How bodybuilder’s new workout and diet got him running ultramarathons while staying buff – now he eats 250g of carbs a day (lucky he’s Italian)
- Hong Kong-based Italian expat Massimo Giusto took up ultrarunning after a body transformation programme helped him drop 10kg and get down to 8 per cent fat
- His key to balancing a bodybuilder’s physique with running hundreds of kilometres a month is consuming 2,500 calories a day on a carb-heavy diet
Growing up in Italy, Massimo Giusto got a healthy serving of discipline from an early age.
He started doing karate, had a very strict coach, and was sent off to boarding school where rules and regulations were the norm. Giusto said this laid the foundation for his unwavering drive when it came to achieving goals in life.
“I was a bit naughty as a kid, so it was very good for me,” the 41-year-old said. “I think I was craving discipline in some respects.”
He studied economics at the University of Florence, graduating in 2004. He moved to Hong Kong the same year, joining an export company he now owns.
Fourteen years later, Giusto decided it was time to kick his fitness up a notch. He had been working out regularly, but thanks to all the business dinners and overseas travel, he had been eating perhaps a little too well. He had given up drinking three years previously, but he was still smoking.
“At that point I was not in good shape. I was looking at myself in the mirror and not feeling happy, and I knew that I was messed up and I had to do something to change myself and my life and my body,” Giusto said.
How this father shed 27kg, helped by his family and community
He was working out at UP Fitness and decided to undergo a 14-week transformation programme to get in the best shape of his life.
He started in early 2019, weighing 87kg (192lb) with 16 per cent body fat. The biggest step was to overhaul his diet, dropping down to about 1,800 calories a day, with low carbohydrate, high protein and medium fat intake.
“Before, I was probably eating two-and-a-half times the amount of calories. For the first week it was tough and then my body and mind adjusted. And my metabolism adjusted as well and I wasn’t feeling so hungry any more, and I was still feeling strong without carbs,” he said.
His regular bodybuilding workouts, which he performed four days a week, were all about hitting the heavy compounded movements – deadlifts, squats and bench press. One of the keys to his transformation was to change his routine every three weeks. At the end of 14 weeks, he had shed 10kg and was down to 8 per cent body fat.
“I was committed from the very beginning because I saw a lot of these transformation photos,” Giusto said. “But then after the transformation I was already looking for another challenge.”
Giusto wanted to find something to continue to push himself, physically and mentally. His workouts had focused on bodybuilding, but not cardio. He decided that running long distances would be his new goal.
“I wanted to pick something that was hard and that I hadn’t done before. And I am a bit heavy, so I felt like I didn’t have any advantage in running, so it was basically to find the hardest thing imaginable. And back at that time I was still smoking cigarettes and I needed a good reason to quit and so that was the final kick.”
The goal was to complete an ultramarathon, with his sights on the Oxfam Trailwalker, a 100km gruelling team race through Hong Kong’s trails. It starts in Sai Kung and finishes near Tuen Mun, taking participants over the mountains of the New Territories. Winners take around 12 hours, and the cut-off time is 48 hours.
Erwan Desvalois, a running coach who has been working with Giusto for a few years at Joint Dynamics, said the Italian’s personality is suited to finding ways to overcome challenges, and running long distances is one of the hardest things anyone can do physically.
“Just like in bodybuilding, Massimo understands that it’s consistency in training that will take him to the end of the 100km. He hates having to miss a run. If he has to miss a run, he is the guy who will run twice the day after,” Desvalois said.
When I am down and having difficulty, I think to myself that I am doing something that I love, and I am doing something that is good for me
How does Giusto keep his buff physique while also running hundreds of kilometres a month? Desvalois and Giusto’s personal trainer at UP, Samuel Vicinanza, helped him coordinate a running programme and diet that was almost the complete opposite of what he had followed before.
“The energy source for running is carbs, 100 per cent. So we managed to design this diet, which is 2,500 calories a day, but on a carbs basis. So I am having 250 grams of carbs a day. So a lot of pasta and bread, and I’m Italian so that wasn’t too hard.”
He was unfit, overworked. Now he’s one off running 100 marathons
Despite his determination to complete an ultramarathon, it took Giusto three attempts to succeed. When the Oxfam Trailwalker was suspended in 2019 due to safety concerns stemming from anti-government protests, he joined others in an unofficial run. It was cut short when a forest fire engulfed a section of the trail. He had to pull out of his second ultramarathon attempt, the Lantau 70 in 2020, due to injury. He then set his sights firmly on the 2021 Oxfam Trailwalker.
He’s now preparing for his next challenge: to complete a road marathon.
His best advice for anyone who wants to transform their lives through fitness is to focus on the outcome – your enhanced well-being – especially when training or working out seems like a chore.
“When I am down and having difficulty, I think to myself that I am doing something that I love, and I am doing something that is good for me, that is going to make me feel better and make me a better person.”
