{"id":609081,"date":"2026-04-27T10:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609081\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:48:21","slug":"inside-blackhawks-defenseman-sam-rinzels-plan-to-continue-gaining-weight-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609081\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Blackhawks defenseman Sam Rinzel’s plan to continue gaining weight this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intermittent fasting is a popular weight-loss strategy.<\/p>\n

During his years-long effort to fill out his body, young Blackhawks<\/a> defenseman Sam Rinzel has found the reverse to be true, too: Intermittent eating helps with weight gain.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018The thing that I\u2019ve been playing with is the time slots in the day when to eat and how much to eat,\u2019\u2019 Rinzel said recently. \u2018\u2018I found out that .\u2009.\u2009. if I eat a whole bunch in one sitting, I go a longer period of time without eating. [It\u2019s about] having good meals and high-calorie meals but also having more meals throughout the day.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Rinzel, who will turn 22 in June, tries to munch on healthy foods regularly throughout the day \u2014 he\u2019s a fan of avocados, for example \u2014 then eat one big meal about 90 minutes before he goes to sleep.<\/p>\n

As long as he\u2019s able to digest that meal overnight, wake up at a normal time, eat breakfast promptly and follow the routine again, he gains weight at a steady rate.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018There\u2019s days where it sucks, and there\u2019s days where you\u2019re hungry [for meals] and feeling good,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u2018\u2018It\u2019s a process, for sure.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018You\u2019re probably not going to gain 40 pounds in one summer. But over the last three years, I\u2019ve done a good job gaining a good 10 or 15 pounds of muscle and weight over the summers.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

One more summer of gaining 10 or 15 pounds might get Rinzel close to his ideal long-term weight. His trainer, Cal Dietz, has estimated<\/a> that to be about 205 pounds, based on Rinzel\u2019s 6-4 height, lanky limbs and bone thickness.<\/p>\n

Rinzel entered the just-completed season at 194 pounds, but he lost more weight than he hoped to during the course of it, even though he tried to maintain it by maximizing his sodium intake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

More strength should help Sam Rinzel in board battles.<\/p>\n

Michael Reaves\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a difference between weight and strength. So even if Rinzel gets up to 205 pounds by September, he probably still will have more strength work to do in future summers.<\/p>\n

Rinzel also has determined it\u2019s \u2018\u2018not necessarily the most horrible thing to put on a little bit of body fat\u2019\u2019 in the short term, either. Although it wouldn\u2019t be muscle, at least it would be there.<\/p>\n

More weight should improve his biggest weakness against NHL opponents. He has tried to use his brainpower<\/a> to overcome his lack of physical power, but that makes winning board battles and boxing out difficult.<\/p>\n

Fellow Hawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski has the same problem, but Rinzel looks more capable of outgrowing it than Korchinski does.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018I\u2019m definitely a late bloomer,\u2019\u2019 Rinzel said. \u2018\u2018Growing up, I was a late bloomer, whether that was physical strength or just figuring things out. It takes time. Everyone\u2019s trajectory is going to be different. But if you really believe in yourself, you\u2019ll get to where you want to go.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He\u2019s reminding himself of that adage coming off an eye-opening and ultimately unsatisfactory rookie season. It wasn\u2019t disastrous, but he didn\u2019t live up to the lofty expectations put on him \u2014 nor to his own expectations \u2014 after his stellar nine-game NHL cameo in April 2025.<\/p>\n

Rinzel finished with four goals and 10 assists and averaged 18:16 of ice time in 54 games with the Hawks. He also went down to the AHL for 23 games between early December and late January, which was humbling.<\/p>\n

The Hawks were outscored only 39-35 during Rinzel\u2019s five-on-five ice time, but he was relatively sheltered. His analytics on defensive-zone retrievals and exits were poor \u2014 surprisingly so, considering his smooth skating. Coaches encouraged him to play with swagger while staying alert for danger.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018There were a lot of highs and a lot of lows this season \u2014 a lot more than I wanted \u2014 so it\u2019s [about] finding that consistency,\u2019\u2019 Rinzel said. \u2018\u2018The summer is a good time to try things and see what works.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Intermittent fasting is a popular weight-loss strategy. During his years-long effort to fill out his body, young Blackhawks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-609081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}