Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/179

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154
ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT.

ice, or a roast apple, may suffice in their place. Take claret and water at dinner, and one glass of sherry or Maderia afterwards. Between meals, as a rule, exercise must always be taken to the extent of inducing perspiration. Running, when practicable, is the best form in which to take it. Seven or eight pounds is as much as is prudent to lose during the three weeks. If this loss is arrived at sooner, or, indeed, later, the severe parts of the treatment may be gradually omitted; but it is strongly recommended to modify the general habits in accordance with the principle of taking as small a quantity as possible of fat and sugar, or of substances which form fat and sugar, and sustaining the respiratory function. By this means the weight may be gradually reduced for a few months with safety."

If a man in training, or in every-day life, finds that he cannot get off his flesh, and so clear his wind, with the ordinary routine of exercise, cut off his sugar and his potatoes, just to try how it acts. "With some digestions, sugar makes no difference," says W. B. Woodford ("Oars and Sculls";) with others an ounce or two of sugar in a day makes a pound or so of fat, which, but for the sugar, would have turned into muscle. The four or five lumps, or spoonfuls, that a man would take at breakfast and supper would, with some men, put on more fat in one day than a two-mile run would take off."

For a more permanent reduction of fat, there is nothing that can be depended on except a well-prescribed regimen, such as that of Banting, who reduced his weight forty-six pounds, and his bulk