Sumo-Sized Perspective

Sumo athletes wake up early and immediately begin stretching and physical training. A staggering 3-4 hours of physical exercise includes hundreds of squats, leg lifts and hitting large hard objects with their bare hands. This morning workout is followed by a late morning meal of at least 10,000 calories, with some type of protein (fish, seafood, chicken, pork or beef) in a fish broth stew with rice and vegetables. The food is healthy, the quantities are enormous. A glass of beer washes this meal down. After the meal is a 3 hour nap to help store more energy as fat. and to synthesize the muscle growth from the morning exercise. Upon waking they do some chores until the evening meal.

What is striking to me the similarities between this day and a typical client's day. A typical American wakes up early in the morning and heads to work with nothing more than a cup of coffee consumed. The really motivated population will work out first thing in the morning, but usually have very little for breakfast. After a quick commute, he or she will sit at a desk for 4-5 hours then head off for a larger than recommended lunch. The meal is not 10,000 calories, but still larger than needed at one sitting. After eating, it's back to sitting at the desk (metabolically not much more active than sleeping). Punch the clock, go to happy hour and have lots of food and beer before going to bed soon after their last meal. Some clients may even down a late night feast with a couple glasses of wine.

Observations:

1. If you want to gain weight, skip breakfast and only consume two big meals. If you want to lose weight, eat breakfast and aim for 4 other smaller "meals" throughout the day. Start your day out with a big glass of water. Sadly, juice does not count.
2. Beer or wine with your meal will help store fat. Modern science shows the effects of increasing cortisol and it's effects on storing fat.
3. No matter how much you exercise, your diet will have the biggest factor on whether weight is gained or lost.
4. Big meals followed by rest = weight stored.

The Sumo method utilizes the most effective method to gain fat and weight, determined by thousands of years of successful research. How closely does your lifestyle resemble that of the Sumo?

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