How Suryakumar Yadav Lost 15 Kg Post Surgery To Get In Shape Ahead Of T20 World Cup

Suryakumar Yadav is looking leaner and fitter than ever since his comeback to competitive cricket and much of it could be attributed to a regimented diet plan along with rigorous strength training to cut at least 12-14 kg he had gained after sports hernia surgery. World's No. 1 T20 batter Suryakumar was out of competitive cricket for close to four months after undergoing an ankle operation in December last year, followed by a sports hernia surgery. For an elite sportsperson, coming back to peak fitness is always a challenge and a strict diet plan is foundation to that.

"If you look at him, he is looking much leaner and stronger and little muscular, and diet was planned with supplementation to achieve that goal. Coordination between recovery rate and muscle gain rate, so we adjusted to achieve that in record time," dietitian Shwetha Bhatia, founder of 'Mind Your Fitness', who has worked on Suryakumar's nutrition for some time, told PTI during an interaction.

"Overall by now, 14-15 kg, there was slight increase in his weight after surgery, which is a natural medical reaction not because he was off diet," Bhatia explained. "Out of 15 kg that he shed, Dexa machine will confirm that 13 kg will be fat," she added.

At the National Cricket Academy (NCA), there is a Dexa machine to check a player's body composition and that gives break-up of amount of muscle mass gain and fat loss and amount of abdominal fat.

A strict diet plan in place

As much as one indulges in rigorous S&C training, one needs to also keep an eye on diet and that's where Bhatia came into the picture.

"Post his injury, we made his diet plan a bit stricter, because when there is no activity, you don't increase food directly like that but there was more focus on