The jiu jitsu diet
First of all, don’t eat greasy, high-fat foods several hours before you come to jiu jitsu class unless you want the embarrassment of throwing up on the mat. Also, it is not helpful to eliminate carbohydrates from your diet as a quick way to lose weight. When learning the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the amount of calories you will burn in each class will be extreme. Carbohydrates are vital for recovery and energy stores in your body. The best system is to reduce calories while maintaining a good balance of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
The 60/20/20 breakdown seems to work best; which means that 60% of the daily caloric intake should come from carbohydrates, 20% from fats and the remaining 20% from proteins. The average person who trains BJJ consumes between 2,500 and 3,500 calories per day. If your goal is to lose weight, try to cut 600 to 700 calories a day while maintaining good workouts. The remaining calories should be healthy energy-dense foods so you don’t feel depleted from cutting calories. Remember, in Jiu Jitsu competition, you want to be as light and strong as possible.
Another area of importance is what to eat before training. Like I said, cheeseburgers wouldn’t be a good choice before practice. There is some flexibility here, however anything high carb and low fat would be fine. Ex: oatmeal, sandwich, pasta, bean burrito, chicken rice bowl, soup, PB and J, etc. After practice, you’ll want to eat a low-calorie meal. This is where you want the chicken breast and vegetables. After training at night is when you want to have your smallest meal of the day. The biggest meal of the day would then be breakfast. As the old saying goes, the most important meal of the day for a reason. A typical solid breakfast would be eggs, whole wheat toast, potatoes, and a choice of meats. There are many substitutions that can be added to this diet, and many possibilities.
A good rule of thumb when it comes to losing weight is to eat your calories and not drink them. Which means trying to avoid drinking a lot of high-sugar juices, big coffee drinks, smoothies, and alcohol too. Just taking this simple step can really make a world of difference in weight loss, as a person can easily drink 1000 calories a day in the form of junk. Ex: I don’t want to mention anyone’s name, but his initials are Jay Shellhammer, he drinks like 10 sodas a day, avoid this. Let me know if he has any questions, just reply on the blog page.