Much has been made about Conor McGregor’s diet in the run up to his devastating loss to Nate Diaz.
The fearless Irishman jumped up two weight classes to fight the granite-jawed Stockton native at welterweight at UFC 196.
His trainer John Kavanagh famously said ‘you’ve seen him on salads, now watch him on steaks’ in the run up to the crushing defeat to Diaz.
McGregor looked bigger, more muscular and powerful in the run up to the fight without the strict diet and weight cut – but the Notorious gassed out before a rear naked choke in the second round ended his night in ruthless fashion.
Sport scientists told JOE that McGregor gassed so fast because he put on so much size so quickly without building the aerobic capacity to supply his bigger muscles with oxygen over five rounds. So developing lean muscle is key.
We’re just weeks away from the rematch between the two men – and McGregor isn’t going to make the same mistake twice and he has gone back to basics with his training and nutrition.
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Top UFC nutritionist Georges Lockhart is back working closely with the featherweight king – gone are the steaks and in are the performance foods that
One thing that McGregor has been very forthcoming about is the introduction of a new nutritional protocol as part of his fight preparations – the Sirt Food Diet.
It’s a diet you might have seen lost Adele a load of weight – but it seems like there could be real performance benefits for elite athletes around building lean muscle.
Former two-weight world heavyweight champion David Haye is a disciple of the diet and credits it with getting back in the shape of his life as he makes his boxing comeback.
But McGregor has also implemented the diet as part of his training programme in the run up to the Diaz rematch.
The Dubliner is a student of the fight game and it’s clear he’s been reading up on the diet.
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Author and performance nutritionist Aidan Goggins have released a limited number of copies of an e-book laying the foundations of what the diet is about from the Sirt Food Book.
Only 10,000 digital copies have been made available but you can download the e-book via this link.
For anyone uninitiated with what the Sirt Food diet actually is, it’s based on foods that are rich in polyphenols which are plant chemicals which are believed to mimic the health benefits of exercise and fasting.
Research was conducted into foods richest in these natural chemicals and a diet was build around it. The ebook says the results of tests found that people on the diet not only lost an average of 7lbs in the first seven days, but also increased their muscle mass.
Sirt-rich foods activate proteins in the body called ‘sirtuins’ which regulate key biological processes around ageing, memory, cell death, inflammation and metabolism.
Having a fast and efficient metabolism means you can burn through lots of calories to provide the energy to achieve optimal performance.
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While reducing systemic inflammation in the body not only reduces the risk of diseases long term, but performance-wise it helps improve body composition and recovery in the muscles.
These activated sirtuins are also said to prevent cells from being damaged from oxidative stress during the high intensity training that McGregor puts himself through.
Foods that fall into this category are extra virgin olive oil, walnuts, capers, celery, turmeric, apples, chillies, kale, rocket, buckwheat and red onions.
This nutrition blog says the benefits of eating a diet rich in these foods are better muscle function and better muscle adaptation, which would bring a high level fighter performance benefits including better recovery from training and increased muscle mass.
It’s clear that McGregor has switched up his training, going heavy on the cardio to build up his engine, as well as going back to basics with his diet.
Lockhart, who is now preparing him for the Diaz fight, isn’t a fan of his fighters having steak as it takes the body time and precious energy to digest.
Instead McGregor is now on a strict eating plan with fish, green vegetables and some of these sirt-rich foods.
This is McGregor MkII but it won’t be until the night of UFC 202 on August 20 when we see the results of his rebooted training methods in action against Diaz. What a fight it’s going to be.
