“He Was Very Thin”- Shohei Ohtani’s Dietician Claims MLB Star’s Body Transformation Has Inspired Japanese Kids

The Anaheim Stadium found a new gear in 2021 with Shohei Ohtani having a breakout year. And what a breakout year it was. Notably, the story of Ohtani’s success begins not with his performances on the field but rather with his discipline off it. In a recent interview with his dietician, she revealed what makes the baseball superstar really perform to his capabilities.

 Shohei’s need to constantly evolve

During his record-breaking season, there was a time when Ohtani was taking seven meals a day, including supplements. When asked why, Shohei Ohtani said, “There are no precedents of people like me in the majors.”

Ohtani saw that there wasn’t necessarily a template for him to follow because he was quite unique in his build. While already tall, he had to build muscle through his diet and workouts. Ohtani chose to try out different things with his diet just so that he could observe the effects, as he had no template to go by.

His dietician mentions, “Of course, Ohtani has the advantage of being tall, but he was very thin at first. If you train right and get the right nutrition, you can hold your own among foreign players.”

Lauding Ohtani’s efforts, his dietician also talked about how you needed the courage to change things up in the middle of a season, which he sought to do for evolution. The way Ohtani deals with available information and proactively changes methods and diets allows him to grow. And this, in turn, enables his two-way playing style to flourish.

Shohei Ohtani – Role model

Shohei Ohtani had been following a fitness regimen for a long time and truly tells us the need for routine and discipline in the life of a sports person.

Ohtani has a voracious appetite for more than just baseball, which has led to his exponential growth. His dietician mentions his commitment to nutrition is serious enough that he even turned down invitations from senior players for meals early in his career. All this was to make sure his eating regimen was not disturbed.

WATCH: A Peek Into Shohei Ohtani’s Insane Gym Workouts

When asked after moving to LA initially if he would require Japanese food preparations to adapt, Shohei was well ready for the shift. He said, “I’ve studied nutritional science and how to eat so that I could go anywhere in the world and would not run into any problems (with food). They don’t need to do anything special for me.”

There are surely many children who look up to him. Especially being a foreign player in an American League, the role model he becomes will impact baseball players for generations to come. But it seems as though he has done well. His dietician mentions, that just like Ohtani, “I think you can say that as long as you make the effort, there’s nothing you can’t achieve.”

Surely a great message for all MLB fans out there. If you really put your mind to something, impossible is nothing.