Campeão pena master no Pan 2025, Gustavo Dantas é professor de Jiu-Jitsu e palestrante. Foto: Arquivo pessoal

Como um atleta master se alimenta e perde peso na reta final para uma grande competição?

Professor formado pela Nova União, o peso-pena Gustavo Dantas repassa tudo o que aprendeu na semana decisiva para o último Pan da IBJJF, quando conquistou a medalha de ouro na Flórida, no pena master 5, após final com Cleito Resende, da Alliance.

Confira e tire lições valiosas da rotina do faixa-preta. De quebra, reveja o triângulo suave e eficaz de Dantas, que levou, na semifinal do Pan, seu oponente a dormir dentro do golpe.

Oss.

Nathalia Chantre. Clau Steinert

In order to have more expressive results and good performance in your Jiu-Jitsu training, it is essential to have a good diet. This is exactly what Nathiely de Jesus, the current absolute world champion of the IBJJF, has been doing for 3 years. The champion has had a change in eating habits since she began being monitored by Nathalia Chantre, a nutritionist certified by the International Sports Sciences Association who specializes in Jiu-Jitsu athletes.

Nathalia, also a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, spoke of how nutrition can be an essential ally for the high-performance athlete.

“Some athletes have no idea what is behind nutrition,” she said. “They think that looking for a nutrition professional is related to weight loss or muscle mass gain, but it goes far beyond that. When an athlete has nutritional monitoring, in addition to improving eating habits, it also improves the functioning of the immune system, minimizes the risks of joint and muscle injuries, favors the adaptive response of training as well as the gain in sports performance. It also improves sleep and intestinal transit, improves muscle recovery between training sessions. All of these are factors that can take the athlete to the top of the podium or bring them the much desired victory.”

Nathiely, on February 26, 2021, made history by being the first woman to beat Gabi Garcia with and without the gi, a fact that seemed impossible for years. Nathiely’s victory began before she entered the arena at the Who’s Number One event in Austin, Texas, as Nathalia revealed.

“We knew that the F2W fight, for the title match against Gabi Garcia, was going to happen. And even before the contract was finalized, we started to improve body composition with nutritional adjustments. When the fight was scheduled for February 26, her body composition was already much better, which directly impacts the athlete’s performance. I always follow the training periodization, of both Jiu-Jitsu and physical training. In the second fight against Gabi, already in WNO, I counted on the help of the physical trainer Itallo Vilardo during Nathiely’s preparation.”

Nathalia added: “I knew that she would have volume and load of intense training, especially at the beginning of the training periodization. In the nutritional periodization, I prioritized foods that would help in the adaptive response of the training, as well as in the recovery between training sessions. Nathiely consumed a lot of cherry tart juice, grape juice, watermelon, green tea and berries. Creatine supplementation was also super important throughout training, as it improves exercise tolerance, muscle recovery and adaptive training response.”

Nathalia’s method includes making dietary plans in accordance with each athlete’s preferences. “A curious fact is that Nathi prefers to train fasting; she only consumes coffee,” said the doctor. “Thus the attention to the 24 hours before the morning training session doubles, because she needs to have energetic substrates to perform with excellence during the training. Therefore, the morning pre-workout meal will actually be her dinner from the night before, which will always be accompanied by good sources of carbohydrates. For Nathi’s dinner, I opted for rice, beans, potatoes and cassava, as they are foods with good carbohydrate sources. She also enjoys eating vegetables, feels very good eating these foods. She made a change in her eating habits. Before, for example, the champion was accustomed to consuming only foods rich in carbohydrate and protein in her main meals. This is a mistake made by many athletes. It was all possible because of her discipline, which made my job easier.”

The nutritionist went on to talk about the things to which she pays the most attention in the final stretch of the preparation of a BJJ athlete:

“I always keep an eye on hydration, which is one of the points that can compromise the athlete’s performance. So I always remind them that the minimum you should consume is: your weight x 35ml. We have to add all the water that was lost in the training, in addition to the mineral salts, and the isotonics come in post-workout as well. As my contact with the athlete is very close — we speak daily — the margin of error is almost nil. I’m always looking at the details and adjusting according to the athlete’s needs. I always say that supplementation is the icing on the cake; the basis has to be a well-structured eating plan. However, we are talking about a high-performance athlete, and sometimes supplementation is necessary. In the case of Nathiely, for the last fight, in addition to creatine and caffeine, we used beta alanine, krill oil, vitamin D3, COq10 and magnesium. She arrived in the pre-competitive phase without injuries, feeling strong and ready for the match. Everything went well, and the result you already know: a fight of the highest level, performing with excellence, and not only did she win the fight, but became the first athlete to beat Gabi Garcia with and without the gi.”

Nathalia, who has a postgraduate degree in nutrition, metabolism and physiology in sports, monitors renowned athletes such as Manuel Ribamar, Matheus Gabriel, Gabriel Sousa, Diego Ramalho, Thalison Soares, Paulo Miyao and João Miyao.

The end of the year is a time of excess. But for you, athlete and BJJ lover who may have overdone it, Graciemag has at least part of the solution.

The recipe is a detoxing juice made with ginger, papaya and other ingredients to get you back on track sooner rather that later.

The papaya is well regarded for its digestive properties, helping with intestinal balance and making hormones and mineral absorption work better. And the ginger has thermogenic and anti-oxidant functions, ideal for helping the body recover from a high calorie intake.

In the following recipe, by Andrea Lana, we have a powerful combination of ingredients. Check it out.

Ingredients:

1 thick slice of papaya (25 kcal)
1 orange (35 kcal)
3 kale leaves (10 kcal)
1 spoon of chia tea (10 kcal)
1 tea spoon of ginger
1 big glass of water

Mix it all in the blender with a bit of ice, and the juice is ready.

The year is 1996, the month September and on page 8 of the 2nd issue of GRACE Magazine Carlos Gracie Jr. begins the article as follows: “There is a lot of talk about diets. There is a number of possibilities, some are prescribed to fight diseases, obesity and even to improve the body’s performance during physical activity.” Over 13 years later, you could say the panorama has not changed. With the boom of the health generation in the 90s, people around the world seem to have set aside a special place in their minds, and calendars, for worrying about what they put into their bodies. In a quick search of the internet one can find millions of pages containing the word “diet”. On TV the number of programs targeting nutrition has multiplied, and one need only scan the newsstands to see the topic as headlines on hundreds of both women’s and men’s publications.

It hasn’t always been this way, though. At around the 1950s, the preoccupation with what we ingest in their day to day lives was almost completely absent, and for this reason health problems started to surface well before reaching the later stages of life.

It was after suffering from blinding migraines (rendering him prostrate in his bedroom) it struck Carlos Gracie that something had to change. From the words of the philosopher Hippocrates came the first clue: “Make your nourishment your cure”.

Hungering for knowledge, Master Carlos came to read more and more on the subject and over the years he compiled what he learned, developing would be consecrated as the Gracie Diet. He left the health problems behind and the weakly youth turned into an athletic adult.

The next step was to prove the efficiency of the method and there was no one better to test his discoveries on than his own offspring. Carlos Gracie instilled in his children, nephews and grandchildren the need to listen to the body and offer it only nourishment that is of benefit to it. Little by little, the family’s body type began to change and the Master’s descendants were growing a way bigger than his 5’2”, 139 pound frame. In fact, according to Carlinhos Gracie, “healthy nourishment modified an entire family”.

But ultimately, what is the Gracie Diet about? It deals with not poisoning the body, not letting it get sick, and establishing the appropriate balance its nourishment. The main idea behind it is to keep the pH of meals as neutral as possible, balancing the substances through the proper combination.

Master Carlos’ idea is global and overcomes all problems. It is about not mixing: cereals with other cereals, fat with sugar, nor acidic foods with any other acidic food. Meals are to be eaten in intervals of, at the least, four hours, eating again only when the stomach is empty.

But that is not all. Beyond worrying about solid foods, Master Carlos sought to complement them with teas, using what nature offers as cures for man’s ailments. “Our body is a machine running on blood. If the blood is pure, the machine runs well”, says Carlos Gracie Jr. “My father’s objective was to make sure the family’s fighters were well, or in other words, free of any illness that might arise and postpone a combat”, he concludes.

The inclusion of fruits as a fundamental part of the diet can also be credited to Master Carlos Gracie. “Almost 40 years ago people came into my house and saw the pantry full of fruits and greens. Everyone thought it was strange, as the culture of that time considered fruits to be nothing more than dessert, while it made up 50% of our family’s diet.”

A father to 21 children and grandfather to more than 50 grandchildren, the Gracie patriarch had, curiously, in his brother Helio the best defense for his thesis. A relentless follower of the Diet, Master Helio is pointed out by Reyla, Carlinhos’ sister, as a great example of the efficiency of her father’s diet. “When no one talked of nutrition, my father perceived  that red meat needed to be stricken from Uncle Helio’s diet before his fights.  The proof that he was right didn’t take long to come about: in 1955, Uncle Helio fought with Waldemar Santana for 3h40m non-stop”, says Reyla. It is worth remembering that in ’55, Helio Gracie was already 42 years old, while Waldemar was not yet 24.

Proud of the legacy left by his father, Carlos Gracie Jr. and Reyla agreed particularly on one point: to reduce Master Carlos’ science to being a simple diet is to diminish the importance of his work. “He foresaw so many recent scientific discoveries, such as the important role of beta carotene, a substance found in papayas and carrots, the concept of free-radicals and orthomolecular medicine. That goes without mentioning his being a pioneer with his habit of eating açaí, drinking watermelon juice, coconut water and smoothies”, says Reyla. Carlinhos adds: “Everyone should supplement their work with nutrition. We opened the eyes of our students to this and they influenced others. Since then health-food restaurants, juice houses and a whole wave of healthy living have arisen. I see my father as a great precursor to healthy nourishment here in Brazil”, Carlinhos affirms.

Whoever would like to test the thesis need only follow the Gracie Diet, shown on below.

[Please consider supporting Graciemag U.S. on Patreon to help us keep making high-quality content in English.]

Combination Tables

These tables are the heart of the Gracie method for nourishment. By understanding and following the matches established in them correctly, the chemical combination of the foods will be respected, always maintaining the neutral pH of the blood, which will make digestion easier, as well as prevent and even combat ailments.

Disclaimer: Gracie Diet principles have not yet been scientifically proven and were not developed by a physician or accredited nutritionist.

For more, visit our archive of diet-related articles.

Kron Gracie. krongraciejiujitsu.com

With unforgettable triumphs in IBJJF World Championships and the ADCC, Kron Gracie set out to soar in MMA as well, and after shining in Japan, arrived in the UFC with a nice first win. Kron’s secret, on top of sharp BJJ and his characteristic coldness, lies in his disciplined nutrition, with some peculiarities.

Speaking to Diego Ribas of UOL.com.br, Kron revealed details of his nutrition, which used to consist only of fish and vegetables, but more recently began to include some animal proteins from outside the ocean, with one restriction.

“I don’t eat any farm animal, whether it’s cows, chickens or any other,” he told the reporter. “These animals that have very low energy, because they are treated very poorly. So, for me, I was a vegetarian eating only fish for years, but nowadays I don’t have a problem eating animals. But I’m not gonna eat animals every day, you know? I’ll eat very little. But I don’t oppose eating them at this point.”

“My diet is healthy,” Kron added. “I think that’s the way to define it. I don’t have any hard rules: I think I eat the things my body needs at the time it needs them. In principle, I don’t eat meat, don’t eat chicken, turkey breast, I don’t eat animals that come from a farm. But if it were an animal that didn’t come from a farm and I hunted, I wouldn’t have a problem with eating it. If it were a moose that a friend or I hunted, I would have no problem eating it.”

Check out the following video to learn a little more about Kron Gracie’s diet on a normal day of training.

By Adriana Gracie

Muscle cramps are painful, involuntary contractions, caused by an imbalance in sodium, potassium, calcium or magnesium in the body, or insufficient blood circulation in the muscle. Cramps may also be set off by very low temperatures and excessive exercise, but especially for one simple reason: a lack of water in the body. Water is an essential nutrient often forgotten. To better hydrate your body, cut your intake of all drinks containing caffeine, like coffee, tea and soft drinks.

Ingredients
2 cucumbers
1 leaf of collard greens
2 stalks of celery
1 sprig of parsley
1 stalk of green onion
1 pinch of mint
2 soupspoons of brewer’s yeast
4 pieces of pita bread
200g white cheese
200g deli turkey

Preparation
Begin by making the frothy cucumber juice. Wash the greens and legumes under running water and put everything, including the brewer’s yeast, in the centrifuge – with the exception of the parsley. Pour the juice into tall glasses, and decorate with parsley. To prepare the pita bread sandwiches, separate the pieces of bread, take the turkey slices and white cheese and arrange as in the photo. Heat to your liking, and enjoy your meal!

Ingredients
4 seedless apples
3 cups cashew nuts
200g whole wheat flour
2 spoons butter
200g fresh white cheese
Poppy seeds
1 egg yolk

Preparation
Wash the apples thoroughly and cut them into eight pieces, to centrifuge. After centrifuging, put in blender and blend with cashew nuts till creamy. With the apples and cashew nuts, the juice is a powerful activator of the brain, just right to get you through your daily activities. To make the quiche, spread the wholewheat flour over a smooth surface, mix with butter and let the dough sit for 15 minutes, while you make the filling. Take 200g fresh white cheese and crush with a fork. Place the dough in Teflon quiche molds. Add filling and cover with the rest of the wholewheat dough. Now brush with the egg yolk, sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake in the oven. Enjoy the meal!

They have stood the test of time: Royler, Rorion and Rickson Gracie.

In the letters section of Graciemag #261, last year, we offered some tips to readers just starting their tenure in the masters’ age group and who want a longer life on and off the mat. Here’s that advice.

—

Educator, traveler and author Dan Buettner, who wrote The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest in 2008, mapped the blue zones — regions of the globe from Japan to Costa Rica whose dwellers usually grow old with great health and quality of life — and took note of some of the habits these people have in common.

Buettner’s work contains lessons that can be extremely useful to martial artists. Check some of them out below.

1. One of the places visited by Buettner was Icaria, Greece, known as the island where people forget to die. Its inhabitants, as well as easily making it to 90, have very low levels of dementia and diseases of the heart, brain and bones. As well as a diet that is rich in vegetables and almost devoid of red meat, the islanders like goat milk and practice daily exercise, such as walking.

2. In most blue zones mapped by the writer, there is reduced consumption of cow meat and milk.

3. In Okinawa, Japan, the people eat lots of soy and tofu.

4. In Nicoya, Costa Rica, the author checked out the quality of the water, which is rich in calcium and magnesium. This composition helps prevent heart disease and osteoporosis.

5. In all the blue zones, citizens drink little and don’t smoke.

6. People and families that prize spending time with friends and neighbors live even longer. Respect meal times, and invite your friends to break bread and share stories.

7. Another lesson from the peoples studied: They mostly use small plates for their meals.

8. Seek to know your body, and stop eating when you are 80% full.

9. If your mind isn’t calm and sated, you will want to eat whatever is put in front of you. Find a purpose in life and follow it with a passion.

10. Even if you love your job, don’t forget your leisure. Go on vacation with your family; after all, traveling feeds your brain.

Marco Imperial at a table rich in Gracie Diet foods: BJJ begins at the mouth. Gustavo Aragão

Breakthroughs in technology and medicine have brought a disastrous side effect: People eat all sorts of garbage, confident that chemical drugs will cure whatever they get. The result is an increase in obesity – child obesity has doubled in the past 30 years, and among adolescents it has quadrupled.

So if it’s difficult to eliminate these villains from your kitchen, which end up disrupting your performance in Jiu-Jitsu, we’ve listed ten tips for you to gradually get rid of a low-nutrient diet. Check them out!

1. Simple and essential: Do not bring to the table or store in the pantry processed foods, which are full of salt, sugar and fat.

2. Stop to reflect. On weekends, try to jot down or just remember what you’ve eaten over the last seven days. Rethink whether you ate fruits and vegetables, and seek more balance.

3. Treat the villains in your diet as opponents to be beaten: it may be that one beats you that day, but you must overcome them, one by one. The classic villains: margarine, oils, butter, sweets, refined sugar, chicken patties, soda, sausages, sandwich cookies, store-bought sauces.

4. If you eat tasty dishes that brighten up your brain to boot, you have come halfway to your food re-education. Invest in foods that help produce serotonin, known as the happiness hormone, and leave the table satisfied. Look for foods rich in folic acid (green leaves, legumes, avocado, orange, asparagus), sources of vitamin B6 (banana, beans, oats, lentils, avocados), magnesium sources (legumes, oysters, brown rice, salmon), and tryptophan foods (eggs, nuts, oats, peanuts, almonds, cheeses, fish and chicken).

5. Craving dessert? Look for naturally sweet foods, such as dates, coconut water, and other fruits and nuts.6. Bring the family to the table whenever possible. The habit helps to slow down chewing and eating, and break, from childhood, bad habits such as the fast snack with little nutritional value and fast food.

6. Bring the family to the table whenever possible. This helps to slow down chewing and eating, and break, from childhood, bad habits such as the fast snack with little nutritional value and fast food.

7. Get less red meat on your weekly menu. As food journalist and writer Michael Pollan teaches, the more steak, the less room for salad on your plate.

8. Take a few hours between meals and follow your routine like a samurai. To learn more about the topic, look for Gracie Diet on GRACIEMAG.com, and learn from Grandmaster Carlos Gracie, an expert on the subject.

9. Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored or anxious. Often a glass of water or juice satisfies your anxiety and does not disrupt your digestion schedule or the next meal.

10. Physical exercises and a healthy menu are inseparable siblings who help each other. Don’t neglect either one, and good training!

Rickson Gracie.

[First published in 2014.]

Raised as a warrior from a young age, Rickson Gracie is an example of good health. For many years he has been creating a well-adjusted body structure for the practice of BJJ. Coupled with the power of the art, Master Rickson maintains his machine with the best fuel: the Gracie Diet, with some adjustments made ​​for him. An example is that he changed the time intervals between meals.

In an interview with the reporter Ana Luiza Leal for Alfa magazine, the coral-belt revealed his eating routines. Learn from the teacher himself, and improve your diet to get a better performance in your workouts!

Breakfast

• 1 cup of coffee • 2 slices of bread (rich in fiber) • 2 thick slices of white cheese

Morning snack

• 1 glass of 500 ml of mixed-fruits vitamin with 1 scoop of protein powder

Lunch

• 1 plate of green leaves with 3 tablespoons of cashew nuts

• 1/2 dessert plate of boiled vegetables • 3 tablespoons brown rice • 1/2 roasted chicken breast in the oven

Afternoon snack

• 300g frozen açaí pulp mixed with: – 1 papaya, 3 dried dates, and 3 tablespoons of granola

Evening snack

• 1 whole-grain baked pasty stuffed with ricotta cheese • 1 glass of 500 ml of beet juice

Dinner

• Omelet made ​​with 2 yolks and 5 egg whites • 1 large cooked sweet potato

Supper

• 2 slices of wholegrain bread • 2 thick slices of white cheese  • 10 chopped sweet oranges

In addition to the recipes, the Rickson also underscores the importance of not abusing red meat, replacing the common white bread with fiber-rich breads and cereals, the total abolition of added sugar, replaced by dried fruits like dates, and no processed foods such as ham and sausages, which are filled with sodium.

Another tip is related to preparing vegetables. In traditional cooking, when boiling your vegetables, much of the nutrients are left in the water. Prepare them steamed instead.

Gracie Diet? Not before celebrating a little.

Months of physical and mental preparation lead up to the big day for jiu-jitsu’s elite competitors. And after such a momentous event as the IBJJF Worlds, it’s time for these athletes to reward themselves.

We talked to a few of this year’s world champions to find out what they put on their plates to let loose after a long period of discipline. Here’s what they said:

Bia Mesquita (lightweight world champion):

“After the Worlds, my favorite plate is a deep one! There comes that urge to eat a lot… But generally, my first meal after securing the gold is pasta. My favorite is cheese ravioli with white sauce.”

Lucas Hulk (medium heavyweight world champion):

“It’s important for the first morning meal to be nutritious, so I start the day with some secret porridge! It’s oatmeal cooked in milk and with cinnamon, banana, peanut butter and some cereals. It’s rich in fiber and offers the energy I need for training.”

Claudia do Val (medium heavyweight world champion):

“I think I have to reveal my secret: I love ice cream! After the Worlds, my ‘prize’ is Ben & Jerry’s brownie.”

Mahamed Aly (super-heavyweight world champion):

“I’m always training, so the menu doesn’t change. I eat everything, but I really like pizza, especially since I’m living here in the U.S.”

Mikey Musumeci (light featherweight world champion):

“My favorite dish is very creamy penne, especially if prepared with tomato sauce, milk cream and garlic, among other ingredients.”

Leandro Lo (absolute world champion):

“Man, what I like is some barbecue.”

Cod also belongs in the Gracie Diet.

Nothing is more predictable in a fighter’s life than occasionally feeling that ol’ muscular discomfort. But pain really can be weakness leaving your body.

Anyway, one can never be too careful in handling injuries. A few years ago, Graciemag printed a useful article to help the injured fighter get right back to training with the aid of a cleverly selected menu.

“Do you know why your muscles pulsate after a fight or an intense training session?” we asked. “Forget about myths like lactic acid or insufficient weightlifting. The discomfort is normal, and it’s part of a natural process of inflammation of the human body — a response to excessive physical exercise.” The article then went on to advise the reader not to react by going to the drug store, but to the nearest supermarket instead.

The secret of the great champions, in fact, is adopting a menu rich in foods with anti-inflammatory properties. Step one: cutting out anything that holds back your recovery.

Nowadays science agrees with the Gracie Diet in saying a healthy organism must avoid acidity as much as possible, meaning one must phase out sodas, food dyes, candy, flours, fried food, plus butter and other fats. Once these enemies are gone from your fridge, it’s time to stock up on allies.

Some of the chief natural anti-inflammatories are: algae, cod liver oil, ginger root, garlic, salmon, tuna and onions. Also useful: almonds, cod, avocado, Brazil nuts, carrots, pumpkin, grapes, black beans and soy.

Got any good recipes of your own? Share them below!

A bowl of açaí with an apple can be the perfect snack for a BJJ fighter. Gustavo Aragão.

The favorite energy food of BJJ practitioners, the açaí has become popular among athletes and non-athletes alike. With its unique flavor and healthy properties, the fruit from the north of Brazil has gained fans the world over. But preparing it correctly can be the difference between a quality meal and one that can harm your performance.

To clear this up, we talked to nutritionist Danielle Machado, who recently visited the Amazon rainforest. “The açaí,” she says, “is rich in anthocyanins, a purple pigment with great antioxidant abilities that helps combat aging and prevent some types of cancer. Besides, the açaí has good amounts of omega 6, omega 9, oleic acid, vitamins B1, B2, C and E, iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium, as well as proteins, fibers and carbs. That is, a complete food.

“The properties of the açaí help with weight loss, prevent cramps, act as a natural anti-inflammatory — essential to high-performance athletes, — as well as being an excellent source of energy.”

Still, there are things that can go wrong when consuming the fruit, and Dr. Machado has her own recipe to make sure you make the best of it. “The consumer must be wary of the ways the açaí is sold,” she says, “because the guarana syrup, which is often added to the fruit, raises the number of calories per tablespoon by about 93. Since the syrup raises by a lot the glycemic index and, consequently, the levels of insulin in the body, this excessive sugar tends to be stored in the form of fat, and the individual may even develop diabetes in some cases. Not to mention other cases where stores sell the açaí with sweet sauce, chocolates, candy and cookies, making the sugar concentration even higher.

“In the Amazon region, the açaí is consumed with flour by the riverine population. But another option is to blend some organic açaí pulp, a frozen banana, 50ml of coconut water and a tablespoon of oatmeal for a nutritious, efficient, natural pre-training meal.”

When in doubt, one can never be too wrong by sticking to the recommendations made by the Gracies over the decades: Sweeten your açaí with dates, honey or apple juice.