-caloric menu isn’t much of a deviation from his own norm — a skinny kid when he was younger, he needed “a lot of food” when growing up.

At 15, he ventured into the realm of bodybuilding and fitness, aspiring to look just like “Terminator” star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who reportedly consumes more than 3,000 calories on a typical day.

“I got into bodybuilding as I’ve always enjoyed keeping fit and looked up to Arnold Schwarzenegger and people who are physically in good shape, I respect it,” he said.

“I work out hard and lead a very active lifestyle if I’m honest.”

Online, his viewers quip that he’s on a “fast-track towards a diabetes diagnosis” and question the safety of his caloric intake, concerned by the amount of sugar he consumes.

But Manchester insists that “sugar’s not the enemy.”

“I’m not scared of sugar at all,” the bodybuilder, known as “the cookie man,” declared.

“I get regular checks and I come up at perfect health. I have pretty high maintenance calories anyway.”

Manchester used to have a “poor relationship with food” and would carefully map his diet thinking he would “ruin” his physique.

Now, he prefers to “enjoy life” — and food — and reminds people they “can’t get fat in a day.”

“So if you can have a cheat meal or cheat day and make it fit your calorie deficit or lifestyle then go ahead,” he said.

“I’ve now got one motto in life, ‘If you don’t enjoy doing it, don’t do it.’”