This Saturday, 22 September, Anthony Joshua faces off against Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium. The IBF, WBA Super, WBO & IBO World Heavyweight Championships are all on the line.
Ahead of the big fight night, we took an in-depth look at Joshua’s daily diet.
Calories
Any sport where you have to meet a certain weight class demands a meticulous approach to dieting. Joshua puts away around 4-5,000 calories each day, primarily to fuel his performance.
He must be careful not to exceed this amount, otherwise he risks failing to make the weight grade. That said, anything less than what he’s currently consuming is insufficient fuel for powering performance.
This is where monitoring and tracking comes in handy. You can keep a log of what you’re eating by using apps such as MyFitnessPal.
Protein
Joshua has at least 30 grams of protein with each meal or snack. This is crucial for building and repairing muscle tissue, but also in preventing muscle mass being burned for energy.
You’ll also notice a mix of protein in his diet. There are the fast-digesting proteins, such as whey and eggs, which are needed to shuttle amino acids into working muscles rapidly both pre and post-training.
Then there are the dairy products, which supply casein. This feeds muscles with gradual, slow-releasing protein, which is vital when there won’t be a meal for a while (examples being night-time or during long-bouts of training).
Carbs
There’s a lot of fruit, yoghurt and honey in Joshua’s daily diet. These are simple carbs, providing the body with readily-available sugar to supplement long hours spent training.
He needs this sugar to make its way into his bloodstream as quickly as possible. Electrolyte drinks supply the same sugars when eating solid food is out of the question.
For those of us who lead less active lifestyles, it’s better to concentrate these kinds of carbs around gym time only. When you’re at work or less active, opt for more gradually-digested carbs instead. Wholegrain rice, quinoa and sweet potatoes fit the bill here and are the kinds of fibrous carbs AJ prefers.
Fats
Don’t think that fats are evil. They’re essential for many reasons - such as hormonal function and for absorbing vitamins and minerals. In Joshua’s diet, the main sources of fat are egg yolks, oily fish and red meat.
AJ will try and delay most of his fatty foods until he’s finished training, or some hours before he’s due to work out. This is because fats delay the digestion of food, and, before training, more rapidly-digested meals are needed.
Certain kinds of fat, such as the omega 3s found in salmon, are anti-inflammatory. When you’re putting your body through its paces each and every day like Joshua is and you’re taking physical hits, you need to minimise the risks of injury and inflammation.
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