Luke Humphries is one of the best darts players in the world and he credits his commitment to trimming his weight for transforming his prospects on the oche.
‘Cool Hand Luke’ has seen a remarkable rise in the sport, going from the world No 58 at the end of 2018 to No 1 today – and winning the Darts World Championship back in January was the icing on the cake.
Of course, some of the best darts players around have been heavier – Andy ‘The Viking’ Fordham weighed in at 31 stone the same year he won the World Championship, 2004.
Pictures from Humphries’ social media pages do well to show Humphries’ impressive changes – with the darts star looking far slimmer in his recent pictures.
In a recent interview with The Times, Humphries explained how adapting his diet has revolutionised his life and game, giving him more energy to commit to the demands of touring and playing. Gone are the tempting takeaways after late games.
‘If I’m eating a burger now, then it’s one I’ve made with mince that contains 5 per cent fat,’ he said. ‘It can be hard to find time to exercise but it’s the healthy eating I really stick to. As long as I’m keeping the weight off, that’s the most important thing.
Luke Humphries has undergone a body transformation in recent years, losing over four stone
He insists his rise to the top of the sport is thanks to him adopting a healthier lifestyle
‘I was getting to the point in tournaments where I was tiring after five or six hours,” he. It would get to three or four in the afternoon and I’d be fatigued and I knew that I needed to go on to seven at night if I was going to win.
‘I looked up what I needed — the protein, the fibre, the carbs and the vegetables. And then it was just eating in moderation.’
Humphries, 29, has been afflicted with anxiety. On Sky Sports’ Game of Throws documentary, he revealed that he feared having a heart attack in a 2019 match against James Wade, saying he was ‘ready to quit’ as he was ‘really scared’ at his hastening heartbeat.
But losing weight helped galvanise him, as he told The Times: ‘It made me feel like a new person, and a lot of that was feeling more confident. I don’t think I’d be in this situation if I hadn’t lost the weight.
‘The key for me was realising I wasn’t on a diet but I was changing my lifestyle. It doesn’t stop you from having treats; you just have to be more strict with yourself but also not give yourself a hard time if you have an off day.’
According to The Daily Star, Humphries has lost four-and-a-half stone since embarking on his physical journey in lockdown.
Speaking to the outlet last year, Humphries said: ‘I did the exercise bike for about half-an-hour a day and then it was just eating clean and healthily while still practising. I felt better in myself but I didn’t feel any different with my throw.
‘A lot of players have lost a lot of weight and it’s impacted them negatively, performance-wise. Maybe that’s done through losing too much weight and not practising through it.
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‘When you’re losing 4lb a week while practising, your body doesn’t really notice the changes. If I’d lost 4st and not thrown a dart during that period, it would have been different’.
And, speaking to Sky Sports, he confirmed that the weight loss has been a direct reason for his rise to the sixth ranked player in the world.
He said: ‘I think that being fitter and healthier helps with longer days and it is no coincidence that I never used to be able to get to those quarter finals, semi finals because I would run out of energy.
‘The European Tour finals, they are the longest possible days you could imagine and I am doing them at a canter now and I could probably go three more games after the final.
‘So losing the weight is a key part of where I am now because I don’t think I would be where I am now as the unfit and unhealthy version of me. It is another piece of the puzzle to make me where I am now’.
The 28-year-old, who had previously fallen at the quarter-final stage three times, will now face Scott Williams in the semi-finals.
Williams had earlier beaten three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen 5-3 in their quarter-final.
Van Gerwen’s elimination has seen Humphries emerge as the favourite for the title and add to his recent success at majors.
Humphries entered the World Championship as the reigning World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship finals champion.
