If you keep crashing in training, it’s not because you’re weak—it’s because you’re eating wrong.
In most cases people follow what is pushed in the mainstream. That is a recipe for disaster. Have you ever noticed that none of those diets remain relevant?
In Part 1, we covered fasting and volume eating. Now let’s tackle mistakes #3 and #4 that silently sabotage your performance.
Mistake #3: Macro imbalance (high-fat, low-carb diets)
Why carbs matter
The keto/paleo diets have been very popular over the years. Just like fasting, they resurface once in a while. The demonization of carbs has been going on for a while, and it’s all to your detriment. Carbs are crucial for performance.
Cutting out carbs will make you look and feel depleted. People that follow these diets mostly have short-term benefits but suffer in the long run.
And the short-term results are mostly unsustainable weight loss anyways. What’s the point of looking shredded if you fall apart as soon as you have to perform?
It’s not worth it. Your body needs carbs as fuel, not fats.
Average Joe.
Here’s the Average Joe mistake: loading up on fats just to hit calorie needs, thinking it will fuel performance—but without carbs, energy tanks. They think just hitting the calories will make them perform. This is a half-truth. It’ll work in the beginning, but down the line they’ll feel drained as well.
The lack of carbs will eventually catch up with them. You can’t make a race car run on water. It’ll probably get around the block, but that’s it.
The same goes for your body. Carbs are essential for performance; I’ll probably have to repeat this until I die and put it on my gravestone. And people will still be like, “So have you tried keto? It’s amazing. This guy would have probably lived longer if he followed the keto diet.”
How many carbs you need depends on how active you are, so I won’t break that down here.
A general rule of thumb:
- Protein needs: 2 x bodyweight in kilograms
- Fat needs: 1 x bodyweight in kilograms
- Carbs: 3-10 x bodyweight in kilograms
Mistake #4: Relying too much on science rather than listening to your own body.
Self-awareness over “science.”
These days people love to throw studies at you to prove to you that their diet is optimal for humans. Most of these diets are linked to people’s identity, and it turns the whole thing into cults.
But there is a study that debunks the study shown to you every single time. For some people on Twitter and Reddit, arguing over studies is their entire personality. There’s no better way to spend your time on studies that contradict each other without any skin in the game.
So it might be obvious that people overcomplicate things that are rather easy.
You obviously want a well-balanced diet that includes all 3 macronutrients. You don’t want to cut out whole food groups unless you’re allergic to them.
By following this principle, you avoid the majority of the mainstream diets.
A diet that gives you short-term benefits but long-term issues is one that should be avoided and abandoned. No matter how good the “science” claims it to be.
This is common sense, but common sense is lost on people these days.
Enter the Keto diet
I experimented with many diets out there; that experience and talking to other people who did similar experiments have led me to get a deeper understanding of what people really need when it comes to diets.
The keto diet was my most interesting experiment, though. I gave it a shot after people praised it so much. I quickly had side effects and massive headaches, and my training performance went down the drain.
This is known as the keto flu. I also found it horrible to eat that high in fat, to be honest. It was obvious from the start that it was unsustainable, yet I stuck with it for 2 weeks.
Close to the end of the experiment, I did some research on how long the keto flu would last. Some people claimed 3 months to a year. That is when I abandoned it and introduced carbs back into my diet.
The issues went away rather quickly. Why would I feel like shit for 3 months or longer before I would feel “better,” and in the end no one sticks to the low-carb/keto diets. They all find an excuse to introduce carbs back into their diet.
And they don’t actually feel better. They got used to feeling like absolute shit. Why would you want that?
I for sure don’t want that, and nor should you.
If you’re done feeling drained in training, that’s exactly what I fix with my coaching., Part 3 is coming—subscribe so you don’t keep making the same mistakes
Nutrition Coaching
Over the years, I’ve helped fighters heal their metabolism, lose weight effectively, and fuel their bodies for peak performance. If you’re struggling with weight loss, underperforming due to poor nutrition, or dealing with a damaged metabolism, DM me “nutrition” on Instagram to get started.
In my 3-month coaching program, I’ll guide you through:
- Healing your metabolism.
- Losing weight sustainably without burnout.
- Learning how to fuel for performance when maintaining and losing weight
- Cutting weight safely for a fight (only for fighters)
I only take on 3 clients every 3 months. If you want one of those spots, DM me ‘nutrition’ on Instagram or Twitter.
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram.
Until next time.
Alex
Further Reading
- Eat, Sleep, Overtrain, Repeat → I cover the truth about underrecovery (most people call it overtraining).
- The Issue with Eating Out in Thailand → Aimed at Muay Thai fighters, but useful for anyone training here.
- The Nutrition Mistakes Killing Your Performance (Part 1)
