Football with a difference: Lose weight, gain points
● The league has its own nutritionist, who crafts personalized meal plans for the players each week and helps them reach their goals
Monterrey, Mexico: Dripping with sweat, the burly footballers sprint across the pitch seeking to score in Mexico’s Heavyweight Football League, where points are awarded not just for goals but for shedding weight.
Mexico is the secondmost obese country in the world, after its neighbor the United States. But in the northern city of Monterrey, the amateur heavyweight league is using Mexicans’ passion for football to fight the problem.
Co- founder Raul Pequeno says he got the idea while watching a professional football match on TV with his daughters a little over a year ago.
“We were watching the ( Monterrey) Rayados and I started criticising a player named Edwin Cardona, because he looked a little fat,” said Pequeno, 35.
“One of my daughters said to me, ‘ You don’t even play,’” recalled Pequeno, who weighed 157 kilos at the time. Today, he weighs 143 kilos.
“She was completely right,” he said.
The conversation got him thinking, and soon he was organising a tournament for other men his size. A women’s tournament soon followed.
A children’s tournament is next: Mexico has the dubious distinction of having the world’s worst childhood obesity problem.
That first edition of the tournament drew just 14 players. Today, there are nearly 150. Before each match, players have to step on the scales to record their weight loss since the previous match.
Winning on the pitch earns two points in the league table. Winning on the scales earns three.
“You can win every match, but if you don’t give it your all ( to lose weight), you can still lose,” said Pequeno.
The league has its own nutritionist, who crafts personalised meal plans for the players each week and helps them reach their goals. — AFP