The secret of the sumo wrestler’s diet
Sumo wrestling takes you by surprise since being obese is the standard criterion for taking it up as a profession. Aspiring sumo wrestlers have to start as teenagers and usually have stocky bodies. Obese teenagers are not selected since they usually lack the discipline required to stay in the wrestling game.
Sumo wrestlers or rikishi as they are known exercise a great deal.They warm up and perform various body strengthening exercises. All this on an empty stomach. This lowers their metabolic rate and increases their appetite. By noon, the starving rikishi settle down in groups for their all important meal: the chanko-nabe. This meaty stew is an assortment of fish,pork,beef or chicken and is eaten with rice and vegetables. The steroid effect comes in because of the sheer enormous portions that the sumo wrestlers have to eat. After all that food, the rikishi has a long nap. Sumo wrestlers drink heavily since that helps them get the enormous beer belly: the balancing element in their bodies.
Read this for more.
You’ll love this story about the Meat Bomb rikishi.
sumo wrestling, beer belly, chanko- nabe, sumo diet
January 17th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I didn’t know obese teenagers were not selected. Huh.
Does this mean if you want to lose weight, you should exercise with some food in you?
January 18th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Hey Jaime,
Skipping meals actually lowers your metabolism.When you starve a meal and then exercise you are hungry enough to over eat. That’s why the biggest diet myth is that skipping meals helps you to lose weight. Doing exercise and eating regular healthy meals makes more sense.