For 700 years, Sumo wrestlers have perfected the art of putting on weight rapidly. The strategies they adopted would be very useful to folks struggling to put on more weight. A lot of emphasis is on how they eat rather than what they eat though one influences the other.
Strategy 1: Work up an appetite
The sport of sumo wrestling is as much about eating as it is about training. The more you eat, the bigger you get. The bigger you are, the greater the chances of winning. So, I would say sumo was the first competitive eating contest in the world. Sumo wrestlers train (exercise) for hours on an empty stomach to whip up an enormous appetite.
Let's go for a run to kick-start your appetite so that we can have a heavy breakfast afterward. After work, let's hit the gym to whet our appetite for dinner.
Strategy 2: Eat Fast
Once their appetite has been jumpstarted, sumo wrestlers eat fast literally gobbling down their food. As we know now, our stomach sends out the signal that we are full only after 20 minutes approx. The signaling is done by the satiety hormone leptin, secreted by our stomach and fat cells. Once leptin reaches our brain, we feel full and should stop eating. So, the sumo wrestlers have only 20 minutes to pack as many calories as possible. They make a vegetable and meat soup called chankonabe. Chankonable is great as it makes all the vegetables soft and can be eaten without a lot of chewing, which takes time.
Luckily for us, much of the food, we eat has no fiber, which must be chewed. As we cut out vegetables from our diet and eat foods rich in refined carbohydrates and fats, we should be able to eat quickly as well. Heavily processed foods like biscuits, cakes, and other pastries have made it way easier to pack more calories.
Strategy 3: Drink your Food
There's only so much you can eat even at a fast pace. Since it is all about gaining weight at a rapid clip, the strategy is not to eat but drink your food. The go-to drink in Japan was sake, rice wine. Today, sumo wrestlers drink beer as well for liquid calories. Rice or wheat doesn't make any difference.
So many of us drink alcohol and it has become socially acceptable. After all in Tamil Nadu, it is so important that the government has taken the responsibility to provide affordable quality alcohol to its residents. For the few who don't drink any alcohol, we have fruit juices. Fruit juice is devoid of all fiber and pumps up only calories. If you like it fizzy, there are plenty of carbonated beverages as well. The food industry has us covered by catering to all our preferences.
Strategy 4: Eat with friends
The sumo wrestlers never eat alone. They always make sure they eat in a group. There is a study that showed that folks eat 44% more food when they eat as a group[1].
This is much easier these days as social eating is not only acceptable but encouraged as well. Every weekend, we party with a self-served meal buffet and potluck. So, endless varieties of food. Since we don't pay much attention to our food and are busy socializing, our body takes longer to get satiated, even after the 20 min mark. Introverts have television, smartphones, and social media to keep us company virtually so that we can eat more.
The sumo wrestlers increase the size of their stomachs by following the four strategies we have seen so far and so can we.
Strategy 5: Sleep after eating
The most important one is the sleep right after eating. When sumo wrestlers sleep after their heavy meals, the fat gets stored in their fat cells. In addition, the simple carbs they ate like white rice and udon noodles also get converted into fat. That's how they become fat. Some estimate sumo wrestlers gain as much as 5 pounds ( ~2.5 kilos) daily. So, in a month a person of 60 kilos can more than double their weight by following the eating strategies of sumo wrestlers.
We are able to do this easily as dinner is the only meal we eat at leisure. Then we hit the bed right afterward. Some of us lucky enough to be working at home can sneak in a nap after lunch as well.
But for many of us who want to lose weight, we should do the opposite of what sumo wrestlers do. It is as simple as that.
In summary,
Aerobic activities should be done after meals to burn up the sugar in our meals.
Eat slowly so that we do not eat as much.
Do not consume any liquid food. Always chew your food.
Eat together as a family but practice mindful eating.
Make sure there is at least a 3-hour window between eating and sleeping. In that window, keep moving.
Sources:
[1] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/110/4/842/5552759?