Lucas Catta: "Every MMA athlete goes through a cyclical journey that involves different needs."
- Luzia Stibich
- Oct 14, 2023
- 6 min read
This Brazilian coach talks about nutrition, current events in the world of wrestling, and the case of Viviane Araujo.
Nutritionist and wrestling coach Lucas Catta Preta (Brasilia, Brazil/1996) is an expert in striking, the striking aspect in the world of MMA. He has also developed an educational line on food and nutrition to guide the routine performance from beginners to advanced nutrition for high-performance athletes. He focuses on working comprehensively in a cycle of positive and sustainable habits throughout life, whether the client is an athlete or someone who simply wants to take control of their health and achieve significant results in their routine.
Catta Preta began his career from childhood; at just 2 years old, his family introduced sports into his life, including martial arts such as judo, karate, Brazilian capoeira, and others. Since then, this landscape has never left his day-to-day life until he achieved his black belt graduation in Muay Thai at the Cerrado MMA academy in Brasilia, Brazil.
Thanks to the education he received, he immersed himself in a context of natural eating, alternative medicine, and sports practices, even in a time when eating healthy was not yet conventional. Later, at the academy, he had the opportunity to put all his theory into practice as a nutritionist and impactful coach with the wrestling athletes alongside the professional team.
”Step by step, without hurry and without pause.”
Is it enough to be a nutritionist to guide these athletes, or does it require something more?
Understanding nutrition alone is not sufficient. It is necessary to have training and theoretical understanding in scientific literature on the subject and in the specific martial art, along with understanding each phase the athlete goes through. In this sport, there's something I call the "athlete's journey" where different phases with specific needs and demands are involved.
The goal is to understand the context and stage of life, habits, and goals of my client, whether in nutrition or wrestling. This way, I can build a safe path with a set of strategies, gradually leading them to where they want to go, step by step, without haste and without pause. Ensuring that along the way, they acquire knowledge in health and performance and gain autonomy to better understand themselves and develop the ability to navigate.
It's also essential to understand the practical context in which the athlete operates, such as the systematization and training routine, energy demands, physical preparation period, rehabilitation, among others. Therefore, the nutritionist needs to deeply understand the universe in which the wrestler exists.
"UFC fighters Vicente Luque and Viviane Araujo are examples of professionalism and discipline."
What are the biggest challenges you have faced when training a fighter?
It's common for some athletes initially not to have a strong commitment to food. Many times, they come with inappropriate eating behaviors, leading them to carry much more weight than recommended during the "off-season," especially when they have a competition approaching quickly and a significant amount of weight to lose.
But as the athlete gets used to nutritional work, learns about proper nutrition, and incorporates a healthy and balanced lifestyle, this imbalance is corrected, and it becomes much easier to lose weight.
UFC fighters Vicente Luque and Viviane Araújo are examples of professionalism and discipline in this regard. Additionally, working with a sports psychologist greatly contributes to the success of these behaviors. In terms of training, I don't see difficulties; in fact, it's often necessary to simplify, work on a refined and well-executed technical foundation.
In Viviane Araujo's case, how was her dehydration process carried out?
Araujo underwent a very straightforward and non-exhausting dehydration process. Since her deadlift weight is usually only slightly higher than her fighting weight (approximately 5 kg above), through her diet, she gets very close to her weight category, and we generally leave 2 to 2.5 kg to be eliminated in a dry sauna. This method promotes more efficient water elimination than a wet sauna, making it a peaceful process for her well-being.
How do you analyze the performance change in an MMA athlete when a new diet is added to their nutrition?
Individualized nutrition aims to optimize the physical and systemic functions of the athlete. Through the nutritional software I use, combined with scientific literature knowledge and strategies for nutrition and supplementation that are proven to enhance performance, it's possible to create a context where the body has more energy availability, a high nutritional and antioxidant content to promote good muscle recovery, quality sleep, and stress management.
Through regular consultations and anamnesis, including body composition, symptoms, and evaluation of systemic health, performance, and well-being parameters, such as sleep quality, restoration, and depth, fatigue time in training, increased loads, strength and endurance gain in physical preparation, efficient recovery between two workouts on the same day, among others.
When training women, how does menstruation affect their nutritional intake and performance?
Each phase of the menstrual cycle will promote different physiological contexts, with hormonal fluctuations throughout the cycle, hormones that also regulate total body water. In the follicular phase, for example, with the peak of estrogen, there is an increase in interstitial fluid, associated with sodium retention, causing women to retain more water during this period and experience greater weight.
While there are already evidenced physiological conditions in some studies, each woman will have a unique functioning, so it's important to assess the need to include specific foods and supplements for each case, whether to reduce retention or alleviate symptoms such as cramps, pain, or impact on performance.
"Each one reflects a standard somatotype of height and body composition."
Is it realistic for a strawweight to achieve middleweight in a healthy way?
This generally doesn't happen. It's not common for athletes to move up or down so many weight categories. When an athlete moves up or down, it's usually one category below or one above, and the athlete aims to establish themselves, progress, and reach the pinnacle of that category. Each weight class reflects a standard somatotype of height and body composition. In other words, a strawweight or flyweight would hardly achieve middleweight in a healthy way.
For an athlete to move up or down a weight class, they need to undergo a process of body recomposition, manipulating both fat and lean mass through a combination of specific nutrition and physical exercises that stimulate muscle fibers and achieve a composition suitable for the characteristics of that weight class.
What measures should be taken if the athlete fails to reach an ideal weight days before the official weigh-in for a competition?
Extending the period of dietary restriction during the fight week, a diet we call "cut" or "acute weight loss." Extending, for example, from 5 to 7 days to 7 to 10 days before the weigh-in, so that the athlete reaches the dehydration phase one day before the weigh-in with a weight as close as possible to 5 to 8% above the weight class. These levels are scientifically considered safer for this practice, without negative effects on performance loss or health risks.
It's always necessary to do the best with the reality at hand, minimizing negative effects and applying strategies that the athlete will be able to carry out. When there is a significant amount of weight to reduce in the fight week, the presence of the nutritionist is crucial with the athlete to ensure a safe and effective result.
"The athlete doesn't need to be fast all the time but to create a solid foundation of physical fitness."
How does a man's average weight affect his punching speed?
An interesting aspect of this is that we not only consider the total body weight itself but what makes up that weight: the ratio between muscle and fat, and also the level of readiness of these muscles to produce speed or power, which is one of the main stimuli in fighting. However, an important factor is the phase of the physical period in which the athlete finds himself. For example, when they're in the off-season, they're usually in a strength phase, which makes them stronger but slower.
As the training phases progress, from off to camp, there is a transition from strength training to power training. It is the period when the body is more inclined to produce speed with strength, thus generating greater punch acceleration. Alongside fighting, the focus shifts to endurance and circuits, where the aim is to preserve the strength and power that was produced and enhanced in the earlier phases.
This is the work of the strength and conditioning coach— referring here to Vitor Alonso, a coach for professional athletes in Brasilia, with whom I collaborate. In conclusion, the athlete doesn't need to be fast all the time but to create a solid foundation of physical fitness, along with nutrition, to enter the fight with excellent preparation and achieve goals beyond the average.
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