It happens to the best of us. You indulge a little too much over Christmas and suddenly your body fat is ballooning and your gains are going south.
For most of us, this is just a regular consequence of the holiday season, but for former cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion, David Haye, pilling on the pounds is merely a chance to prove you know exactly how to go from ‘fat to fit’.
After his body fat percentage jumped to 22.5 per cent in the months leading up to the new year, Haye used the break to get back to his shredded self.
‘I’ve turned into a mere mortal,’ Haye wrote on Instagram back in November 2022. ‘I’ve got ridiculous rolls of fat on the side.
‘Body fat went from 10% to 22.5% in three months, just by doing what everybody else is doing. I’m not overeating, I was eating desserts and drinking alcohol with everybody else and this is what happens.
‘I’ve got all this cellulite and horrible stuff to the side, I am a mere mortal.’
Haye set himself the goal of getting back to peak fitness and 10% body fat in just 8 weeks, and listed a number of rules that he was going to stick by to get him there.
- Rule 1 – ‘Load up on nutrients, minerals and vitamin rich food to stay healthy. It’s no good getting sick which can easily happens on a calorie deficit diet.’
- Rule 2 – ‘NO SUGAR (Including fruit, this is the hardest sacrifice for me, but once I’m back at 10% body fat, I then deserve some fruit!)’
- Rule 3 – ‘No bread, No Rice, No potatoes & No Pasta.’
- Rule 4 – ‘Consume minimum 3 litres of water a day!’
- Rule 5 – ‘First meal is in early afternoon.’
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Over the past two months, the Bermondsey-born fighter has been regularly posting videos documenting his dwindling body fat, and then, on Monday (so one week later than promised, but we’ll let him off), he posted a video of his completed transformation.
Alongside a video of him working out with dumbbells, Haye wrote: ‘I’m finally back to 10% body fat (down from 22.5%) after just 9 weeks.
‘To do so I adjusted my macros, particularly lowering carbs to between 30g-50g daily, very light training (2-4 times a week), intermittent fasting, nutrient loading, water guzzling etc etc, it was not hard, it just took a little discipline and structure with times and volumes of food tracked.’
Now that his body fat is back in check, Haye’s next challenge is to go from lean to ripped. ‘The plan now,’ said Haye, ‘is to slowly gain some lean muscle, So I’ve started pumpin’ up! It’s my favourite type of training!’
