Indian cricket team star KL Rahul recently spilled the beans on his diet secrets which have ensured that he is one of the fittest players in the Indian set-up at the moment. While the cornerstone of Rahul’s diet is formed by eggs and dosas, the wicketkeeper-batter also revealed in a conversation with Jatin Sapru for Humans of Bombay the one habit he does not abandon even if he is playing abroad.
When the host of the show, Sapru, tried to pull his leg by saying that Rahul looked like a player who had grown up eating international cuisine like sushi, the cricketer opened up about his simple diet growing up in Mangalore.
“Kaunsa sushi? Mangalore main kahaan sushi khaunga? Neer dosa, biryani khata tha main! (What sushi? Where would I get sushi in Mangalore in those days? I used to eat neer dosa and biryani). I used to eat very simple food, even now my food is very simple,” Rahul said.
India cricketer KL Rahul during the first India vs South Africa Test in Kolkata. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
Rahul then broke down his diet.
“I just manage my quantities. I don’t eat sugar. I mean I control sugar, can’t say I don’t eat sugar. It’ll be wrong. I stay away from wheat. Again, I’m not saying I’m completely off wheat. I will still eat a pizza once in a while. But I have a calorie count in a day, and I try to manage all of that. If I have a craving, I’ll still try and manage within that. I love my Indian food,” Rahul said.
Here’s the food that fuels the champion cricketer.
“Morning breakfast will be dosa and bhurji or eggs and stuff like that. If I’m at home in India, and I am getting dosa, I’m eating dosa six days a week with my eggs. Some sort of egg preparation, egg dosa. Plain dosa with a bhurji or something like that. I eat four eggs, in whatever form I feel like on the day from Eggs Benedict to omelette to Spanish omelette to scrambled eggs to bhurji whatever I feel like. And for carbs I eat dosa if I’m in India. If I’m abroad, sometimes I eat gluten-free toast if I’m hungry. I have a protein mix in the morning with some berries and bananas and some of that nuts, some fats and fruit and protein. So that’s my breakfast. Simple,” said Rahul.
He then explained the one rule that he diligently follows even when abroad.
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“An afternoon meal wherever I am in the world is Indian. I have to eat Indian food wherever I am. Yeah. So I’m always eating Indian food for lunch,” he said.
Rahul then went into specifics: “I count my portions. Like I’ll eat 150 grams of carbs, which is rice on a non-training day and a non-match day. On a match day and training days, I’ll eat 200 grams. And that stays the same for dinner as well. Then I eat 200 to 250 grams of protein. My preferred protein is seafood. I love seafood. Sometimes I eat mutton and lamb as well. These are the only two meats I eat. No chicken, and no other meat. 250 grams of that (meat) and another 150 grams or 200 grams of veggies like stirred. If I’m eating Indian food it might be like some subzi. I don’t have any restrictions with what I can eat and what I can’t eat. But I try and avoid aloo (potatoes) sometimes. So dinner is the same thing, but in a lighter, more continental sort of cuisine.”
