Benni McCarthy Reveals How Six-Meal-A-Day Plan Got Him in Great Shape

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has always been open about his struggles with weight issues during his playing days.

McCarthy even lost a place in the team at West Ham due to being overweight and also got fined by some of his ex-clubs, leading to mental health problems for the striker.

However, that was not something he experienced at Ajax Amsterdam where he joined in 1997 as a teenager from South Africa.

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McCarthy admits to being taken aback by the culture, especially the eating habits, where he had to eat six meals a day, coming from a country where he was accustomed to three or sometimes just two per day.

“Ajax was a club where they were rigid about everything so I followed suit,” McCarthy said on What’s the Difference? A Woolies Food Podcast.

“When it came to eating, I was always speaking to the club and nutrition coaches about what kind of food and eating at 5'oclock then 7’oclock then you have like a late-night snack which contains fruits and nuts.

“I was like that is a snack for everything so you eat breakfast, lunch and then brunch and late lunch and then dinner and supper. I was like my goodness; you eat the whole day and I am going to blow up like a balloon if I am eating constantly all these times.”

However, the young striker’s concerns were quickly eased when he realised that the ‘many meals’ were actually being beneficial to him.

“I couldn’t understand why I have to eat that much to be slim,” he added. “Is in it like you eat breakfast, skip lunch and then you have dinner and that keeps you lean and slim? But no, it was the more you eat the better it was for you and true, I looked and damn, two packs and I was quite ripped.”

McCarthy spent two years at Ajax before moving to Spain to join Celta Vigo and while the Netherlands got him in shape, Spain threw him off-guard as the programme was completely different and left him struggling with weight issues again.

“It's lunch time, and after that, you have to go to sleep. I was like, 'What? For what? Because it's siesta time, the town shuts down; it's a dead zone for three hours, from 2pm to 4:30 pm. After that, it's the loudest noise you'll ever hear because everyone is rushing back to normalcy,” McCarthy said of his time in Spain.

"Then, at 6pm, I would head to a restaurant, thinking that it's dinner time, only for them to be closed until they opened at 9pm, or later. So, you become accustomed to eating at like 9/10 o'clock, which completely knocked me off.”

McCarthy struggled to adapt to life in Spain and after two years switched to Portugal to join FC Porto where he enjoyed success during a three-year spell before signing for English side Blackburn Rovers.