Chapter 41: The Reason Why People Get Fat
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Professional athletes were very strict with food. Especially athletes who were on the same level as Feifei Yu—champion of the Olympic games, world record holder, and champion of all swimming competitions. She was as precious as a baby panda. She had to pay full attention to everything she was putting in her stomach.
To ensure the food she was eating was safe for her to eat, she only went to places that had specified meals. Even if she ate out, she had to stick to the principle that she would not eat any meat, since all commercial meat had antibiotics, and sometimes even chemical hormones that were used to help animals grow faster. Antibiotics and hormones were taboo for athletes. Once one ate meat with those chemicals, even if by accident, it meant that he or she couldn't pass the urine test, and they would be forced to stop participating in sports games. It could even end their sports career.
The restaurant Feifei Yu brought Dai Li to was in the provincial sports school. All the ingredients came from specific facilities. All meat had to be tested before being sent to the kitchen to ensure that it was safe for athletes to eat. The restaurant provided a nutritious menu, and they even provided a private cooking service for some chosen athletes, who would make whatever they ordered.
Feifei Yu was obviously one of those chosen athletes. As the world record holder, Feifei Yu enjoyed special benefits from the national team, so of course while she was back with the provincial team she was treated with the highest of benefits.
The chief who was on his duty cooked two hot dishes and some salads. In the blink of an eye, four dishes were ready on the table. Dai Li made himself at home and swallowed the food like a horse.
Dai Li was always focusing on food when he ate. He didn't like speaking during meals, which was the opposite of Feifei. She was very talkative, and she began to share her life with Dai Li.
"In these last two years I have always gained weight. Especially last year, I gained 7kg. My weight took a toll on my physique," Feifei Yu said.
"Why is that?" Dai Li asked with the food all over his mouth. He mumbled. "You must really not have liked to work hard in training!"
"No, it's not like that!" Feifei Yu argued. "I didn't slack off at all in training. I even increased the amount of exercises. But it didn't make any changes. My weight just soared to the sky. There was one period of time that I felt I was even gaining weight by drinking water."
"Did you go to the hospital?" Dai Li continued asking.
"Yep," Feifei Yu said shyly. "The doctor said that it's normal physical development."
Dai Li understood immediately. Normal people who went through adolescence from a teenager to an adult experienced an increase in their height and weight. In most cases, it was seen in height first, then in weight. Many people stopped growing once they turned 18-years-old, but their weight gain wouldn't stop immediately. It was a normal physical phenomenon.
However, this kind of normal weight gain was a disaster for athletes like Feifei Yu. It could lead to a decline in performance in sports games. It had clearly happened very quickly for Feifei Yu, whose record was already on the bottom of the national team on the internal test at the end of last year.
Feifei Yu said, "The national team helped me a lot. They even hired the top nutritionists and trainers to help me lose weight. Still, the results were very limited, and the rebound from training was awful. It turned out that they didn't have any ways to help in the end."
"It's against human nature to want to stop one's weight gain during their physical development period," Dai Li said. He continued, "Then why did you show up in the training room of the sports university? It is not the holiday for the national team yet, is it?"
"They asked me to take the holiday earlier. They said they wanted me to go home earlier for the New Year and fix my condition." Feifei Yu's eyes were very firm. "But I'm not okay with just going back home like a loser. I knew I could be slimmer as long as I kept trying harder. So I didn't go back home, but went back to the provincial swimming team. However, the main coach, Zhongyi Xu, was away, and the environment was not very suitable for training. So I came to the sports university."
Dai Li looked at this stern young girl and nodded silently. Feifei Yu was like all the other girls, in that she didn't want others to know the reason her condition had gotten worse was because of her weight gain. Especially the press. She didn't want them to write articles about this. That was why she had found a quiet training environment for herself to train on her own.
In this city, only the sports university had training gear and facilities that could be utilized by the provincial training team. There were no students here since it was the winter holiday, either, so in this tranquil environment she could get away from reporters.
The less people that knew she was training in the sports university, the better. Even Dai Li, who was the coach on duty, didn't know about it. If it was not for Mr. Qian, who was in charge of the training room, going to the hospital because of food poisoning, Dai Li and Feifei Yu paths probably never would have crossed.
Dai Li put his chopsticks aside and asked, "So you cried in the training room just because you hadn't lose any weight?"
Feifei Yu nodded with a blush on her face. "I worked out for the whole day. But a cup of water after training brought all my weight I had lost right back. I felt like a loser, so I cried."
…
Dai Li went back to his apartment and accessed the System, beginning to remember all the moves of the weight loss exercise.
Feifei Yu would come back the next day for sure. Dai Li couldn't fool her with some made-up moves again. He felt obligated to learn the entire set of exercises tonight. Even if he couldn't remember it like the back of his hand, he should at least know all of them.
He checked his condition unconsciously and was surprised by the number he saw:
Name: Dai Li
Coach Level: Sophomore Coach, high level (1,006/5,000)
Others: Explosive Force Halo
Skill: Weight Loss Exercise
Training List: Feifei Yu, Youguang Zhao, Guan Sui, Qiusheng Chen…
My empirical value is 1,006? More than 1,000? I remember I stayed at 955 for a long time. How come I'm at more than 1,000 all of a sudden?
After he had gotten to the high level of sophomore coach, Dai Li could only earn 30 points a day. And it had to be an entire day of training to reach the standard. If he worked any less than a whole day, he earned even less than that. His value was 955 before, and he had to stop training because of the winter vacation. His value was not growing because of the halt. He had been 955 points for a few days already. However, it was now at 1,006, which meant he had earned 51 points of empirical value.
But I didn't do any training today, how? And it's almost double the number I usually earn. What's happening? Dai Li thought about it and found there could only be one possibility.
It seems like teaching Feifei Yu the weight loss exercise also helped me gain value. It's counted as training too! I gained 51 points just by taking her through two rounds of exercise. Does that mean I earn more value by teaching the weight loss exercise than normal training?