Why?

I have another reason why somebody might want to take up Jiu-Jitsu.

Let's say, like many of us, you find weight control to be a bit of an issue. Maybe your weight has snuck up and you want to get rid of it. Picking a number out of a hat, let's say you have 30 pounds you want gone.

You should get yourself any of a number of apps to calculate what your food intake should be to maintain your weight at it's current level. Use the app to record what you consume. Don't diet to lose pounds, just to stay your current, tubby self.

Start training at a school like ours that is very friendly and safe for newcomers. You'll be attending 2 one-hour classes per week. You'll be burning about 900 calories by doing so. Your weight should start a gentle decline of about a pound a month.

Five months later you'll qualify for a third, more advanced class per week. You will also have lost 5 pounds by that time. At this point your weight loss will increase by 50%.

Another four or five months in and you'll have earned a Blue Belt. Your weight loss total should be over 10 pounds at this point.

As a Blue Belt, you'll start attending the advanced classes which happen immediately after the White Belt classes. Like about half of the Blue Belts, keep coming to the White Belt classes on top of your own. Start attending open-mat times, too.

This sounds like a lot, and it is, but Jiu-Jitsu is a little like a drug addiction. You'll probably want to do it.

Instead of dropping a pound or pound-and-a-half each month, now you're losing a pound a week. Another 5 months and you've reached your 30 pound weight loss goal without cutting back on food at all.

Now comes the unpleasant part. To maintain your dream weight while doing all that training you'll have to start eating more. About 30-40 slices of bacon a week more. Or perhaps you fancy Breyers Cookie Dough ice cream. You could scarf down 10 to 15 cups of that stuff. Or 45 cups of frozen peas and carrots if that's your thing.

The point being, you can live life at your chosen, ideal weight while eating considerably more than you do now. You will be fit, strong, and nicely able to defend yourself should you ever have to. You'll have new friends, and get to roll around on the padded floor with them like a herd of puppies.

It's fun.