Revealed: The secrets behind Tyson Fury's extraordinary weight loss

By Gareth A Davies of The Telegraph

Daily Telegraph UK·

28 Nov, 2018 05:30 AM5 mins to read

Tyson Fury has shed nearly 60 kilograms in the last 12 months. Photo / Getty

Peanut butter chicken, learning to love vegetables and 250kg deadlifts are behind the extraordinary weight loss which has enabled Tyson Fury to face Deontay Wilder this weekend.

The British heavyweight has shed over 130 pounds - almost 10 stones - in the last 12 months in preparation for his bout with Wilder, thanks to a carefully calibrated programme devised by his strength and conditioning coach Kristian Blacklock.

It has left Fury, whose weight ballooned dramatically during his two-and-a-half-year absence from the ring between 2015 and last June, in his best physical shape in years as he aims to take Wilder's WBC world title belt on Saturday night.

It has been a miraculous journey according to Blacklock, who was also advising Fury when he claimed the No 1 spot in the heavyweight division against Wladimir Klitschko three years ago.

"If you had said a year ago he'd be fighting for a world title within 12 months, where he was and his size, it would not have been realistic," he told the Daily Telegraph. "But once we'd done the first camp and got the bulk of the weight off, then the possibilities were there."

Fury's diet itself involved 'Keto' to start - very few carbohydrates, meaning that the body burns fat for energy - matched with low intensity training. Since then, according to Blacklock, the focus has been on Fury maintaining a healthy sports diet of quality, organic protein and carbohydrate sources such as eggs, fish, chicken and other lean meat.

"Tyson's not a massive veg lover, but we do find there are things he will have," he said. "There's a peanut butter chicken recipe we've had on this camp which has been his favourite, cooked by his chef Tim Alcock. If you're enjoying your food, dieting it a hell of a lot easier."

Although Fury's weight loss has been dramatic, it has not been sudden.

"It's been an evolution, not a revolution," Blacklock added. "If you try and get a lot of weight off someone very quickly there's a lot of sacrifice. When you see these diets of six weeks to lose two stone, to do that you lose muscle mass, you lose quality because you can't get anywhere near enough nutrition in. You want a calorie deficit to lose weight, but if that deficit is too great, you don't just lose body fat. You lose body water and lean muscle.

"The key is that it has just been gradual. He has literally not had any real time off in the last year. He's trained very consistently. We've had three training camps, but it's been more like one training camp with a few weeks of low intensity after fights."

There are dangers in not having a break, but Blacklock insists that issue has not arisen with Fury. "In an absolutely ideal world we originally planned 18 months of this," he added. "But because the process has been so smooth, there's been nothing to derail it. He's been very consistent in his own diet and his lifestyle. He's barely had a drink in the last 12 months, he's been very, very controlled. If he was still over 20 stone now, we probably wouldn't be looking to fight Deontay Wilder. As we are, we're that far ahead of schedule there was no reason not to take the fight.

"We're not really worried about his weight for this fight. The last two fights, we've had little goals in terms of where we wanted him. This fight, we are monitoring him, his weight and body fat, but we're looking to trying to get him physically right for this fight. Bodies don't win fights.

"Tyson is never going to look like an Anthony Joshua. But, they don't need to for the way they're going to perform. Tyson is a very physically strong guy, he's very cardiovascularly fit as well. You cannot judge a book by it's cover in terms of physicality."

Fury has also been following a rigorous programme of lifting weights. "With the size of him, we're talking dead lifting and heavy compound lifts have been very large numbers," Blacklock said. "In kilos, it's deadlifting around 250kgs.

"But we've also been focusing on speed and explosiveness. Everyone knows Wilder's got speed so you've got to have your reflexes. Tyson is fast himself and if you look at the two fights before this, there was an obvious progression from the Seferi fight to the Pianeta fight. Not just how he looked, but the speed of his movements. We've improved that for this fight so he can be a little bit faster, lighter and quicker. I'm very confident we'll see the physical best Tyson Fury possible."