ON THE FOOTY field, Brendan Fevola’s ability in front of the sticks made him one of the most prolific goalkickers the AFL has ever seen. He won two Coleman medals during his career, was a three-time All-Australian selection and kicked a staggering 99 goals in the 2008 season – a mark only Lance Franklin has matched since. But since hanging up his boots, staying in shape hasn’t previously been one of Fevola’s priorities – and it’s an area he was brutally honest about when he sat down with Men’s Health.
“I haven’t been to the gym in 13 years,” he tells us.
Until recently, Fevola hasn’t exactly felt his best physically, and he makes no attempt to obscure that fact. “After I retired, I just didn’t see the point because I had no reason to keep fit,” he says. “Eating as much as I used to was fine when I was playing footy, because I burnt a lot of it off with exercise. But after I started not exercising as much, it all stacked up.”
Fevola, before his weight loss transformation
Earlier this year, Fevola decided it was time to make a change. “I’m getting old now at 43, but I want to be able to keep up with my kids, and when you’re carrying a bit of extra weight that’s harder to do,” he says.
He was cautious of hitching his wagon to any plan of action that claimed to be a silver bullet, however. “I’ve tried to lose weight a few times before and have done a few challenges, but I haven’t really stuck with any of them and have just ended up putting the weight back on.”
Today, Fevola is a changed man. He’s lost 30kg on the year and shed 16kg in just the last month by overhauling his diet with a 30-day challenge with keto.com.au.
While he hadn’t had much success in getting fit in the past, Fevola did recognise that fixing his diet was crucial. If he could do that, everything else would fall into place, he says. “My main problem was my diet. I used to eat pasta, pizza and chips every day. I reckon I had hot chips with gravy for lunch every day for like two years.”
Based on his previous experiences with diet plans, Fevola found that, to get results, he needed to limit his carbohydrate intake but maintain his ingestion of fats. This made a ketogenic diet – which is a low-carb, high-fat eating plan designed to get the body into a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates – the logical choice.
Fevola’s role in breakfast radio on Fox FM also presented a challenge, with the footballer being forced to structure his eating habits around atypical hours while also battling tiredness throughout the day. “My lifestyle can just flatten me sometimes,” he says. “The breakfast hours I work mean I’m tired at the wrong times, and before I was just eating constant carbs and not getting the good stuff to keep me awake. I don’t want to put all the blame on breakfast hours though, because you can still eat well at those times, but it’s all about the decisions you make.”
Fevola signed up for a 30-day challenge where he would only eat keto.com.au meals for a full month, with the aim of changing his diet cold turkey and reaping the rewards. He had a variety of ketogenic meals and snacks delivered to his door, which made up most of his caloric intake every day – completing the total overhaul of his diet.
Given his previous experiences with dieting, it’s easy to understand why Fevola was pragmatic about the potential outcomes of his challenge. “Really, I just wanted to try this out and see if it worked,” he says. It did.
When he speaks to Men’s Health, Fevola has one day left of his 30-day challenge, but he’s already seeing results across the board after losing of 16kg. Although, he insists weight loss wasn’t his primary goal. “I didn’t really do it for weight loss. It was more about feeling better and changing my habits.”
After completing his keto.com.au challenge, Fevola’s habits have been well and truly changed. “Before, my meals were always something full of carbs, now I look for something else to eat. Today I had cottage cheese, avocado and tomato in a bowl for lunch. I would never have that before, but it’s clean and it makes me feel good,” he says.
“I’ve been having keto bars for the last month if I get hungry, and they fill you up. Then I’ll have one of [keto.com.au’s] healthy ready-made meals for lunch and dinner and that’ll be it,” Fevola continues. “I was eating like 5 or 6 meals a day before, now I’m down to just three.”
But it isn’t just the quantity of Fevola’s meals that has improved for the better, it’s also the quality, thanks to the healthier alternatives provided by keto.com.au meals. “Instead of having fried rice or chips, I’m having cauliflower rice and cauliflower mash. There’s a mac and cheese, which you’d think isn’t good for you, but you swap out some of the ingredients for cauliflower and it is. Then there’s a zucchini pasta, and I love pasta coming from an Italian background, but I never would’ve eaten zucchini before.”
Fevola’s new outlook isn’t limited to weight loss either. He’s also been taking keto.com.au Sleep+ gummies to improve his sleep. “I’ve never been a great sleeper,” he says. “But now I sleep through the whole night right up to my alarm.” keto.com.au offers a wide range of gummies, some of which can help you sleep better, while others can help control insulin spikes or quickly convert fat into energy and switch your body into a ketosis state.
All in all, Fevola has lost around 30kg in the last 12 months – 16 of which were shed in August with his keto diet – and has reduced his previous total bodyweight of around 130kg by more than 25%. So, will he stick with it? To that question, Fevola provides a characteristically unconventional answer. “I’m not going to make any promises that will get printed, but I hope so,” he says before signing off.
If you’re keen on trying out the keto diet for yourself, you can sign up for keto.com.au’s meal delivery service, or shop a range of keto gummies and bars, here.
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