The Combat Dietitian

The Combat Dietitian Jack Doherty
Bachelor of Exercise & Health Science
Masters of Dietetics 2021
Team member at &
[email protected]

10/06/2026

Most people focus on training and nutrition while overlooking one of the biggest drivers of results: sleep.

Quality sleep has a profound impact on health, body composition, recovery and performance. It influences energy levels, mood, cognitive function, hormone regulation, appetite control, muscle growth and your ability to consistently show up each day.

A simple night routine can make a significant difference:

✅ Dim the lights and avoid screens before bed
✅ Read a book instead of scrolling
✅ Take magnesium glycinate 30-60 minutes before sleep
✅ Keep sleep and wake times as consistent as possible, even on weekends
✅ Complete a 5-minute meditation to help switch off from the day
✅ Keep your bedroom cool to support falling asleep faster and improving sleep quality
✅ Have a carbohydrate-rich meal 2-3 hours before bed, which may help promote relaxation and support sleep onset

You don’t need a perfect routine. Focus on consistently doing the basics well and you’ll likely notice improvements in recovery, training performance, hunger management, mood and overall wellbeing.

If you’re struggling with energy, recovery, body composition or performance, don’t just look at your training and nutrition. Start by assessing your sleep.

04/06/2026

Most people separate nutrition and training, then wonder why progress feels harder than it should.

They follow a meal plan that does not reflect the training they are doing, or they train hard with no real nutrition strategy behind it. The result is usually the same.

Inconsistent energy, poor recovery, stalled body composition, flat sessions, and a plan that feels harder to execute than it needs to be.

This matters massively for fighters and athletes, because performance, body composition, recovery, injury risk, and weight targets are all connected. But it is not just an athlete problem. Anyone who is serious about making progress needs their food and training working toward the same outcome.

S&C creates the demand. Nutrition supports the response.

If the training is designed to build strength, power, conditioning, muscle, durability, or output, the nutrition has to support those adaptations. If the goal is fat loss, the food needs to create the right deficit without killing performance, recovery, or consistency.

That is where most plans fall short. They are either training-focused with no fuelling strategy, or nutrition-focused with no understanding of what the body is being asked to do.

The best outcomes come when both are matched.
The training gives purpose to the nutrition. The nutrition allows you to get more from the training. Then as the body changes, the plan changes with it.

That is the foundation of eating and training like a fighter.

It is structure, intent, feedback, and ex*****on across both sides. Not just working harder, but making the work more targeted, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Carb loading and post weigh-in refuelling often get spoken about like they’re the same thing.They’re not.Traditional car...
01/06/2026

Carb loading and post weigh-in refuelling often get spoken about like they’re the same thing.

They’re not.

Traditional carbohydrate loading was built around endurance events where the goal is to maximise glycogen stores before prolonged exercise.

For fighters after weigh-ins, the goal is different.

You’re not just trying to eat as many carbs as possible. You’re trying to recover from rapid weight manipulation, restore fluid balance and electrolytes, bring the gut back online, and refill fuel stores in a way the body can actually tolerate.

That means the strategy needs to reflect:

Time between weigh-in and bout
Severity of the cut
Residual dehydration
Gut tolerance
Body size and muscle mass
Foods the athlete already knows they digest well

A successful refuel is usually staged.

Rehydrate first. Then introduce easy to digest carbohydrates. Spread intake across repeated feedings. Add enough protein to support recovery. Keep food choices practical and predictable.

The target isn’t “more carbs”.

The target is arriving at competition feeling hydrated, fuelled, settled, and ready to perform.

Fighters don’t just need carbohydrate.

They need a recovery strategy.

✨

27/05/2026

Here’s the thing with fight week: the goal isn’t to suffer your way to the scale.

It’s about making smart adjustments that move body weight predictably while keeping energy high enough to still train, recover and feel sharp.

That can mean bringing carbs down to reduce glycogen-bound water, lowering fibre to reduce gut residue and bloating, keeping sodium controlled and consistent, and keeping protein high with enough total intake to support output.

Done right, you’re not chasing the scale or guessing day to day.

You’re giving yourself the best chance to make weight in a controlled way while still feeling ready to perform when it matters.

Every fighter responds differently, so the exact numbers always depend on the athlete, the timeline and the target.

But the goal stays the same: make weight with intention, then step in feeling fuelled, recovered and ready.

Post weigh-in refuelling isn’t just about eating more food as fast as possible.After a hard weight cut, the gut often is...
25/05/2026

Post weigh-in refuelling isn’t just about eating more food as fast as possible.

After a hard weight cut, the gut often isn’t functioning at full capacity yet. Dehydration reduces plasma volume, blood flow to the GI tract can be compromised, and gastric emptying can slow down. That means even the “right” foods can feel heavy, cause bloating, or simply be harder to tolerate.

A simple tool that can help in that refuel window: a short walk.

5-10 minutes of light movement after beginning your rehydration and refuel can support digestion, improve comfort, and make it easier to keep fluids and carbohydrates coming in without feeling overloaded.

For fighters, that matters.

Better gut comfort can mean:
• better carbohydrate tolerance
• less bloating and heaviness
• easier ongoing eating and drinking
• a stronger chance of restoring glycogen and fluids before competition

Small physiological wins add up fast in combat sports.

The goal after weigh-in isn’t just calories on paper. It’s actually absorbing and tolerating what you need so you can perform when it counts.

DM “DIGESTION” for discount code on plans

20/05/2026

Most people look at health and performance in separate pieces. They look at their food, then their training, then their bloodwork, then their sleep, then their stress, then their body composition.

But the body does not work in separate pieces. Everything connects.

Your intake affects your blood markers. Your training affects your recovery. Your sleep affects your appetite. Your stress affects your digestion. Your hydration affects your performance. Your body composition affects your energy needs. Your symptoms are often clues that something in the system is not matching the demand.

This is why the process matters. Before making changes, we need to understand the full picture. What are you eating? How are you training? How are you sleeping? What does your bloodwork show? What symptoms keep showing up? What is your body weight doing? How is your recovery? What does your routine actually look like?

Once those pieces are connected, the plan becomes clearer. You can see whether someone needs more food, better meal timing, more carbohydrates, better hydration, specific supplementation, improved recovery, tighter structure, or medical follow-up. The intervention is not based on guesswork. It is based on what the body is showing, what the person is doing, and what the goal requires.

That is the difference between giving advice and building a strategy. The goal is not to throw random macros, meal plans, or supplements at someone. The goal is to understand the full system, then create practical changes that actually match their life, output, health markers, and goals.

Data first. Context always. Strategy after.

DM “AUDIT” if you want your nutrition, bloodwork, training, and recovery looked at properly.

18/05/2026

Building a healthy relationship with food is one of the most important parts of achieving long term results. When nutrition is built around structure, flexibility, education and sustainability, you stop living in extremes and start creating habits that actually fit your lifestyle long term.

Instead of being “perfect” during the week only to overeat on weekends, you develop consistency without the guilt, shame and binge cycle that so many people get stuck in. You stop constantly restarting and chasing quick fixes, and as a result both your physical and mental fluctuations become far smaller.

Food starts to become something that supports your training, recovery, health and social life rather than something you are constantly fighting against. That is where nutrition becomes easier to maintain and results become far more sustainable over time.

The goal should never just be short term fat loss. It should be building behaviours and routines you can realistically maintain for years while still enjoying life, feeling in control around food and removing the all or nothing mindset that keeps people stuck.

16/05/2026

Supplements - time to refine

Researchers found improvements across:
• inflammatory markers
• antioxidant response
• lipid profile
• neuro biomarkers
• physical performance outcomes

Important to remember this was in healthy, physically active males and resistance training was still the foundation. Supplements are exactly that… supplements. But this adds to the growing body of evidence showing omega-3 intake can support both performance and overall health when paired with proper training and nutrition.

13/05/2026

Function meals over cheat meals.

A lot of people treat weekends like a reward system. 6 days “clean”, then 1 day of eating everything in sight. The issue is most cheat meals turn into cheat days, inflammation spikes, digestion tanks, energy drops and you spend the next 2-3 days trying to recover physically and mentally.

A better approach for most people is structured refeeds or higher calorie meals with purpose.

More carbs to refill glycogen.
Better training performance.
Improved recovery.
A mental break without losing control.
Still based around quality foods that make you feel good after eating them.

You can enjoy food, eat more calories and still move towards better body composition, performance and health when there is intention behind it.

Function meals > cheat meals.

Eat in a way that supports your goals, not sabotages them.

Body recomposition for combat athletes is rarely about extremes.It is about building a body that can perform, recover, s...
11/05/2026

Body recomposition for combat athletes is rarely about extremes.

It is about building a body that can perform, recover, stay healthy and make weight sustainably over time.

Helen has spent years balancing:
• Muay Thai training
• Shift work as a nurse
• Recovery
• Performance nutrition
• Real life consistency

The result:
+7.75kg lean mass while slightly reducing body fat across multiple years.

No crash dieting.
No “8 week transformations.”
No unsustainable protocols.

Just structured nutrition, training support, recovery focus and consistency repeated over time.

For fighters and athletes, the goal is not just to look lean for a photo.
It is to become stronger, more resilient, better fuelled and more capable in every phase of training and competition.

Performance first.
Body composition as a by-product.

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