The Sumo Life

Let me paint a picture for you. I want you to think about Sumo wrestlers. You know, those enormous Japanese wrestlers who look like oversized babies in diapers? Their intention to build up enormous weight – the more the better! Follow their lead if that's what you'd like to achieve, too

Otherwise check your standard behaviors against what it is that they do, and think about modifying some things. Read on -- I have a specific suggestion for you, too.

The Sumo pack-it-on Plan:

Skip breakfast (Sumo wrestlers do this because they train hard for 4-5 hours in the morning and can’t do it on a full stomach) Not only does skipping breakfast trigger overeating later in the day, it can cause a 5% drop in metabolism.

Eat just 2 meals a day. Research indicates that eating one or two big meals a day makes your body more prone to hoarding fat compared to eating 5-6 small meals a day.

Eat huge volumes of food – like those supersized American-size servings. Konishiki, the Hawaiian-born Sumo champion, routinely lunched on 10 bowls of stew, eight bowls of rice, 130 pieces of sushi, and 25 portions of barbequed beef. And still have room for desert.

Another famous wrestler, Takamisugi is reported to have been able to down 65 bowls of stew (with 29 lbs of beef) in a single sitting.

Drink lots of beer. Not all of them do this, but since alcoholic beverages tend to help deposit fat around the middle, it helps sumos to be more stable in the ring.

Take a 3-4 hour nap after every meal. Conserve as much energy as possible so that most of the food you eat is deposited as fat.

While Sumos are big celebrities in Japan, their lifestyle has its costs. They generally retire from competition at about 30, and because of the burden of the extra weight they’ve been carrying, in retirement many suffer from health problems including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, liver problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and arthritis. Their life expectancy is 10-20 years shorter than other Japanese men.

Tomorrow I'll give you a plan for the rest of us.