nutrition/diet/dropping weight doing MMA advice?

[Juice]

So I am getting into doing mma. I have a consultation at a dojo on Thursday I am very excited about. Anyway because of that I am working hard on my cardio and diet so I can keep up. I am admittedly a little out of shape. I've let myself go frankly.

So I am trying to research on google about counting calories and weight loss and proper diets, but every damn site I go to requires signing up and payment.

I found a height and body chart, and apparently I should have 2,200 calories a day?

But thats it. I know there are some dudes on here who do MMA so I was hoping they see this and can give some advice?

[kidglov3s]

I don't know about MMA, but as far as diet and calorie management goes, Livestrong's Daily Plate is a really useful free tool. It tells you how much to eat based on your goals, your current weight, your age and your gender, it has a great database for foods, and provides breakdown of macronutrients. The one you pay for has micronutrient breakdown but you get a whole lot with the free one.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

I just stayed off of unhealthy things, only eating meat, fruit and veg. Assuming you're doing 2 hour sessions, you'll shed the weight real quick. I haven't been in a small while, but I lost multiple stone and have managed to keep it off by simply eating right and exercising from home.

[Juice]

thank you I will check it out

[Bone Daddy]

Also check out MyFitnessPal. Free app that works great for me

[Juice]

Jan 29, 2013 12:09:36 GMT -5 "Gentleman" AJ Powell said:

I just stayed off of unhealthy things, only eating meat, fruit and veg. Assuming you're doing 2 hour sessions, you'll shed the weight real quick. I haven't been in a small while, but I lost multiple stone and have managed to keep it off by simply eating right and exercising from home.

its 2 hours a week, 1 hour a day, two days a week. Fast paced, fits it all in.

At home I have an elliptical, getting an exorcise bike. I ran 2 hours yesterday did situps/crunches and preparing to do squats at home.

[Evil Homer]

this may or may not relate to initial post, I have recently starting juicing vegetables and fruit after watching the documentary "fast sick and nearly dead" (pretty awesome watch actually), I find the juice keeps feeling pretty full, and I have less urge to eat unhealthy stuff. Also my stomach issues have subsided- even though my diet isnt exactly great, adding this one thing is a small change- which will lead me to go further. My eventual goal is to do Crossfit, once I drop a few pounds on my own. and MMA is something that I have had interest for a long time, 1 step at a time

[Red Impact]

Yeah, I'll echo the Livestrong/my fitness pal apps. Both are really good at helping you keep track of calories, if you happen to use them. Losing weight is just a matter of eating fewer calories than you burn, so keep track and you should be fine.

As far as what you should be eating, gym people overdo protein a lot. Fact is, the typical American diet has more than enough protein unless you're juicing and need superhuman amounts. If you need to build muscle for practical, not-Mr.-Universe purposes, just making sure you have enough calories to do so will be enough and they can be cheaper foods.

Don't do anything that calls for completely cutting carbs. Breads, sure, but don't skimp out on the carbs, your nervous system requires them to survive as it can't get energy from fats or proteins and can't store carbs.

As far as exercises go, they should give you a good rundown of the types of things they do, and I'd follow that. It's probably nothing terribly complex, bench and freeweight work. Go slowly at first, and make sure you focus on good form first and foremost (one of the reasons I'm down on Crossfit. I like the premise, but a lot of the people I see doing it have awful form to get more weight or do those stupid swinging pullups).

[Cela]

Until your body is used to MMA, feed it. You don't want to be undernourished because then you will get sloppy and injured.

Once you've got a feel for it and need to drop weight for competing, you'll change it up, but until then eat whatever the hell you want.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

Jan 29, 2013 12:28:10 GMT -5 Juice said:

Jan 29, 2013 12:09:36 GMT -5 "Gentleman" AJ Powell said:

I just stayed off of unhealthy things, only eating meat, fruit and veg. Assuming you're doing 2 hour sessions, you'll shed the weight real quick. I haven't been in a small while, but I lost multiple stone and have managed to keep it off by simply eating right and exercising from home.

its 2 hours a week, 1 hour a day, two days a week. Fast paced, fits it all in.

At home I have an elliptical, getting an exorcise bike. I ran 2 hours yesterday did situps/crunches and preparing to do squats at home.

Ah, I used to do 4 hours a week in two sessions, an hour of training techniques and then an hour of sparring each time. At home, I do 50 situps, squats, crunches and leg raises with a hundred raised pushups everyday, usually doubling at weekends.

It sucked at first, but once you get used to it, it's awesome. I still keep up the home regiment now, but stopped going to the training centre due to an increasing frequency of idiots who thought they were badasses joining.

It's fun stretching them, but when they start trying shit they've seen on TV and hurting people, it gets silly. Gonna start looking for a new place soon, hopefully with less morons.

[Mac]

Jan 29, 2013 12:20:28 GMT -5 Bone Daddy said:

Also check out MyFitnessPal. Free app that works great for me

[Welfare Willis]

Also use this calorie calculator...

www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

the site is very good as well. I've gone from a weight of 245 lbs to 218lbs and trying to go all the way down to 165 lbs. Everyone's body is different, but here's what works for me and it's those four little words:

Eat less, Exercise more. That's it. People think you have to kill yourself and you don't. You just have to make healthier eating habits and be willing to work out. Keep a food journal and track everything you eat.

Also don't get discouraged. The first week or so you're going to have a lot of water weight loss. Soon after the weight loss will be slow or not at all. Aim for 1 to 2 lbs a week. Don't get discouraged. This isn't a race. Try not to rely on your weight as it's not a great indicator. Instead take photos of yourself or measure your waist line.

Like today I'll give you what I ate/did:
219 lbs
1 hr of exercise (cardio- elliptical, exercise bike)
Frosted mini wheats chocolate mini bites w/ skim milk
Banana
grilled chicken salad (with some of my fixings)
Amy's organic vegetable pizza (300 cals)
Apple
cottage cheese with blue berries (100 cals)

I figure I ate around 1200 to 1400 calories. Which is good. Males should eat at least 1200 calories a day. I could eat more but I'm not really hungry. Around 200 lbs I'll start doing more strength training to help tighten and tone areas.

Now for MMA, You more than likely want to do a lot more weight training than me and want more protein in your diet. Reddit has a couple good pages for this including loseit, gainit (for building muscle), and getmotivated.

[HeyYo]

Google Mike Dolce. He looks after top UFC guys and he's excellent.

I've been doing this over the year and I couldn't physically feel better:

- One cheat meal a week where you can have anything you want
- 0 added sugar/processed sugar/sugar substitutes/artificial flavors/artificial colors with the exception of protein powder post-workout
- Eating foods with the fewest ingredients possible
- If it was never alive or you can't grow it I don't eat it
- Organic if on sale
- As natural as possible (ie natural peanut butter vs processed)
- Switched from cows milk to almond milk
- Making sure I have fruits and veggies with every meal, even if it is a small amount
- Not shying away from healthy fats (from avacados, nuts, salmon, etc)

I also love kale. Youtube a "Renergy breakfast sandwhich" from one of the Gracies. I'm hooked on them, they give you INSANE energy, to the point where it could even substitute for coffee. I don't buy the chips themselves because they're way too expensive. It's easy to make yourself and only takes 5 minutes to make.

[Welfare Willis]

Jan 29, 2013 23:28:39 GMT -5 HeyYo said:

Google Mike Dolce. He looks after top UFC guys and he's excellent.

I've been doing this over the year and I couldn't physically feel better:

- One cheat meal a week where you can have anything you want
- 0 added sugar/processed sugar/sugar substitutes/artificial flavors/artificial colors with the exception of protein powder post-workout
- Eating foods with the fewest ingredients possible
- If it was never alive or you can't grow it I don't eat it
- Organic if on sale
- As natural as possible (ie natural peanut butter vs processed)
- Switched from cows milk to almond milk
- Making sure I have fruits and veggies with every meal, even if it is a small amount
- Not shying away from healthy fats (from avacados, nuts, salmon, etc)

I also love kale. Youtube a "Renergy breakfast sandwhich" from one of the Gracies. I'm hooked on them, they give you INSANE energy, to the point where it could even substitute for coffee. I don't buy the chips themselves because they're way too expensive. It's easy to make yourself and only takes 5 minutes to make.

Two questions:

1) How is almond milk? Almonds really aren't my favorite nut and to get milk from them? Crazy.

2) What's your view of veggie burgers and the stuff morning star produces? I saw morning tar had a mushroom burger and I like mushrooms, but I don't know if I could paste a different taste or texture.


Like fish. I tried tilapia and some other fish and I can never get past the taste or texture. Which is a shame considering how good fish is for you.

[HeyYo]

Jan 30, 2013 10:11:17 GMT -5 Welfare Willis said:

Jan 29, 2013 23:28:39 GMT -5 HeyYo said:

Google Mike Dolce. He looks after top UFC guys and he's excellent.

I've been doing this over the year and I couldn't physically feel better:

- One cheat meal a week where you can have anything you want
- 0 added sugar/processed sugar/sugar substitutes/artificial flavors/artificial colors with the exception of protein powder post-workout
- Eating foods with the fewest ingredients possible
- If it was never alive or you can't grow it I don't eat it
- Organic if on sale
- As natural as possible (ie natural peanut butter vs processed)
- Switched from cows milk to almond milk
- Making sure I have fruits and veggies with every meal, even if it is a small amount
- Not shying away from healthy fats (from avacados, nuts, salmon, etc)

I also love kale. Youtube a "Renergy breakfast sandwhich" from one of the Gracies. I'm hooked on them, they give you INSANE energy, to the point where it could even substitute for coffee. I don't buy the chips themselves because they're way too expensive. It's easy to make yourself and only takes 5 minutes to make.

Two questions:

1) How is almond milk? Almonds really aren't my favorite nut and to get milk from them? Crazy.

2) What's your view of veggie burgers and the stuff morning star produces? I saw morning tar had a mushroom burger and I like mushrooms, but I don't know if I could paste a different taste or texture.


Like fish. I tried tilapia and some other fish and I can never get past the taste or texture. Which is a shame considering how good fish is for you.

I like almond milk now but it took some getting used to. Doesn't taste too good if it's warm so I like it super cold. I don't usually drink it on its own but just use it for protein shakes and cereal. If you don't like almonds though you probably wouldn't like the milk. If you like coconuts I'd recommend coconut milk. That's good too.

Not familiar with Morning Star but just hopped on their website. Seems to be alright for veggie burgers, but yeah, I tried something similar to it a while ago and couldn't take the taste. Texture was alright. Morning Star seems to use a lot of soy in their products which isn't the best source of protein. But for overall health they are probably better for you than regular beef (both have their pros and cons).

I love fish and can eat it without adding anything to it. Fish is surprisingly versatile. You can add a lot to it to suit your liking. Ketchup, lemon juice, maple syrup, things like that. One meal I love is salmon mixed with brown rice and crumbled pecans. Simple and pretty clean.

[Red Impact]

Beef, chicken, pork etc. are just fine for the most part as far as general fitness and muscle building goes. The problem, as always, is with portion size and how they're prepared. Deep frying, dousing with oil, or eating 2 pounds worth is going to be unhealthy, regardless of what protein you're using. Most Americans get enough protein without needing any shakes or supplements (although saying that isn't as profitable to supplement companies), we just overload on the simple carbs, fats, and sodium as well and portions in general as well. Unless you're actively limiting protein in your diet, if you are lifting and can't build muscle, you probably just need to take in a few more hundred calories a day.

As far as losing weight goes, really, the best advice for losing weight I think you could take is just to track everything you eat. Once they start to get into the rhythm of keeping track of calories, most people eat less just because they're more conscious of it.

Second most important piece of advice is to not overdo it and try to do everything at once. If dont' like soy or aren't vegan, you really don't need to swap out for veggie sausage or veggie burgers in addition to eating less and exercising and cutting out all soda and bread and everything else that people do. It'll just make it harder to stick to. The advice on natural and fewest ingredients and eliminating added sugars is great, and certainly doesn't require completely cutting out red meat (which is actually a lot better for building muscle). If you have several habits that you want to break or things you want to stop eating, better to start slow and get used to being without one before moving onto the next. It really just means being a whole lot more conscious of what you're eating, and going natural over processed,which is a good thing.

As far as Morning Star, I really don't like the texture and taste. It's just off, hard to explain but it doesn't work for me.

[Welfare Willis]

Thanks for the info, fellas. To add what Red said, cutting soda helps a lot. It's a struggle for some. I went from soda to diet and hated the taste of diet so I went to just water.