Table of contents:
Something that is often overlooked is your nutrition for Muay Thai training. Nutrition plays a key part in our health, fitness and our Muay Thai training, and it's also one of the hardest things to get right!
The majority of people who take their Muay Thai training seriously often do everything right, but fail when it comes to their nutrition. This is usually due to a lack of knowledge, money or time.
Having a solid nutrition plan for your training camp can mean the difference between winning and losing your next fight! It is way too common for people to underestimate the importance of eating healthy.
Why is nutrition important for Muay Thai?
Nutrition is important for Muay Thai as your body needs to intake the correct nutrients to help it repair and recover from the high intensity training sessions. Without proper nutrition your body will be unable to repair and recover properly, and you'll hinder your progress and future training. Improper nutrition can also lead to several health issues and complications which you want to avoid, especially if you are in a fight camp.
If you are a Muay Thai fighter who cuts weight, then nutrition is important to ensure that your weight slowly drops throughout your fight camp. You will want to ensure that your eating the correct calories through your fight camp in order for you to loose fat but build lean muscle to ensure you loose weight without loosing strength.
Malnutrition is a serious condition that happens when your diet does not contain the right amount of nutrients. Poor nutrition will lead to you feeling weak, tired and falling ill often. These are all problems that will severely harm your Muay Thai training and slow your progress.
Foods to eat to improve your Muay Thai training
If your someone who doesn't pay too much attention to their nutrition, changing this and focusing more on eating the correct foods can have a massively positive effect on your Muay Thai training. Ensuring that your eating a balanced, healthy diet and hitting all of your nutritional requirements is a must for any Muay Thai fighters.
Below is our list of foods which you should be eating to help improve your Muay Thai training.
Eggs: Simple, cheap and very convenient! Eggs are a complete must for any fighter. They are packed with amino acids, nutrients and low in carbs which is great if your trying to cut weight.
Spinach: Popeye loved spinach for a reason! Spinach is one of the most nutrient dense foods you can eat and is packed with everything you need to help you through your grueling training regime.
Chicken: This is one that won't surprise you, as chicken is the staple of most people's fight diets. Low in fat and packed with protein, chicken is a great choice to help fuel your muscles recovery.
Whey protein: Did you know that as someone who does a high-intensity exercise you should be eating 1g of protein for every 1kg of your body weight? Getting all that protein from whole foods isn't the easiest, a high-quality whey protein can be a great and easy way to help you get the protein you need without overloading on carbohydrates or fat.
Bananas: Bananas are a great snack to help you through the day. The are packed with potassium which can help if your suffering from cramps and several other minerals which will help you with your training.
Foods to avoid to improve your Muay Thai training
Food for me has always been the biggest struggle to control for my Muay Thai training. Avoiding some of my favourite foods for weeks at a time is difficult and can lead to binge eating.
Below is our list of foods which you should be avoiding to help improve your Muay Thai training.
Fast food & takeaways: The first and most obvious on the list is fast food & takeaways. Fast foods are full of fat, processed food and everything that you shouldn't be eating. Stay away from McDonalds, Pizza Hut and all the other fast food joints you might be craving!
Diet foods: “Diet” foods are examples of manufactured foods that are either, or a combination of low calorie – low fat – low sugar etc. As manufactured foods, these items are generally more difficult to digest. They can, through the reduction of calories, cause cravings for higher sugar or higher fat foods to compensate for daily energy needs.
Alcohol: Did you know that drinking alcohol prevents your body from being able to breakdown calories for up to 36-hours? Avoid drinking alcohol during your fight camp as it'll not only impact your performance but your weight cut too.
Nutritional tips for training Muay Thai
If your training hard and looking to achieve peak performance in your fight camp, then you'll need to make sure you keep your diet on point!
Use an app like MyFitnessPal during your fight camp to help you track your food and ensure your getting the correct balance of macro-nutrients. You can also a macro calculator to help you know how many calories you should be eating during your fight camp.
Below we go into more detail on our top nutritional tips for Muay Thai training.
1. Ensure you get your macro-nutrient split correct
Ensuring that you fuel your body with the correct macro-nurtients is a major part of your nutrition for Muay Thai. We recommend that you 3g of carbohydrates, 2g of protein and 1g of fat per kg of body weight. As you continue throughout your training, you may need to adjust these slightly depending on your weight goals.
2. Always track your calories
Tracking your calories may feel like a bit of a pain to start our with, however it's a brilliant habit to have and it'll help you stay consistent with you diet.
3. Batch cook your meals
The biggest mistake I've always made is not planning correctly for the week ahead. The times I've not batch cooked my meals are always the times that I end up loosing consistency. Let's be honest, who wants to cook a meal after a grueling day of training?
Plan your meals for the week ahead and batch cook them so that you only need to re-heat them when your ready to eat. It'll make staying consistent and on-track a lot easier.
Simple Muay Thai Meal Plan
Below is a simple Muay Thai meal plan to show you how you can plan your daily diet. Planning you diet with a meal plan during a fight camp is essential to ensure that you stay consistent and avoid falling off.
Conclusion
Ensuring that your nutrient is correct for Muay Thai training is a major deal. Put a plan together, stay consistent and ensure your hitting all your training goals.
