Intro
Every fighter has posed the question to their coach “Can I Eat That?” We are here to help you answer that question to the best of our ability.
Who We Are
We are a team of combat sports athletes, coaches, and public health professionals on a mission to improve health outcomes for combat sports athletes. This project began in 2022 as a bare bones school project to help a single athlete prepare for jiu jitsu and MMA competitions. Since coming from pen and paper calculations, the project has evolved into the application you see now and looks to serve a wider population of athletes.
Why This Matters
Today the science and study of weight cutting has improved tremendously. Athletes with access to nutritionists and sports science literacy can now make weight without feeling depleted and fight to the best of their ability- and feel good throughout the entire process! However, much of the knowledge and systems that exist, intended to help athletes, are often locked behind steep paywalls or gatekept by elite organizations.
The Problem We See
Many coaches are ill-equipped at helping their athletes make weight, and either give terrible advice (that may have “worked for them”), or they leave their athletes on their own to figure it for themselves. If improperly informed, bad advice or guesswork can lead to some pretty negative health outcomes that can not only hinder an athlete from performing at their best, but can also lead to some truly serious consequences.
Negative Health Outcomes of a Bad Weight Cut
Let’s look at some negative health outcomes of a bad weight cut, beyond just eating a miserable diet:
- Harming yourself to make weight:
- Losing too much weight in the weeks before the final cut and not having optimal or adequate nutrition and being underfueled for training or competition;
- Fasting from water to early and becoming overly dehydrated, which could lead to a slew of problems including kidney failure or death;
- Developing eating disorders from weightcutting, causing long-term consequences on one’s metabolism;
- Overheating in the sauna and potentially burning, feinting, or developing heat stroke;
- Cutting too much weight in the final sweat sessions and dehydrating your brain too much, leading to poor performances and a higher likelihood of traumatic brain injuries;
- Eating the wrong foods during fight week and making the weight cut more difficult than it needs to be;
- Not understanding how to properly refeed and rehydrate, undermining one’s ability to compete effectively.
Positive Health Outcomes of a Good Weight Cut
Now let’s look at some positive health outcomes of a good weight cut:
- Developing and adopting a healthy sustainable lifestyle through being well-nourished and consistently exercising;
- Improving recovery by being hydrated and eating nutrient rich foods from the first day of camp to the night of the fight;
- Not being undersized for your weight class and competing to the best of your ability;
- Feeling positive from eating good food during both intense and light training days;
- Being able to gain weight post match in a healthy manner, reducing the development of binge eating disorder;
- Seeing the spa as a spa and not as torture device;
- Growing mentally, physically, and spiritually through enduring the nurturing difficulty of a training camp.
Our Ask
Please use this tool to help you learn strategies for effective weight cutting. Far too many young athletes equipped with terrible advice are being led to dangerous ends. We want to make the combat sports world healthier, not just during the short time athletes get to be athletes, but for the years after.