Peanut butter chicken, learning to love vegetables and 250kg deadlifts are behind the extraordinary weight loss which has enabled Tyson Fury to face Deontay Wilder this weekend.

The British heavyweight has shed over 130 pounds – almost 10 stones – in the last 12 months in preparation for his bout with Wilder, thanks to a carefully calibrated programme devised by his strength and conditioning coach Kristian Blacklock.

It has left Fury, whose weight ballooned dramatically during his two-and-a-half-year absence from the ring between 2015 and last June, in his best physical shape in years as he aims to take Wilder’s WBC world title belt on Saturday night.

It has been a miraculous journey according to Blacklock, who was also advising Fury when he claimed the No 1 spot in the heavyweight division against Wladimir Klitschko three years ago.

“If you had said a year ago he’d be fighting for a world title within 12 months, where he was and his size, it would not have been realistic,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “But once we’d done the first camp and got the bulk of the weight off, then the possibilities were there.”

Fury’s diet itself involved ‘Keto’ to start – very few carbohydrates, meaning that the body burns fat for energy – matched with low intensity training. Since then, according to Blacklock, the focus has been on Fury maintaining a healthy sports diet of quality, organic protein and carbohydrate sources such as eggs, fish, chicken and other lean meat.

“Tyson’s not a massive veg lover, but we do find there are things he will have,” he said. “There’s a peanut butter chicken recipe we’ve had on this camp which has been his favourite, cooked by his chef Tim Alcock. If you’re enjoying your food, dieting it a hell of a lot easier.”

Although Fury’s weight loss has been dramatic, it has not been sudden.

“We’re not really worried about his weight for this fight. The last two fights, we’ve had little goals in terms of where we wanted him. This fight, we are monitoring him, his weight and body fat, but we’re looking to trying to get him physically right for this fight. Bodies don’t win fights.

“Tyson is never going to look like an Anthony Joshua. But, they don’t need to for the way they’re going to perform. Tyson is a very physically strong guy, he’s very cardiovascularly fit as well. You cannot judge a book by it’s cover in terms of physicality.”

Fury has also been following a rigorous programme of lifting weights. “With the size of him, we’re talking dead lifting and heavy compound lifts have been very large numbers,” Blacklock said. “In kilos, it’s deadlifting around 250kgs.

“But we’ve also been focusing on speed and explosiveness. Everyone knows Wilder’s got speed so you’ve got to have your reflexes. Tyson is fast himself and if you look at the two fights before this, there was an obvious progression from the Seferi fight to the Pianeta fight. Not just how he looked, but the speed of his movements. We’ve improved that for this fight so he can be a little bit faster, lighter and quicker. I’m very confident we’ll see the physical best Tyson Fury possible.”