Sumo Wrestler Myth

The Sumo Wrestler Myth: skipping meals helps you loose weight.

Sumo wrestlers are not born they are made. How is it that the naturally small and petite Japanese can produce these gargantuan wrestlers?

They wake up at 5 am every morning and get straight to intense training on an empty stomach. After training for over 5 hours on no food, they eat their main meal of the day which is usually a stew called "chanko-nabe". This stew is a super healthy nutrient dense mash of many different meats, fish, proteins, noodles, seaweeds, and vegetables, practically anything can go into this stew. Immediately after this huge meal, sumo wrestlers pass the fuck out for hours. By starving the body overnight and waiting until so late in their day to eat their first meal, they switch the body into fat storing mode (starvation). So not only is their body already in fat storing mode by the time they eat their unreasonably HUGE lunches (think 10 portions of rice), when they pass out right after the body has NO choice but to store all of that food as fat since the digestive system shuts down once asleep. After a few hours of sleep they get up, eat dinner and get ready for bed again. They repeat this cycle for years on end with the result being ... well you know...HUGE!

For ordinary folks that aren't committed to a life of slamming into fat people- these implications are also huge :)

Anytime we eat a large meal, or really any meal, especially carbohydrates and pass out after we are inviting those juicy fat cells to lodge in our structure. AND- the worst part is you just let the food basically ferment in the gut, massively slowing down your whole digestive system.
So don't do it.


The best way to maintain a healthy metabolism and awesome energy levels throughout the day is to wake up and have breakfast! You don't need to eat RIGHT away ( I like to wake up have a raw honey and lemon water to get the gallbladder and liver flowing, digestive juices working, and to re-hydrate the tissues) but it is best to eat breakfast within 2 hours of waking up and definitely as soon as you get hungry.
Wait at LEAST 2 hours after your last meal/ snack before going to bed, but I also hear it is best to not go to bed hungry. So eat enough to keep you sustained through the evening. It is also best to spread out the food intake throughout your day eating smaller amounts more often to keep that metabolism burnin'.

The saying "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper" definitely is worth listening to. When you eat a wonderfully satisfying protein dense breakfast your hunger levels throughout the rest of the day will be drastically lower and more balanced, compared to when you skip breakfast or eat "empty calories" like doughnuts or processed breakfast foods.

If you tend to be a breakfast skipper see if you can commit to trying out a new breakfast routine for one week and see what happens to the rest of your energy for that day.
Some examples of great ways to start off the day would be:
*Eggs done any way- always go for the organic free range eggs (local if possible)
* Free range meats like some good breakfast sausages
*Avocados and the multitude of ways you can eat them: throw them in smoothies, side dish, sauce...
*Protein rich smoothie
*Chia seed pudding in full fat coconut milk with fruit toppings
* Oatmeal (NOT instant oatmeal in a package with artificial flavors) but the good ol- fashioned kind that you cook on the stove (not the microwave... ), with a nut butter topping and banana

It is all about finding what works for you! Some days my breakfasts tend to lean towards a nutrient dense smoothie and some days my breakfasts consist of a super decked out breakfast sandwich. Listen to your body as always but the main thing is to get something in your system before the day steamrolls you over.