A Real Thai Fighter's Diet..??

When you look at authentic Muay Thai fights from Thailand you can't help but be impressed by the conditioning of the fighters. It seems that pound for pound that Thai fighters have more muscle mass than other Asian fighters despite their relatively short height. Is this because of diet? What exactly do Thai camps feed their fighters and how much does beef protein play a part in it?

lol @ "skinny" nutrition.

Very little. :)

In order of the average meal I shared with kids in the camp:

Rice.

Veggies.

Meat.

Eggs.

Mostly rice and vegetables, from what I've seen they don't eat anything special.

They eat maybe 2 or three times/ day. Rice, fruit, vegetables, fish/ meat eggs. They run every morning and train pads/bag/clinch 4-6 hours every day.

If you say you think it's healthy to eat 5-6 times/ day when you train, they either 1. make fun of you because you're "fat" 2. Laugh at you because they seriously believe that you are joking or 3. listen very closely and seriously and conclude that you have some special disease that means you have to eat more often than normal people.

What they eat is basically healthy but it's too little of everything. If you ask me it's a miracle that they can fight at all.

I don't think they have "more muscle mass". Thai diets don't have that much protein. The key is their relentless training which give them great conditioning and I suppose makes them look ripped (very low body fat). If you look at the Sanda vs Muay Thai fights, the Thais do not look more muscular than the Chinese though.

In general I found people in Thailand ate MUCH
less than Americans do. Portions are very small
in homes and restaurants and thai people really
don't eat things like cheese, creams, etc.

Rice and Vegatables sounds so good right now...

I would venture to say most countries in the world eat much less than Americans...

agreed, KK. Most people who come over here from other countries are really blown away by the portions that are served at restaurants.

They eat a strict diet of saw dust, from all those trees they kick down.... Bart

Iceberg Slim`s post concurs with my visits to Thailand. Thai boxers are definitely not as good as they are because of their diet, but rather in spite of their diet, IMO.

In response to "Asian countries eating less than Americans", I`m Canadian myself and living in Japan right now. My first month here I was hungry almost every day because of the small portions of food served here (excluding, of course, buffets). Back home I could buy food in bulk, like 4 litres of milk or 1.2 kg of cereal. Here, I have to buy about 4 or 5 one litre cartons of milk and 4 or 5 boxes of 210g of cereal. On the other hand, it`s hard not to notice how much lower the percentage of obese people in Japan is...

Lautaro