fighters diet

[mma-100]

Hi i was woundering if there is anyone on here with a good fighters diet? Whant to cut a little bit of weight but mainly get conditioned?
any info is appreciated
cheers

[F4LL3N W4RR10R]

I’ve never had a competitive MMA fight, so there’s probably some Pro / Amateur MMA fighters on here that will be able to help better.

However, from my knowledge and experience the vast majority of diets for fighters and people who are in those types of competitive circles actually derive from the basic bodybuilding cutting diets.

Some of these diets can be quite extreme, but if you take the fundamentals of what they are all about and adapt them to your own specific goals, you could build upon something very good that suits you personally.

There’s also many different ways to calculate how much of this and that you should be consuming and how you should and shouldn’t train.

But here’s what I think:

Firstly if you can, measure your relaxed heart rate. By obtaining your relaxed heart rate, you can calculate where you need to be regarding your heart rate when you are doing your cardio if it’s on a treadmill, stepper etc...

To show you the calculations I’ve done this using my own statistics and
formula that I and 3 other people have used to help lose weight:

I took my own heart rate and mine was 62 beats per minute.

(Weight in lbs) 220 – Age (25) = 195
195 – (Resting heart rate) 62 = 133
133 x 65% (low end of heart rate) OR 85% (high end) = 82.46 OR 117.04
82.46 + 62 (resting heart rate) = 144.46
117.04 + 62 (resting heart rate) = 179.04

The target heart rate zone for me would be 144 to 179.

That’s the theory, but from experience you have two main zones. Also It could depend if you're 6"4 and 220 or 5"6 and 220. That's why Lean body mass is used and not overall bodyweight. For this you'll need to know your body fat %

A cardio zone which will increase your cardio and a fat burning zone that should do just that. Burn your fat.

Your fat burning zone, I’d say (If you had the same stats as me) would be about 155 - 160bpm.

Don’t go lower than 135 bpm, only when warming up or cooling down. The key to burning fat is to stick at it at the constant pace for quite a while.

If you went the cardio route, it would burn fat, but it would also eat into your muscles and start using them for energy.

You could mix it up and have one day cardio one day fat burning or just opt to go the middle ground. After a month if you follow everything you will know by how your body is responding anyway.
Could all be bollocks, but I know it’s worked. It just may not work on everyone.

Just change the stats with your own and give it a try. Key to burning fat is to keep it steady at a steady pace for a long period of time.
My strongest belief is that you can only get conditioned for a sport / martial art by actually doing that activity or mimicking activities that are involved in them.

You could do road work 4 miles a day for 4 months and come to roll in a BJJ tournament. After 5 minutes, you’re blowing out your arse.

Cardio will help your conditioning. BUT IMO you will only get better cardio, by rolling / sparing more and pushing your limits.

On the diet side of things, the obvious spring to mind.

Lean cuts of meat if you have to eat red meat.

Pork mince is an awesome replacement for mince steak/beef.

Chicken and fish.

Supplement with nuts for a good source of fats and fatty acids. These will also release energy slower, which is what you will need.

If you’re going to use an energy drink, get the sugar free ones.

Keep to complex carbs which will release energy slower throughout the day. Especially in the mornings.

I used to start the day with a cup of Muesli weighed out with some natural yogurt.

Try not to eat simple carbs / sugars late at night.

Remember that a lot of cooking sauces contain a shit load of sugars only labelled as carbohydrates. They don’t always tell you which ones.

As far as dieting goes, there are also some calculations you can use, if you just want to calorie control your diet. Again, these are just what I believe and I can’t say they are going to work. Everyone has different theories.

To calculate how many calories you need per day (for weight loss) it’s your lean body mass x 10 – 12. 10 for the quite more aggressive approach.
12 is a little more forgiving.

The breakdown of foods goes as follows:

Carbs 1g = 4 calories
Protein 1g = 4 calories
Fats 1g = 9 calories

I use to train with weights (Bodybuild) years ago from 16-22ish... I look like shit now ;) but I have used the above and it does work.

I’ve also still got the specific training programme that I used including a weekly diet and training programme.

I’ve gone onto another path now with BJJ, so all this bodybuilding lark doesn’t entertain me anymore.

However the principles still work.

Hope some of this may help. Like I said. Could all be bollocks. I’m not stating that its gospel or anything. Just a different take on things.

[Jamie Taylor]

160 seems a little high for fat burning zone. Wouldn't that be about 70% of his mhr ?

[F4LL3N W4RR10R]

160 is high. However it's around the middle ground inbetweeen the fat burning and cardio zones and calculated on my own resting heart rate, which was at the lower end for my height / weight etc...

I'm not 100% sure but I think anywhere between 60-100 bpm for the average health adult male is about right.

Based on the figures, 144.46 would be the optimum heart rate for actually burning the "FAT" alone, but you'd find that it wouldn't actually get you any fitter.

160 is the peak you'd actually want to go to. I found that this was best for me personally, as it actually added to the cardio side of things as well.

But you're right 160 is high, but does the job.

[Jamie Taylor]

To be fair I agree. As everybody knows you can get far better fat loss using other methods in far less time, intervals, hiit etc.. But as far as all the acsm books etc tell you it's lower end ( usually about 130-140 for your average male ) is best for pure fat burning.

I personally hate steady state cardio its the worst fucking thing ever. It has its place for sure but it's definately mind numbing.

[LewisJ]

(Weight in lbs) 220 – Age (25) = 195
195 – (Resting heart rate) 62 = 133
133 x 65% (low end of heart rate) OR 85% (high end) = 82.46 OR 117.04
82.46 + 62 (resting heart rate) = 144.46
117.04 + 62 (resting heart rate) = 179.04

Think you mean 220-age (this gives an estimate of maximum heart rate) and has nothing to do with your weight in pounds as you say.

Whilst the percentage fat oxidation might be greater at lower intensities, the total fat oxidation (which is what is important) will be greater at higher intensity aerobic exercise. And it's not all about what you burn in the exercise.