Issue 156

Sports nutrition expert Ben Coomber examines how cutting fat from your training diet could be submitting your title chances.

In the fighting world, extreme diets are common; way too common in fact. Having worked with a plethora of fighters, both at the top level (UFC star Ross Pearson), and at amateur level, the diet diaries I see from most fighters’ daily intake usually only contains enough calories to power a 16-year-old girl playing ping pong.

Ultra low fat, ultra low carb, ultra low calories, running around in sweat suits, restricting water intake, and generally avoiding other key nutrients the body always needs. Yes, fight sports are weight dependent and we need to hit weight, but whenever I see a protocol that is extreme for too long a period of time I know the fighter has not been taking care of themselves in the build-up to a fight.

I’ve also witnessed daily diets that can be described as extreme year round, even at the elite level. These extreme diet practices only exist for one reason, a lack of education and understanding. Fight sports are notoriously stuck in the dark ages, with some theories and protocols refusing to die a death they deserve.

I see too many fighters still eating low carbs, yet people are training twice a day, seven days a week in an explosive and demanding sport. Lesson one: your body needs carbohydrates for maximum muscular output. Low fat is just as common, and fat is essential in regulating consistent male hormone function. The less we eat the more susceptible we are to muscle loss, low libido, poor sleep, and a whole host of other issues that will affect your fight, both directly and indirectly. Lesson two: we need fat for pretty much everything ‘male’ related.

THE WEIGHT LOSS MYTH

Part of the problem is fallible natural intuition. We think, ‘I need to lose fat so I’ll just train a bit more and eat a bit less.’ But this is initially where the problems arise. Do one or the other, not both. If, for example, you are eating 2,500 calories a day, you could train a bit harder and you are likely to burn 3–400 extra calories daily. Likewise, if you eat a bit less, again you are likely to have a loss of around 3–400 per day, either-or being perfect for weight loss.

But combine those two, so 3–400 calories lost through both cutting intake and upping output we now have a calorie deficit of 800 calories, that’s 1,700 calories a day for someone training hard, and often twice a day. This is way too low.

Short term you’ll be fine, you will cope, but give it two to three weeks and your performance will start to drop, sleep will start to suffer, libido will disappear explosive potential will decrease, all because our common sense said do more and eat less.

The truth is, however, you must do one or the other, that’s enough. And if you are panicking because you need to lose a lot of weight as fast as possible, then that’s your own fault, you didn’t plan well enough in advance to lose the fat progressively.

The slower you lose fat, the more chance you have of keeping on top of your performance, because anything extreme is going to cause your fight to drop: you will lose output.

FAT IS FRIEND

So let’s come back to fat, the most demonized nutrient in history. Fat will kill you, fat is bad, fat is unhealthy, fat clogs your arteries, cut fat to lose

weight – you’ve heard them all, and they’re all false, to a degree. Fat is super essential. If you don’t have adequate fat in your diet you cannot manufacture testosterone effectively.

Testosterone is created from saturated fat and cholesterol. And what foods contain both? Red meat. The one thing most fighters snub in favor of chicken, white fish and other lean meats. Yet it’s some of the best areas of nutrition that are going to have the most positive effect on male hormones.

Testosterone is really important for male function; like, really important. The lower your testosterone levels the more susceptible you are to a whole host of diseases, the slower you could lose fat, the less sleep you will enjoy, the lower your libido will be, the less aggressive you could be (you are a fighter, right?), and the list goes on.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Plan your cut intelligently. If you are doing things to an extreme degree then your cut has not been well thought out, you haven’t been tracking the variables and now your only resort is an extreme one.

If you’re going to cut calories cut all your calories. So from every macronutrient: protein, fat and carbohydrate. Don’t go extreme on any particular one; you need carbohydrates for maximum performance, protein for constant recovery and repair, and fat to keep on top of optimal male output. Be diligent, be intelligent, be precise, then you won’t be running around your local park at 5am wearing a homemade refuse bag hoodie and looking forward to an egg white omelette and a slice of cardboard for breakfast!