Sumo wrestlers are competitive athletes.
Despite consuming around 7,000 kilocalories per day and weighing up to 180 kilograms, they almost never develop the health conditions typically associated with obesity.
The main reason is that despite their sheer size, they carry almost no visceral fat.
Visceral fat is the fat stored deep inside the abdominal cavity, surrounding the internal organs. It is this type of fat that drives conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. CT scans of sumo wrestlers reveal that their fat is stored directly beneath the skin rather than around the organs.
Intense physical training significantly raises their adiponectin levels. Adiponectin is a hormone produced by fat cells that essentially pulls fat and glucose molecules out of the bloodstream preventing visceral fat from building up in the first place.
In short, sumo wrestlers are in far better shape than their size suggests thanks entirely to their training. However, this changes sharply after retirement, when they are forced to drastically cut their calorie intake to stay healthy.