Name: This Is What A Sumo Wrestler Really Eats
Uploaded: 2023-02-22T02:26:52.000Z
Duration: 3 min 56 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It's no secret that athletes of all shapes and sizes spend a huge amount of time perfecting their diets and training to get themselves in peak performance shape.

Sumo wrestlers are no different — they don't just eat whatever they want to get to that size.

They have a strict diet and routine they follow.

GQ talked to Mongolian sumo wrestler Byamba Ulambayar, who weighs in at a relatively lean 360 pounds.

He says a typical day for him involves scarfing down around 4,000 calories,

and while that's two or three times what you might be eating on a daily basis, it's still not a huge amount.

Different wrestlers have different dietary requirements.

NPR reports the typical caloric intake for a sumo wrestler is somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 calories.

Others have reported numbers as high as 10,000 or more.

So what do they eat to reach those high numbers?

Ulambayar told Grub Street that rice is a key part of the sumo wrestler diet, and they eat bowls and bowls of it at a time.

Wrestlers-in-training use rice as a way to pack on the pounds and help give them a competitive edge.

They're a big portion of his dinners, which usually also include other healthy foods like fish and salad.

If you really want to eat like a sumo wrestler, there's one dish you have to try: chanko-nabe.

There's a ton of different ways you can make the hearty, healthy stew.

Sometimes it's served alone and sometimes it's served with rice or side dishes like omelets and dumplings,

and while it's a pretty healthy meal, it also allows them to pack on the calories with bowl after bowl after bowl.

It's been a staple of the sumo wrestler's diet since at least the 19th century,

and it's such an important component of their lifestyle it's called a "legal steroid."

While all wrestlers down multiple bowls, there's a clear record-holder for the most eaten in a single sitting.

That honor goes to a man named Takamisugi, who downed a shocking 65 bowls featuring 29 pounds of beef,

and apparently he only stopped because he was tired of chewing.

Chanko-nabe can be made with any kind of meat, including beef and fish.

NPR reports there are at least 100 different versions of the stew,

and while there aren't that many rules about what can go into the pot, there's one guideline that's rooted in age-old thinking.

On competition days, sumo wrestlers will only eat chicken chanko-nabe, and it's not for nutritional reasons.

It's because chickens only walk with two feet on the ground, and that's how sumo wrestlers are going to win — by keeping two feet planted squarely on the ground.

Hands and feet would make four legs, and that would mean a loss.

Hydration is also key to the sumo wrestler's diet because in between all that eating are some seriously grueling training sessions.

Ulambayar told Grub Street one of the biggest, most important parts of his daily intake is a ton of water and plenty of green tea (and more than the occasional beer).

It's absolutely crucial, too, because the champ says he typically loses between 10 and 15 pounds in sweat alone during his morning workout.

Sumo wrestlers are surprisingly among the healthiest of all athletes.

According to a report by the Asia Pacific Journal of Sports and Social Science,

they don't just eat to pack on the pounds, they have strategic methods of eating.

One involves doing something you've probably heard you should never do if you're trying to lose weight: sleeping right after you eat.

According to Slate, a sumo wrestler's massive, mid-day lunch of chanko-nabe is not only made up of multiple bowls of soup, but it's also followed by a good, long nap.

In order to help keep weight on, sumo wrestlers skip breakfast, despite getting up early to train.

They spend their mornings working out, eat their first massive meal around 11 AM, and then only eat again once.

That's said to help slow their metabolism and turn a lot of the calories they're consuming into weight instead of just burning it off during their intense training sessions.

Basically, they do everything you're told not to do if you're trying to maintain your weight or lose some pounds.

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