Top 5 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Nutrition Mistakes You Should Avoid

When it comes to BJJ, nutrition has a lot of impact on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu performance. BJJ athletes, particularly BJJ beginners, make a lot of mistakes in Jiu-Jitsu nutrition . These mistakes stop the BJJ athletes from giving their best in BJJ games against their opponents. These nutrition mistakes are very common and need to be addressed. This article explores top Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistakes you should avoid as a BJJ athlete particularly if you are a BJJ white belt.

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition plays a key role in improving your BJJ performance. The right food at the right time in the right amount leads to right BJJ performance. It is as simple as that. But this is the nutrition where most BJJ practitioners make the mistake. They don’t take Jiu-Jitsu nutrition seriously. This results in their declining BJJ performance. In BJJ, you do all sorts of training, whether it's hard training or light training.

• You need some fuel to do the training. Without any fuel, you cannot do anything. The fuel comes from food you eat daily. If you are not focusing on your food and your daily eating routine, you will not have sufficient fuel for the training. You will lack the energy for the training. If you don’t have energy, you can’t do training. And if you are not training enough for the BJJ, how can you expect yourself to perform better and win at BJJ? This completes the Jiu-Jitsu nutrition cycle, i.e., Good BJJ nutrition leads to good BJJ performance.

Following are the top five Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistakes you should avoid as a BJJ athlete.

The first Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistake most BJJ athletes make is not eating enough calories. You have to set daily calorie goals for your BJJ performance. Most BJJ practitioners are not focusing on eating enough calories. You may understand very well that when you do Jiu-Jitsu training, high energy demand is imposed on you, which you have to fulfill in the form of calorie intake.

Well this is not across the board, i.e., all BJJ athletes are not eating less. All are not making the same mistake of eating fewer calories. Some of you are eating more than required, with others not eating up to the required calories. So, it is very necessary to determine your total calorie intake and if you are eating and achieving your daily goal of calorie intake or not. 

But how can you even determine whether you are eating enough calories or not? You can do this simply by looking at the symptoms of eating less. If you are not eating well enough, you will have some symptoms. 

Following are some symptoms you need to see in yourself to find out if you are eating less or not;

• Throughout the day, you will feel that you have low energy levels in doing anything.

• Crashing and bonking during your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sessions.

• Feeling tired and lethargic throughout the day, even if you are not doing anything or after doing a little bit of work.

• Experiencing lack of sleep or quality sleep.

But you may be thinking right now, what is the total calorie goal? How many calories should you eat daily for maximum BJJ performance? What is the least amount of calories you need to take daily at all costs? To answer all these questions, first understand that the same calorie goal cannot apply to all of you as a BJJ athlete. It is individual-specific. To determine a baseline of how many calories you need to be actually consuming, focus on your TDEE. TDEE means your total daily energy expenditure. 

TDEE is also individual-specific. For calculating your TDEE, you need to consider a few points of your daily life. There are different methods for calculating TDEE. However, the most widely accepted and well-known TDEE calculation formula is the Mifflin-St Jeor formula. According to this formula, TDEE depends on the following six things;

• Gender

• Age

• Weight

• Height

• Activity

• Fat Percentage (Optional)

You can add fat percentage if you want. Activity, in your case, depends on how much you do BJJ training every day. If you are doing intense BJJ training, you will have more calories goal. If you are doing light BJJ training, you will have less daily calorie intake requirement.

• The second Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistake is focusing too much on not so important things such as meal timing, the amount of food you are eating, how many times you are eating, etc. These things are not very important. Although these things also play a role, the role is very small in your BJJ performance. The mistake is BJJ athletes don’t focus on big things and they focus on small things like these.

• So instead of these, shift your focus on big and main things that drive your BJJ performance and BJJ success. Put your focus on improving the quality of food. Focus on calorie intake. Have you ever cared about the quality of the food you are eating? The answer to this question from most BJJ practitioners would be no.

• That is the thing that requires your focus. Good quality food improves your health and ultimately improves your BJJ performance. Bad-quality food worsens your health, and your BJJ performance also becomes poor. It does not matter what time you eat if you are eating the right type of food. Focus on right type of food rather than the right time of eating food. 

• The third Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistake most BJJ athletes make is depending on protein powders . This mistake is very common, and many BJJ practitioners, particularly BJJ whitebelts are making this mistake. They become over-dependent on protein powders. Over-reliance on protein powders causes them to not focus on eating quality food.

• It does not mean that protein powders are bad and you should not consume them, the mistake is only over-reliance. However, similar to the mistake mentioned in point number two, focus on the big ticket items. First, focus on having a strong foundation in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition before supplementing with things like protein powders because it is in the name of protein powders.

• It is meant to be supplementary to your food, not the other way around. Another reason that this can be a mistake is if you are smashing three to four protein powders per day. Maybe you decided to buy a bulking protein that is going to be a lot of calories with a load of fillers, sugars and other artificial things in your diet. It may not necessarily be a good thing.

• So, first and foremost, it is highly recommended that you get your main source of protein from your food. Then, once you have done that, if required, you can supplement with protein powders. 

• The fourth Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistake most BJJ athletes make is keeping themselves dehydrated. This one is probably more common than you will realize, and you have probably done it once or twice yourself. When you are dehydrated and training BJJ, this will affect your decision-making capability.

• Obviously, it will affect your performance. It will put more stress on your heart, and in severe cases, it can cause cramping or even long-term impacts on your health. So, avoiding dehydration is key. How do you do that? A rule of thumb is recommended for this. You should drink about three liters of water outside your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training. 

• If you want to take your hydration status one step further, you can implement what's known as a rehydration protocol. A rehydration protocol that is often recommended is that you weigh yourself before and after training. The difference between your weight will be your fluid loss.

• For example, if you start training at 80 kg weight and you weigh yourself after training and weigh 78 kg, your fluid loss would equate to 2 kg. In fluid terms, that is 2 liters of fluid lost. What you need to do is take that number and multiply it by 1.25 or as a decimal that is one decimal two five. So two times one decimal two five is two point five.

• Therefore, you were then required to drink 2.5 liters over the next three to four hours. So effectively, you are just taking 125 percent of your total fluid loss. To determine your fluid loss, just weigh yourself before and after training. That is a very standard rehydration protocol.

• The fifth Jiu-Jitsu nutrition mistake most BJJ athletes make is depending too much on the supplements. Depending on the supplements is too easy because you just have to buy a bottle of some nutrients and eat a tablet daily. But supplements can’t fulfill your needs completely. You have to take care of your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition.

• Having a strong Jiu-Jitsu nutrition foundation is difficult for many because you have to avoid many things and follow a specific nutrition protocol. Supplements are not as effective as we think. They are just used to complete that one percent that you are lacking from your normal diet. They will not complete your needs 100 percent. Focus on your nutrition first. Supplements come much later in your optimized Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition plan.

• This does not mean that supplements are not effective at all, and it does not give you any benefit. The point is that BJJ athletes start focusing only on the supplements. They forget about their nutrition. So prioritize your nutrition and healthy eating over supplements.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition is a prerequisite to effective BJJ performance. BJJ athletes make many mistakes when it comes to BJJ nutrition. You should correct those mistakes and optimize your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition. Focus on quality eating, determine your daily calorie intake requirement, eat your required calories daily, stay hydrated, and follow rehydration protocol. This will optimize your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nutrition and, hence, your BJJ performance.

Following are the most common Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu mistakes that most BJJ athletes make;

• Not eating enough calories.

• Depending on protein powders.

• Dehydration.

• Depending on supplements.

• Focusing too much on meal timing and ignoring important aspects such as quality of food.