'I would finish a pack of 40 toffees in 4-5 days' - Virat Kohli opens up on his 'mad' diet before 2012

Indian skipper Virat Kohli is one of the fittest athletes in the cricketing fraternity. But before his fitness revolution, there was a time when he used to eat a bag full of chocolates – it’s pretty tough to believe for anyone who follows him. Virat Kohli himself revealed ‘mad’ diet at the start of his career when he represented RCB.

Kohli many times talked about the importance of physical training and what one has to eat and what kind of diet plans one should follow. He, recently, spoke about his eating habits and diet plans in a show called ‘open nets with Mayank’ which was hosted by his teammate Mayank Agarwal.

Kohli threw light on how careless eating habits and regular partying led to his career downfall when he was representing Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2012. He also talked about the improvements he made during this period of his life.

“2012 IPL I came back home and saw myself, was disgusted. I just wanted to change everything about myself. I also saw how the dynamics of cricket around the world were changing rapidly and how I felt we were far behind in intensity levels as other teams. They were moving far ahead of us in terms of fitness levels,” Kohli told Mayank Agarwal on bcci.tv

I was eating like a mad person: Virat Kohli

Before the start of the IPL 2012, Virat was eating whatever that was kept in front of him. He also revealed that he used to finish a pack of 40 toffees when their team was staying at ITC Gardenia. With his crazy eating habits, he thought he was going to dominate that IPL season but that didn’t happen and that season went really bad for the RCB batsman.

“ITC Gardenia were we used to stay, they would have a packet of eclairs toffees in the mini-bar and they would refill it every time. I would finish a pack in 4-5 days’ time, and that was a pack of 40 toffees. That was my diet at that time, I was eating like a mad person because that phase happened where I got all the success and everything was going well and I went into the IPL thinking that I’m going to dominate,” he added.

He soon realized the importance of staying fit at the international level. He completely changed his thought process and way of preparing. From there on he followed the right path and became one of the fittest cricketers in the world.

“But that didn’t turn out well and things didn’t process that way. Things happened, I did not appreciate and respect it then… I was thrown back down then I went back home, realized that I need to change everything from the way I’m thinking and preparing. Changed it from the next day onwards when I came back home. From then on my whole outlook towards how I want to prepare completely changed,” Kohli concluded.