Hi, I’ve been reading here for a couple months now and have learned a lot! I’m a pro female welterweight boxer and I just signed a contract today for my second world title fight. The problem is that instead of the usual weight of 147 pounds I would normally fight at, they are using european weight classes…so I’ll need to be 143. The fight is scheduled for April 26. I’m 154 right now, so that’s 11 pounds in 3 weeks. I could lose that in water in an hour if I needed to, but I hate doing that since it makes me weak. I just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions about tweaking my diet to help me lose as much fat as possible. Whatever I have left in excess weight I’ll sweat off before I weigh in.
My diet right now…
8am 1 cup oatmeal with raisens, half packet sweet n low, 1 tbls natural peanut butter, a little whey protein mixed in, sometimes egg whites.
11am 11oz Myoplex low carb ready to drink protein
12:30 run for 30-45 min.
1-2pm some type of lean protein (chicken breast or can of albacore tuna), 3/4 cup broccolli or spinach
I usually drink another Myoplex low carb on the way to the gym
3-6pm workout in boxing gym. Never use weights anymore, only push ups, pullups and lots of neck and ab excercises after boxing training.
7pm Lean protein, 1 small yam,1 cup vegetables.
Before bed I drink another low carb protein drink, for a total of 3/day. If I get hungry between meals I’ll eat a teaspoon of natural peanut butter.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Normally for a title fight I would get more notice, but we were just called today after the other boxer backed out.
So how many g of carb/protein/fat are you eating every day?
I’d drop raisins from your breakfast, and add more protein (it’s hard to tell how many g protein you’e eating here). Many people reported that they can eat more cal without gaining fat if they follow John Berardi’s Massive Eating protocol (never mixing fat and carb), so it’s something for you to consider.
I’d also drop Myoplex ready to drink protien drinks. They’re worthless. Ready-to-drink protein drinks are worthless in general. I’d just get a shaker and make my own shake by adding water. Biotest makes very tasty protein powder called Low-Carb Grow, and believe me I tried many diff kinds of protein powder before settling on Grow.
Add healthy fat other than peanut butter. Flax oil is a good one to add. I’d also add some fish oil to the diet.
And if you want, you can try Hot-Rox, which is a fat burner from Biotest. Many people are doing well on it.
Sunshine, I too have my next fight scheduled april 26th, and like you fight at the middle welterweight level. Listen you have almost zero time left to loose weight. Trust me if you try and change things drastically it will hurt you. But you can definately shed about 4lbs. of fat before then. So the rest will have to be water.My suggestions are:
Run every morning before your first meal for atleast 30minutes. Time yourself and beat that time every morning. Then have a protein/carb drink. Your next two or three meals should consist of only protein and fat, try and have almost no carbohydrates during this time. After boxing practice then have a healthy protein carb meal. Before bed have cottage cheese and protein powder. To make it thicker throw some sugarfree/fatfree pudding in there. That’s basically it. Run everyday from now on, yup even sundays. You cannot afford not to at this time. Before weighing limit carbs to about 75g a day then sweat out the rest. Start the 75g of carbs a day about four days before fight. After weigh in have some oatmeal, yams, pasta, whole grain bread, and protein shake. Eat little amounts but every hour have a small meal consisting of those things. This is exactly what I did for a fight and it worked like a charm. Good luck.
Goddamn, chick! Cool. Who you fighting? Is there any info of this upcoming bout in Women’s Boxing Network (WBN, online site)?
I wouldn’t diet to the extreme. I would, however, add a session of jump rope in the A.M., two or three days a week. By picking up your activity level, there is a good chance this will help you drop the weight. Lean you out; other words, drop excess w/out sacrificing LBM. And I do see that you run. I betcha you’ll find more results if you were to sprint or jump rope instead. I know that this is antithesis to what every typical boxing coach says. But trust me - I don’t run - but jump rope when I need to drop weight.
The advice Stella gave you is good. However, I wouldn’t add peanut butter or drop the peanut butter you’re eating now. Just stick with either fish oil or flaxseed oil. At this point, peanut butter would be too risky when you’re trying to drop weight. Another thing to think about is that sometimes, we’re hungry before bed due to the fact that maybe we hadn’t eaten enough earlier. I would eat more earlier in the day. Eat less as the day progresses. This way, you won’t need to eat anything before bed. And this may help you in dropping weight, too.
What’s your water intake? Hopefully you have a healthy intake. Right now, you should. You didn’t mention water. And how long have you been sitting at your current weight?
Overall, it just doen’t look like you’re eating enough for your level of activity. And as soon as this bout is over, I’m hoping you will be adding weight training to your agenda. Stuff like “The Bear” or Renegade Training would be VERY good for enhancing your boxing conditioning.
There’s a few others on this board who’ll be able to provide you with some sound boxing nutritional advice for your scenario: Jason Braswell, Ko and a few others.
I figure I get about 120-130g protein/day, 150g carbs. I walk around at about 154. That’s still pretty lean for me. I love lifting weights, but don’t anymore for two reasons…between my regular job, running and training I don’t really have the time. That and I get big really fast. I’m up to three sets of 12 pull ups and my lats just keep growing. It actually looks like I’m growing wings or something. I’m going to ask my trainer about cutting back on those for now.
I do skip rope for 30 min at the beginning of boxing training. I’ll take the above advice and run first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. The thing is that I tried that once and when I got back I was shaking and felt really weird and very weak. I assumed it was from not having any carbs for fuel. I’ll try again though. I took the advice on the RTD Myoplex being useless, I’ve been told that before. I just got some HDT pro blend. At this point I think I should stay away from anything that has “GROW” on the label. I want to try the Hot-Rox, though. Right now I take an ECA stack 1x/day.
Paticia…it hasn’t been annouced on WBAN yet, but I’m sure it will be this week. I’ll have updates on my site too. I’m fighting Lisa Hollywyne for her WIBF title in WA state.
Da Boxer…who/where are you fighting?
If I start the Hot Rox, would it have less of an effect on me since I’ve been taking the ephedrine for a while now? I know there’s no ephedrine in it, but some people on here are saying they miss the energy they got from Ephedrine after switching to Hot-Rox.
Sunshine, I JUST now noticed that you are Sunshine Fettkether. I know exactly who you are and think you’re a awesome boxer, chickie!
Hey, do you know anything of what’s going on with Lucia Ryker? I had read she was fighting on April 19; now, nothing about that. And for some strange reason, I thought it was you that was scheduled to fight her.
Anyways, again for now: cut out the peanut butter. Concentrate on fish oil and flaxseed for your fats.
After the bout, you could go a little higher in terms of protein. As for weight training, the rep ranges you’re working in could be the issue to your increase muscle growth. 8-12 may not be the way to go. Maybe lower rep ranges. I just would not write off weight training entirely. Do look into Renegade Training. This will be a key component in your conditioning.
I would love to watch you fight. Where is this in Washington state? I’m in Portland, Oregon.
OK the peanut butter is gone! I’ll replace with flax.
The fight on the 26th is at a casino somewhere outside Seattle. I’m know I’m butchering the name, but its something like Sminoshima…don’t remember exactly. I’m pretty sure Sue Fox, the owner of WBAN, is a police officer in Portland.
That was me that was supposed to fight Rijker. My manager still has the contract I signed with her name on it. She started playing games, making demands, basically just getting difficult for the promoter to deal with. She’s not the superstar she thinks she is. The promoter gave her a deadline to accept the terms she had agreed to in the contract (me as her opponnent at 142 pounds). She wanted a different opponnent. She has too much to risk, is getting older and wants easy fights. She may still wind up on that card because the ESPN execs want her. However it will be with a tomato can they dig up on 2 days notice.
what is happening here!!! i am also defending my scottish title in thai boxing on april 26. got to be some good vibes happening for that nite. id go with da boxers recommendation as far as runing goes but if you still feel dizzy back off a little. the last week should be total rest and a little gpp type stuff. ready to explode on fight nite. i am currently 73 kg and fight weight is 71kg max. the T will be flowing from the heavans when we kick ass.
Lucia was one boxer that really piqued my interest into the sport. The other boxer was Muhammad Ali.
But I have to agree with you. I think she should concentrate on movies, since that’s where she was headed a few years ago.
Besides, you’ve got a tough class! Women boxers have improved soooo much since when Lucia or Christy Martin(whom I’ve never liked) began.
And for some reason, Ko’s response to your question wasn’t posted into this thread. But it’s been posted like a “new topic”. You should check what he has to say out. Ko’s expertise is MMA. And I do train in a boxing gym. I have aspirations to get into the ring. But due to my age (37), I have to begin right off in the Pro’s (so I’m told). But my class would be either 118 or 122 (I’m currently sitting at 126). Right now, I’m in serious training for strongwoman contests.
So, I’m not sure if I can make it to watch you fight. Just please keep us updated here in the forum!
I just now thought that maybe I should copy and past Ko’s reply here. Like, d’oh!
Here is is:
"Running in addition to all your boxing training, while hypo caloric is a good way to burn up your muscle and leave you weak, with little stamina. You should already have plenty of wind, so running, in my opinion is a big waste of time. You should be adding an activity that will either increase you boxing skills (sparring/focus pad/ heavybag work) or increasing strength and explosiveness (weightlifting/ HIIT)
I personally would hit the weights, doing powercleans, snatches, pushpresses etc. Keep the reps low, and the weight heavy. Maintain your muscle mass, and drop some fat (if you have any to lose).
Sunshine, read that quote by Patricia on what KO recommends. It totally shocked me that I did not mention the running to be interval type stuff, with some KB work in between. Ko has a great point about how it’s a terrible way to do it, which will cause muscle loss. But if you do it interval style it will definately work. Read Mike Mahlers article on this very topic. It’s a great workout for a fighter and takes about 30minutes to complete the whole thing.
As far as I go I fight out of Kansas City and currently fight for a company called RINGSIDE, the owner John Brown and His assistant David Lubs are my trainers though I deal with David Lubs most of the time. Im sure we supply you with something for your boxing needs, we’re perhaps the most utilized boxing equipment world wide. Man, this is great, while Im fighting I’ll be thinking “theres another t-mag boxer out there kicking ass” best of luck to ya.
The advice is great…thanks. I weighed in at 152 today, out at 149 after training. So i’ve lost 2 pounds since I found out about the fight on Sunday. I started the intervals today, instead of just jogging. I really think that will help, not only with losing fat but with cardio too. It just doesn’t seem as though jogging does anything. I can jog forever and my legs will get tired, but I’ll never get out of breath.
Wow, looks like there are a lot of fights on the 26th. Good luck to everyone. Ally, I was a thaiboxer before I switched to boxing. I ran out of opponnents. Most women are making the switch to boxing in the USA. I love Muay Thai and teach a class to MMA guys 3x/week just to stay close to the sport.
Hey Sunshine,
I used to read your posts on Ax when you were doing Muay Thai
I find when cutting for a fight you can lose a good amount of water by chewing gum and spitting in a cup, also wear layers on layers and at the bottom of it all wear a bin bag just make sure you weigh in as early as possible and re hydrate yourself. You can also try a dieretic to help u get rid of some water weight. I know it’s not wise but as a last resort…
So do you prefer Muay Thai or Boxing now?
I’ve just left my muay thai camp after a bit of a disagreement with the management and now i’m in limbo. I might take up boxing or Full contact kickboxing and do some MMA for fun but i really miss Muay Thai
