MMA Diet: Fuel the Fighter

CC: P.R, what’s your story? How did you get involved with nutrition and particularly nutrition as it relates to combat athletes?

PR: Growing up I was a competitive gymnast so at a young age I was really interested in fitness and nutrition. As an undergrad at Columbia University I knew that I wanted to work in some aspect of healthcare so I was a biochem major and pre-med. Being the uber geek that I am I ended up doing immuno-genetic research after college and at the time I started taking up Tae Kwon Do & Muay Thai kickboxing. The guys at my dojo were all MMA fans and introduced me to the sport. I felt inspired to put my martial arts and nutrition passions together so I headed back to grad school at Columbia for a masters degree in nutrition and applied physiology and I obtained my registered dietitian (RD) credentials with the American Dietetic Association.

CC: Tell us about the inception of Fuel the Fighter. When did it begin to percolate in your mind and how did it eventually come to fruition?

PR: When I first got involved in the industry back in 2007 I started writing a column for MMAfighting.com. I thought that “Fuel the Fighter” would be a cool name for it. Not long after that I got picked up by FIGHT! Magazine and in May 2009 I officially launched my consulting company Fuel the Fighter LLC. My goal was to educate combat athletes on individual and group levels about the most up to date scientific strategies for training and competition. Recently I have begun to expand my company to include consulting services for medical nutrition therapy and sports nutrition consulting for endurance athletes. I’m currently triathlon training so I’ve begun to work with a lot of other triathletes, marathon runners and cyclists. I’ve also been expanding with the seminar work that I do for group education. I just got back from Japan where I gave sports nutrition/wellness seminars at a handful of our naval and air force bases over there.

CC: What are two common nutritional struggles you help your MMA athletes overcome? How does this differ from nutritional struggles within the general population?

PR: With the MMA athletes I work with a number of struggles come up. Obviously the issue of the weight cut is high on the list of struggles. A lot of the athletes weight cycle and jump up in weight after a fight and then need to lean out as they prepare for their next competition. Often they use their training camp as the time to diet and get trim because they are working so hard for the fight. However what many fail to realize is how difficult it is for the body to deal with a big calorie deficit all the while pushing through multiple training sessions each day. Any time you diet your metabolic rate is lowered, so that affects not just calorie burning efficiency but also the efficiency of recovery as well. It’s best to diet before your camp and enter into your hardcore training with very little weight to lose so that you can just focus on eating to fuel and recover from workouts. It’s also much easier to control your appetite to reach your body weight goals if you engage in more moderate training.

When I work with the general population, it’s much easier for my clients to maintain weight loss goals because they don’t have the need to lose weight rapidly. We aim for a slow but sustainable progression for weight loss and that strategy helps them to keep weight off long term. Many athletes get in the habit of crash dieting for weigh-ins and they end up feeling so deprived that as soon as the fight is over they gain all the weight back that they worked so hard to lose. I urge my athletes to keep their weights close to their competitive weight class so that they can avoid that vicious cycle.

The other struggle that comes up is supplementation. I’m a proponent of obtaining your nutrition through food first. I recommend supplements on a case-by-case basis and only after we try through real whole food first. Many athletes get hooked by popular but unrealistic marketing claims and don’t realize that supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. They end up taking things that either aren’t healthy in general, or aren’t healthy given their personal health history. Labels can be really difficult to navigate and not everything out there on the market is safe to take in the long-term either. I have access to a lot of independent lab research for a variety of supplements so right off the bat I like to make sure that my clients are thinking about safety.

CC: Lastly, what can those who enroll in your services expect to receive? How can those looking to deepen their nutrition knowledge contact you directly?

PR: I take a very customized approach to nutrition planning. When I meet with a client either in person or via Skype we have a full health history consultation. I go over all medical history, medications, work schedule, training schedule, food/cooking preferences and any other special dietary needs to craft a plan to meet specific goals. In the case of athletes this often revolves around weight management and helping them reach athletic potential. For the general public healthy weight loss and overall wellness are common requests. As far as the medical nutrition therapy is concerned, I work with people who have hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease and a variety of other conditions. Please visit www.FueltheFighter.com for information about my services and scheduling an appointment. I can be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Cameron Conaway is the author of Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet.