Nathalia and Livio Ribeiro. Photo: Personal Archive

The type of work done by Nathalia Chantre, 31, is a key part of the process of professionalization of BJJ as a sport. Playing a fundamental role in the performance of a number of elite athletes, this nutritionist is responsible for building a nutrition plan and enabling fighters to go into their matches healthy, living up to their full potential.

If in previous eras of the sport, it was possible to see athletes cutting weight in wrong ways and consuming fatty foods and sodas, nowadays this sort of behavior has to be kept to a minimum. The professionalization of BJJ has arrived in all spheres, from prize money to the care athletes have for their performance.

A nutritionist certified by the International Sports Sciences Association, Nathalia has monitored more than 300 athletes across more than five years in the field. In her opinion, a high-performance athlete who takes meticulous care of the details of their nutrition tends to come out on top.

“A time comes when the athlete’s key has to turn, so to speak, and they understand that in order to stay at a high level these days, it’s necessary to have more than good training; they need to be more than just talented,” said Nathalia, who’s also a BJJ student, in a recent interview. “It’s important to surround yourself with a multidisciplinary team that’s going to put you at your 100% to perform with excellence.”

She added: “One of the great differentials of my work with athletes consists of investing time with each of them. I treat athletes individually to understand their goals in a thorough way, their training, possible flaws, difficulties, and to not spare any efforts to develop a nutrition plan. I want the athlete to have adherence, for the plan to be compatible with their reality, making it easier to conquer the desired goal. That’s why I say that I don’t do consultations; I do nutritional monitoring with athletes and practitioners of BJJ. Our contact is very close; I make adjustments daily, if necessary, in the pre-competition phase.”

At this year’s IBJJF Pan, one of the biggest events of the calendar, Nathalia had multiple of her athletes come out victorious, not the least of which was Lívio Ribeiro, the roosterweight champion. The nutritionist went into some detail on her work with him.

“Lívio speaks openly of the crazy stuff he used to do to hit the weight before he had nutritional monitoring,” she said. “He, for example, used to cut water in the week that precedes a fight. Additionally, he would cut foods rich in carbs and use laxative drugs. It’s unbelievable how someone can train and fight in those conditions, completely dehydrated and without glycogen reserves. Certainly, he would sleep poorly, and his immunity was extremely low. When I became aware of this situation in March, the first thing was to get the house in order and adjust the basic: improve intestinal health, increase water intake and improve sleep quality.”

“He understood that he’s not supposed to starve to hit the weight, he doesn’t need to dehydrate, and he has no reason to cut foods with sources of carbs,” Nathalia continued. “So I included in his diet: rice, cuscuz, pasta, potatoes, various fruits, oatmeal, tapioca, beans and many other foods rich in micro- and macronutrients. I also used some supplements such as: beta alanine, probiotic, vitamin D3, magnesium, omega 3 and creatine. By the way, creatine does no harm when it comes to cutting weight. Quite the opposite: it’s an extremely safe supplement; it improves tolerance to straining, muscle recovery, on top of improving adaptive response to the training.”

In previous tournaments, Lívio had chosen not to eat before the first round, because his main opponent was the scale. This time, in 2021, everything has changed, and Lívio had the best performance to date in his early days as a black-belt.

“I followed Lívio’s training up-close, and his evolution was visible — especially in the final stage of the training, close to the competition, where usually he already felt extremely saturated, stressed and fatigued,” said the nutritionist. “I was very excited to see him in the competitions. It was going to be the first time he would eat on fight day! I was sure his performance was going to be special, and it was! He knew he was able to be explosive from the start until the end of the match; he knew he had energy reserves and was well trained, because he had the physical preparation provided by Itallo Vilardo and the training at Ares academy in Modesto, led by Prof. Samir Chantre.” She subjoined: “Those who think nutritional monitoring makes no difference certainly have never had the opportunity to be followed by a good nutritionist.”

Nathalia is a Health Coach with Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and is currently getting a postgraduate degree in nutrition, metabolism and physiology in sports.

Both ends of the spectrum. Photo: Erin Herle

Last month the IBJJF announced that females of both adult and master divisions will have two new weight classes: rooster and super-heavy. The additions came after much noise was made for the smallest and the tallest women who wanted a category to themselves.

The female categories vary from the men categories. Their rooster is not ours. Their heaviest will never be our heaviest. But even so, we’ve been expanding our numbers so the divisions should cater to these developments.

As of now the lightest category for the females is light-feather with a weight limit of 118 lbs or 53.5 kg. For the petite, this can be frustrating when the ladies who cut down to the weight are having an easier time than those who try to gain the weight to be closer to the limit. On the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweight category as of now starts above 163.3 lbs or 74 kg and has no cap on the weight limit. So those who are above that weight must fight every other person ho could possibly outweigh them by more than the normal bracket difference, around twelve pounds at most.

The IBJJF has secured the new weight division limits and they will be in effect starting at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship May 28 – June 1. As with every tournament, weigh-ins are handled when an athlete is checked in for their first match. All weigh-ins are done with the gi on so make sure you take into account the weight of your chosen competition gi if you plan on cutting down a division.

Here are the new categories:

Rooster: 107 lbs or 48.5 kg

Super-heavy: over 175 lbs or 79.3 kg with no limit.

Female athletes in the heavyweight division can now compete against those who are more aimed towards their size and the heaviest category can narrow down those most similar in weight.

While the registrations currently open for the IBJJF city tournaments such as Boston Open, New York Open, Boca Raton Open, Las Vegas Open, Copenhagen Open and others will have the same weight classes. The rooster and super-heavy will only apply to the Worlds and after.

Registration for the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship will open soon and give female athletes a chance to join those closer to their weight if they have struggled in the past with losing or gaining the weight necessary to match their opponents.

Check out more information about IBJJF and their events at www.ibjjf.org

Gleison Tibau training on Recreio beach. Photo: TalkSports

With his 20th UFC bout coming up, Gleison Tibau has plenty of reasons to dream of making his way to the belt. He used to train a lot of BJJ when he was starting out but after a break from the mat is now returning to the art’s essence in order to find that extra edge needed if he is to become a lightweight champion.

After a physical training session on the sand of Recreio beach in Rio de Janeiro, Tibau chatted with GRACIEMAG about his UFC beginnings, about Jamie Varner, his UFC 164 opponent, and about losing and gaining weight. Check it out.

GRACIEMAG.com:  With your 20th UFC fight approching, do you remember your debut? How was that time for you?

Gleison Tibau: I lived in Natal and had fought at Meca and other big Brazilian events. I went eight months without fighting because of lack of opponents. Then I ended up in ATT in the U.S. to try and get some international exposure, and within a month I had the opportunity of making my UFC debut in the welterweight division as a last-minute replacement to Nick Diaz’s opponent. I lost but the promoters enjoyed my performance. So I dropped back to my normal weight and thus began my journey in the UFC.

By the way, how do you go about losing and gaining weight for fights? Do you have a special diet?

I think what’s most important is not just regaining the weight, but doing it right so as to fight well. The weight loss is always under very strict rules, and it’s important not to get injured so you don’t have to take any meds that can mess up your diet. I lose 15kg for the weigh-in and gain 10 or 11kg the next day. Even my weight gaining has to be pretty strict. If I want to do it with full force, I can gain even 16kg in one day. I’m dieting even as I’m regaining weight.

So you have to put the brakes on your weight gain?

My genes help me a lot. I diet after the weigh-in in order to not gain too much weight. By regaining 10kg I get in the cage light and feeling well. One time I gained 16kg and felt heavy and lacked stamina. So I choose to regain less weight and I’m at 100 percent on fight day.

What do you deem the most important aspect of Jiu-Jitsu for an MMA fighter?

Jiu-Jitsu was a very important part of my life. Lately I’d been training no-gi for too long and I felt I was drifting from the essence of Jiu-Jitsu in my game. So for my last fight, against John Cholish, I tried a lot in the gi and I felt a big difference. I think every MMA fighter should train in the gi, it’s very important. So I trained a lot in the gi, I adjusted my game, I was able to get submissions. I think the great fighters can’t just put the gi aside. The gi discipline is very educational and gives you that thirst for learning more every day. It forces you to refine your technique and learn details. No other type of fighting can give you that.

How do you view Jamie Varner and what can this match give you in terms of UFC projection?

Varner has good pressure, good wrestling, and he’s a good boxer. He’s physically very strong, but I’ve looked at some of his fights and he makes Jiu-Jitsu errors. He’s been submitted a few times. So I’ll be honing my ground work and working toward getting a submission. I believe a victory over him will put me in the division’s top ten. He was a WEC champion and he fought all the top guys over there. I’m focused on that right now. Now I have that goal on my mind and I train every day thinking of the belt.

UFC 164

Milwaukee, USA

August 31, 2013

Ben Henderson vs TJ Grant

Frank Mir vs Josh Barnett

Chad Mendes vs Clay Guida

Erik Koch vs Dustin Poirier

Ben Rothwell vs Brandon Vera

Gleison Tibau vs Jamie Varner

Chico Camus vs Kyung Ho Kang

Soa Palelei vs Nikita Krylov

Louis Gaudinot vs Tim Elliott

Derek Brunson vs Yoel Romero

Jared Hamman vs Magnus Cedenblad

Pascal Krauss vs Hyun Gyu Lim