What Do MMA Fighters Eat Before a Fight?
Whether you are a professional or amateur fighter, your fight day is always a huge day that you need to be well-organized and ready for. Your opponent or psychological elements like worry, anxiety, butterflies, or those persistent negative thoughts that sap your vitality can all play a role on that big day. There are also environmental considerations like weather conditions.
On fight day, you must be utterly focused due to the numerous uncontrollable variables. You must therefore concentrate on the predictable and controllable. Technical skill, tactical awareness, physical strengths—all of which you have been building through weeks of intense training and sparring—and what we are most interested in discussing in this post are the mental strengths—can all be discussed here as the cornerstones of a successful fight.
Why is it necessary? You may do so.
Maintaining an extremely successful coping strategy requires a massive amount of concentration, but most importantly, mental toughness. These are the elements that separate average performance from exceptional achievement.
What you eat on the day of the fight might affect your mental toughness and your physical strengths, and if that happens, you might as well wave goodbye to your weeks of diligent effort and preparation. This is one of the key factors influencing a successful performance that many people will overlook.
We will go through what to eat each day before a fight in this article. It’s important to follow some easy guidelines for what to eat and what not to consume before the competition.
Many people believe that an MMA fighter’s diet on fight day should be kept a secret or that they have some type of hidden magic concoction that they use right before the match. If that’s what you had in mind, prepare to be shocked.
Surprise! The things you have been consuming during fight camp are the most crucial to consume on fight day. Is it not?
Simply because you don’t know how your body will react if you introduce something unfamiliar or drastically different from what it is used to, like foods you have never eaten before.
You’re covered by us! In order to ensure that you perform at the top of your ability and be fully present in the game, we’re going to teach you exactly what to eat on a fight day and, more significantly, how to plan your meal in the most effective way.
DO NOT TRY THIS ON FIGHT DAY:
The first piece of advice is to stick with what your body is used to. If you consume a foreign cuisine or believe you have the courage to attempt new foods that are unfamiliar to your digestive system. Observe this! You have no idea how something will do commercially or how your body will react.
You might consume something that seems safe. believing that other combatants frequently consume it and that it is not a huge concern. Let me tell you that it’s not a good idea to consume it on the day of the fight if you haven’t in the preceding three to twelve weeks or so. Losing control over your body and digestion will work against you as well as your adversary. Boom! It seems as though you just ingested a box of rocks.
I feel disgusting and ill. You run out of energy. You’ll experience unease. Your focus is being distracted by the mental issue you have with the ring. Your eight weeks or so of arduous labour, sweat, and intense training will be utterly undone by this.
So you shouldn’t consume anything unfamiliar or foreign in order to get rid of all that jazz. maintaining your regular diet for the six weeks prior to the tournament.
As an MMA fighter, you have a solid diet that you and your nutritionist have created that fits your preferences and meets the needs of your body. a diet leading up to the weight loss competition that involves eating roughly 4 to 7 meals each day. Your digestive system is best buddies with the meals you used to eat as part of your diet menu at that time. Having a clear idea of your performance.
You should approach the fight day the same way you would your hardest sparring day for that precise reason.
THE ESSENCE OF CONSISTENCY AND SUCCESS:
The second piece of advice is to continue the same routines from your training sessions on fight day. It’s crucial to follow the same schedule. a similar time to wake up. eating similar foods.
We’re confident that after reading this, you’re eager to learn exactly what to eat on competition day and how much to consume throughout the day. Let’s get started without further ado!
When you’ve trimmed weight and weighed in, visualise fight day as a series of meals. after undergoing the rehydration process, which we will outline in more detail in a subsequent article. Your body has been fed again. completely satisfied and fueled for competition.
Now, start your day by eating a big breakfast on fight day after waking up about the same time as you do every day. A large breakfast is essential; it should be your largest meal of the day if you participate at five in the afternoon or as late as ten or eleven at night, local time permitting.
eating one and a half to two times your normal-sized breakfast bowl on any other hard training day and any hard sparring day in the final three to four weeks before the competition.
A good old-fashioned acai bowl will also work, as long as you add bananas, dates, and any other fruits you desire. You can also add spinach, kale, or any other green vegetables you prefer, or a small amount of spirulina. Honey also adds a tiny bit of sweetness, but only in moderation—you don’t want to overindulge in sugar. Finally, add cereal and a generous tablespoon of peanut butter to let digestion take longer.
There are other possibilities as well. If you prefer a savoury breakfast, you can have bagels with eggs and turkey sausages as a protein source. You can also add any type of salsa you choose.
You should return to bed after eating a filling meal, lying down, and unwinding to allow that food to digest properly. Put your nerves to rest and simply forget about it. Take a decent snooze for 1–2 hours. After waking up, try to move about a little to get some mild exercise—nothing too strenuous, just enough to make you sweat. This will assist you in controlling your anxiety and quieting those persistent thoughts we discussed earlier. It is more important to mentally get ready to compete than it is to physically get ready.
After the shakeout, get your lunch about 11 AM or 12 PM. Once more, lunch will be pretty similar to what you often have at training camp. a couple of eggs, a steak, or a piece of fish or fowl. including some colourful veggies, such as spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. With a small amount of complex carbohydrates—not too much, but sufficient—found in foods like rice, bread, potatoes, oats, and perhaps quinoa. You can enjoy a delicious omelette. Or something similar. This meal should be roughly the size of your typical lunch.
Then, simply unwind and drink some water. You can mix some electrolyte into the water you’re drinking. A little sea salt and freshly squeezed lime juice work almost perfectly together. Keep your water pure; don’t sweeten it with honey or sugar.
in relation to snacking. Consider eating an apple, some almonds, some almond butter, or perhaps extra vegetables. Some people enjoy eating peanut butter-covered celery, carrot or cucumber sticks, rice cakes, or even half of a banana. When you nibble, keep in mind to take a handful at a time as you draw near.
If you are competing at night or anything similar, you might have two to four ounces of chicken or another easily digestible food in the middle of your meal. Digestion is much improved by eating half a cup to a full cup of rice or potato, a small amount of asparagus or chicken, and sometimes some peppers, onions, or mushrooms mixed together. This can be considered dinner and will be about one-third the size of your typical dinner.
KEEP YOUR STOMACH HAPPY:
The next advice. while nearing the important event. You’ve arrived at the location. Bring some fresh fruit with you, please. Pick up some avocado, orange, or grape slices. some almond butter, just a little. Make sure to squeeze some additional honey to keep your sugar level up.
and that ought to be it. It’s fairly straightforward; nothing outlandish or novel.
What happens while you prepare to compete?
Stage fright is real, and while feeling anxious and frightened is unavoidable, consider what it would be like to continuously drop different foods and concoctions. Drinking all of these shakes will make things messy and annoying. In order to manage all the variables, the predictable ones of course, it is a good idea to avoid anything that is different from what you are used to. Understanding how your body reacts to various meals, how those meals decompose, and how you function after consuming a series of foods with very similar nutrients throughout the day is crucial. As a result, you can tell when you take that stroll that you are primed and ready to rock the ring; you are fed and energised.
ADDITIONAL ADVICE — WE CARE ABOUT YOU
This is a special pro tip exclusively for you—a bonus tip. Aim to avoid being bulky right before the fight. You shouldn’t compete when having a full stomach. The secret is to compete more often on an empty stomach.
Blood flow is necessary for the digestive system to interact with and support the digestive process. What happens if blood is in the digestive system? Hard-working muscles that you need to compete actively will no longer receive blood flow. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a relatively empty stomach on fight day. This is why, as we previously discussed in this post, you must eat very little right before the fight. Just a little something to raise our blood sugar and keep our energy levels high, but nothing that will divert blood away from our digestive systems.
This article should be helpful to you, we hope. Giving your body exactly what it needs—neither more nor less—will help you somewhat manage all the factors you may encounter on fight day.
