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Fight Science Made Simple is for fighters and martial artists who want to train harder, recover faster, and stay on the mat for life.
Each week, we break down strength & conditioning, nutrition, recovery, and mindset into straightforward strategies you can actually use in training. Simple, practical, and backed by real fight science—so you can keep chasing your potential, performing at your peak, and becoming the fighter you’ve always wanted to be.
What is going on? Welcome to episode 18 of the Fight Science made simple podcast.I'm your host coach Adam Snyder. I'm a lifelong martial arts, I'm an active anime fighter. I'm a performance and recovery coach. If you're new here, welcome. We release new episodes every single Tuesday, and we break down, like the podcast title suggest Fight science, and we make it simple.Everything that you need off the mat training, conditioning, nutrition, recovery mindset to help you dominate and reach your greatest potential on [...0.4s] and off the mats.I'm really excited about today's episode. We got a special one for you. So if you're new here, like I said, welcome. We make these episodes every single week.The best thing that you can do to support the podcast, whether you're a repeat listener or you're brand new here, and you're getting a ton of value out of it, and you're loving what you're dropping is you can follow the podcast.The more followers we have, the more support it gets, the more pushes in front of other people, and will be able to help more people and be share this with whoever you believe can benefit from it.Whether it's a teammate, training partner, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a coach send it their way.And the more years we can get this information into, the more successful people are gonna be able to be in fight sports, in combat sports, be able to be healthier, fight for their longest and put up some good performances. And that's what we're here to do.Today's episode is a fun one and an important one. We're talking about fight night nutrition. And I'm going to break down the exact blueprint that I use with my fighters for their fight night nutrition.This is a really important topic because fighters are always concerned about making weight and what they are going to do to get the weight off and make weight when they step on the scale. But very few fighters are concerned about what to eat on fight night. This is so important.I talk to a lot of fighters and honestly, a lot of fighters when they start working with me, have this mindset of not eating on fight night because it puts them in [...0.4s] primal mode, put them in ancestral mode, they put them in kill mode, right?It makes me, I'm hungry, so I have to fucking dig deeper, and it makes me angry, and I gotta fight for it.And [...0.5s] it's some of the silliest mindset pieces that I've ever had from fighters because if you're not eating on fight night, then you are depriving yourself [...0.4s] of essential fuel, essential energy that could result in a flat performance or you getting dominated, or you getting gassed out when you step into the cage on the other side of that.It's important that you eat the right foods at the right times because if you're eating too much, or you're eating the wrong quality of food, or you're eating too close to your fight, then this could tank your performance as well. This could have you feeling bloated or slow or suck, sluggish or sick.And this has you showing up in the cage and could potentially have you losing as well. So what you eat on fight night [...0.5s] is one of the most important tactical decisions that you can make to the ultimate success and performance that you put on when you step in the cage.So I'm going to walk you through a five step process here that I use with my fighters to help them have the absolute most energy possible on fight night.And step one, it's pretty simple. Your fight night performance and nutrition begins as soon as you step off the scale. We're not going to go into a full detail of a post weigh in refueling protocol.This is gonna be saved for a different episode. We have a bunch of resources on our Instagram and on my YouTube about this. But just know before you even consider what am I going to eat on fight night, it's very important that you are dialed in with what you eat and drink stepping off the scale.This has to be a very well thought out process. It has to be methodical and it has to be intelligent.You can't just step off the scale, [...0.6s] chug a Pedialyte, chug some water, and then eat whatever you want. You're gonna feel like shit, you're probably not gonna put enough weight on, and this will bleed over into the next day.You could be shitting quite a bit, you might Yak a little bit, you might have some muscle cramps, your performance might feel flat going into fight night.So a general rule of thumb [...0.5s] on average, so the UFC Performance Institute has put out research that on average, a fighter gains around 9.7% of their body weight back after cutting weight.But there have been [...0.4s] fighters that put on as much as 18 or 20% of their body weight after cutting a weight, which is a really massive amount of weight.So what I recommend our fighters, we aim to put on anywhere between 10 to 15% of body weight after stepping off the scale leading up to competition night.So within [...0.5s] I guess 24 hours or a little bit more, we would look to regain around 10 to 15% of your body weight stepping off the scale. It's very important that you are prioritizing replenishing everything that was lost in the weight cut.So what are you losing? You're losing fluids. So this is water. You're losing electrolytes, primarily sodium, but also some magnesium and some potassium. And you're also losing a lot of glycogen and glucose. So glycogen is sugar that's in your muscles and liver.Glucose is sugar that's in your blood. Because we're cutting carbs and depleting our body throughout fight week, you're losing a lot of the stored sugar. And this is your body's primary preferred fuel source that will give you energy on fight night.So you have to put that energy back in and this is done through carbs. So we're prioritizing fluids, water, [...0.6s] electrolytes, mostly sodium, but also some magnesium and potassium and carbohydrates in order to put glucose back in the blood, and then glycogen back in the muscle.So you have fuel [...0.5s] that can allow you to push the pace on fight night. So that's step one. We have to make sure that you're regaining 10 to 15% of your fight weight, and you're prioritizing rehydration electrolytes and carbohydrates.Put fuel back in the body all right from there. Step two, any meal that you eat, we always tell our clients we wanna focus on what we call the performance plate.Now as a general rule of thumb, when you're coming off of a weigh in, and you're getting ready for fight night, you wanna prioritize mostly carbohydrates, because you need fucking energy on fight night, and lean protein, this is really important to you, could protect your muscles, you can feel satiated, and you can focus.What's less important is fiber and vegetables. We're gonna have some, but they're less important. Those nutrients really aren't going to benefit you that much on fight night, obviously, like, in the long term of health and life.You wanna eat a lot of those things, but for just for fight night, it's less important, and fats are less important as well, especially, like, if you eat too much fat, this will lead to stomach discomfort. So the main priorities are gonna be mostly carbs and then some protein.What I tell our clients is you want each meal for the most part to look like a performance plate.And what does that look like? Half of the plate is gonna be carbs, sweet potatoes, rice, pasta, right, that's half of the plate, a quarter of the plate is lean protein, chicken breast, lean steak, lean ground Turkey, [...0.6s] fish, things like that. And then a quarter of the plate is going to be vegetables.Typically you wanna aim for vegetables that are lower in fiber. If you're putting too much fiber in your body, it's gonna cause too much [...0.6s] stomach discomfort coming off of just the heavily depleted state of a fight camp and a fight cup. So that's gonna be less important.So step two, [...0.4s] every single meal you want to aim to make it look like the performance plate, half of the plates, carbs, quarter of the plates, protein, quarter of the plate, lean protein, quarter of the plate is low fiber vegetables.All right from there. Step three, now you can start planning your meals on fight day. A general rule of thumb, typically you're going to have between two to three meals and one to two snacks in between those meals on fight day.The key is giving your body nutrients and foods that it's used to, that it's familiar with. You really don't wanna introduce anything new. A, you don't know how you're gonna respond, B, that could fuck up your stomach. So foods that you've typically been eating throughout fight camp.Those are the things that you are going to eat off the scale and eat on fight day. Okay, we want lean proteins and lots of carbs.All right, [...0.5s] now when determining how many meals you're going to eat in that day, I always like to work backwards with our clients because the last meal that you should be having is realistically three to four hours before you fight.If you're someone that if you eat a little bit too closer to training and you can feel it messed up your performance and sits in your stomach and it doesn't digest as well, then you're gonna Wanna eat closer to that four hour window.If you're someone that can eat closer to training or fighting and it doesn't impact your stomach too much at all regardless of the quality of food, then you're gonna Wanna eat closer to that three hour window, but your last meal should be three to four hours before you fight.This is really important in determining how many meals you're going to have on fight day because if you're fighting later at night, maybe you're a main event, maybe you're a co main event, maybe you're a pro that's fighting later on a card, then you can afford to have four meals, maybe three meals throughout the day depending on how late you fight.If you're a fighter that's fighting early on a card, maybe you're an amateur, maybe you're making your debut, maybe you're a lower level professional and you're fighting earlier on that card, then maybe you're only gonna have two meals in that day because three to four hours [...0.6s] before training is gonna be in the middle of the day, before the fight is gonna be in the middle of the day. And you still have the time to get that many meals in.So you have to determine when's your last meal gonna be, when am I fighting, when do I think I'm fighting, and what's three to four hours before then that's gonna be my last meal.Then from there we just work backwards. Every three to four hours is gonna be a meal. Okay, so if I'm fighting at 10:00, maybe my last meal is gonna be around 6:00. Okay, and then maybe meal before that is gonna be around 3:00 or 2:00 and then maybe the meal before that is gonna be around noon. And then maybe I'm having a breakfast around 9 a m.8 a m. And that could be what four meals looks like. If you're fighting a little bit earlier, you just reduce the meals and you work backwards from there. It's pretty simple. Maybe you have a three hour, maybe you have a four hour window. It's depend on each athlete and you have to experiment.And honestly I would not wait until fight day to experiment. I would do this in the off camp so you know how many meals worked best for you, the quantity of those meals and what food qualities work best for you as well. In between each meal, maybe we're gonna have one or two healthy snacks. These are gonna be typically high carb, moderate protein snacks. This could be something like a smoothie, this could be something like Greek yogurt with protein, uh, and some fruit. This could be something like a little sandwich things that are gonna have a low impact on your stomach. Again, not a lot of fat, not a lot of fiber, not too many nutrients that are gonna cause stomach discomfort. Just enough to keep you full and keep you satiated throughout the day.All right, we don't want these massive meals where you're just slamming everything down. You probably just want maybe around 20 to 30 grams of protein on the carb side of things, like you have a good amount of carbs, 50, 60 grams of carbs per meal.And you probably gonna be in a place where you're feeling pretty solid to fuck shit up on fight night. Okay, so that's the next step, you wanna figure out how many [...0.5s] meals you're gonna be eating throughout fight night. Okay, that's step four.Now step five, this is the last step, this is really important one to two hours before you fight.You are going to have a high carb snack. Okay, this is going to be your final intake, a high carb snack. This could be something like apple sauce, this could be a banana with honey, this could be a bagel with jelly.Okay, you wanna make sure that you're putting simple carbohydrates in your body. We don't want brown rices, we don't want a lot of grains, we don't want things that are gonna take a long time to digest in your stomach.Simple carbohydrates, most of the [...0.7s] digestion happens within your mouth, so if you're getting in [...0.5s] applesauce, mango, banana with honey, is gonna digest in your mouth quick. That sugar is gonna go into your blood, and you're gonna be able to fuck shit up on fight night [...0.5s] as a bonus.What I like to do is as I'm leading up to the fight, so maybe I'm gonna start warming up 20, 30 minutes before I'm gonna walk out and fight. When you warm up, obviously, you don't wanna gas yourself. You're just getting the blood flowing, drilling some positions, getting your mindset.Ready. I'll sip on some Gatorade, I'll swirl the Gatorade in my mouth, I'll spit it out, Swallow Gatorade. Gatorade is one of my favorite carbs sources. So by the time I'm ready to step into the cage and my clients are ready to step into the cage, they're fully fueled and ready to go.They have plenty of protein, but most importantly, all their carbs, all of their fluids, all of their electrolytes are back in their body and they're ready to go and they're ready to dominate on fight night.Okay. So that is a very simple to follow blueprint on what to eat on fight night. Each client that I work with, we create a bit more of a custom tailored approach.We give them the specific calories and macros to eat, give them supplement guidelines and timing guidelines, and I talk to them every single step of the way to make sure they're comfortable and confident. And we develop these things in the off camp before we even think about taking a fight.We're getting prepared for a fight, but [...0.7s] just to recap one more time, really simple.You gotta eat on fight day, none of this starving myself, putting myself in primal mode. If you're a type of person that says, well, I eat, and I feel like shit, and I'm slow, and my performance is flat, or I feel nauseous, you're eating the wrong foods.You're probably eating too much fiber, too much fat, [...0.6s] just foods that cause too much digestion in the stomach, especially coming off of a big weight.Cut your post, [...0.7s] your fight day nutrition starts when you step off the scale. It starts the night before soon as you step off the scale. You gotta put your fluids water. You gotta put your electrolyte sodium, potassium, magnesium, and you gotta put carbohydrates back in your body. You have to replenish those things.General rule of thumb, you're aiming to regain 10 to 15% of body weight from the second you step off the scale up until you're getting ready to fight on fight night. Okay, you wanna make each [...1.1s] meal look like the performance plate, half of the plate is carbs. Carbs are your highest prioritization.A quarter of the plate is protein, a quarter of the plate low fiber vegetables very important. And from there, you're eating anywhere from two to three, maybe even four meals depending on when you fight.You're gonna work backwards from your fight. Your last meal is gonna be three to four hours before you fight.And then you just keep working back three to four hours, and add a meal from there, maybe every [...0.5s] two one and a half hours in between, you just throw some carbs down, just a little snack, maybe some fruit to keep topping off your energy levels.Then one to two hours before you're going to fight, throw back your final heart high carb snack, [...0.6s] and then sip it on a Gatorade as you're warming up.30, 40 minutes before you step in the cage. Top off your glucose levels, top off your luggage in stores, and then get some fucking work done when you step in the cage. That's all I got for you. That is a very, very simple outline of what to eat on fight night.If you have no idea what you're eating on fight night, or you struggle with energy, that's going to be a place to start. If this information is not new to you, and you do something similar, but you still feel like you're lacking, or you just don't wanna guess anymore. You want help.You wanna do it the right way. Serious about being the most successful fighter, and you need some help with your weight cutting and your nutrition to make that happen. I would love the opportunity to help you and work with you. We're the best of what we do.I got five guys looking to make Contender Series runs this year. One of my guys just making his welter way debut, get a dominant lightweight career, hundred percent finished rate as a professional.Now he's looking to go up to welter ways, making his welter weight debut on Saturday. See it again, another finish is what we fucking do, so I love the opportunity to help you, you hop over to Instagram, you can DM me the word collective seeing for you guys live on Instagram.If you don't know, if you listen to the podcast, I live stream all of these on Tuesday record that, you can follow me at Fight Science Collective. You can watch live streams.You have some incredible content there. And like I said, if you want some coaching, if you'd like some help, DM me on Instagram.I'll reach out, I'll see how we can help, and we can take you to the next level, um, again, follow the podcast if you were digging it, [...0.4s] send this to a friend, training partner, teammate, coach, someone that, you know, can benefit from it.And until next time, I'll catch you next week [...0.6s] for Episode 19 of the Fight Science made simple podcast. We got a shorty but a goody today. I'll catch you later, peacepeace