How to gain weight like a sumo wrestler

Maybe you have to be Japanese to appreciate sumo wrestling.

I just don't get it. A couple of (enormously) obese guys wrestling around? Please.

But we can learn a health secret from these wrestling guys: how to gain weight.

Because when you think about it, the Japanese aren't who we think of when think of fat. Most Japanese folks we meet are actually quite thin. So how do sumo wrestlers put on weight?

The first thing they do is not eat breakfast.

Why no breakfast? Well, come morning, you haven't eaten for a number of hours. Maybe 8, 10, even 12 hours. "Breakfast" is just that: a meal when we "break the fast."

But our wrestlers avoid breaking the fast then. They get up, go about their business, check their email, whatever. Anything but eating.

When we do this, it sends a signal to our body: warning! Danger! You are starving! And when the body gets this warning, it reserves fuel in the form of fat. Because your body assumes that you are starving, or that starvation is imminent, and tries to conserve every calorie you've got.

Maybe you want to gain weight. In which case, look at the above advice. But since most folks reading this would like to lose a couple of pounds, follow the opposite advice: eat breakfast. Even if you're not all that hungry, eat a small meal: maybe an apple for the road, a small cup of cottage cheese, or whatever.

Just don't skip breakfast. Unless you want to look like a sumo wrestler.