Should You Eat Before a Wrestling Match? What Should Wrestlers Eat?

According to a study from The Physician and Sports Medicine, 37% of the wrestlers were not meeting their recommended calorie and nutrition intake allowance. Nutrition is essential to Wrestlers, especially if they want to perform at full performance. However, this leads to many questions, such as whether they should eat before a match and, if they should, what foods they should eat.

Generally speaking, wrestlers should not eat right before a match since it doesn’t give enough time for the stomach to digest the food, which can cause people to vomit while in a match. Thus, it is recommended for wrestlers to eat 1-3 hours before a match to allow their stomachs to digest the food.

This blog post will discuss when wrestlers should and shouldn’t be eating. We would also look at the foods they should eat and drink to achieve maximum performance based on scholarly journals and studies.

Should Wrestlers Eat and Drink Before Wrestling?

As a general rule, wrestlers should eat and drink 1-3 hours before a match, giving enough time for their body to digest and absorb its nutrients. Furthermore, it is recommended that wrestlers eat during this time frame to achieve peak performance while in a match.

Of course, weigh-ins are a different story.

Generally speaking, wrestlers shouldn’t eat before weigh-ins since they need to fit into their respective weight classes. However, people who do not have problems with weight control can eat low-calorie foods such as berries, soups, eggs, oats, and fish.

Also, diet before weigh-ins has a minimal impact on the actual match. What matters are the things we eat after the weigh-in.

Most wrestlers go on a diet before a match, and some don’t eat solid foods for some time to lose a lot of weight.

Thus, after weighing in, it isn’t recommended to binge eat as it could overwork your digestive system.

The best start is slowly refilling the lost water weight by drinking water. The question is, how much?

Wrestlers should drink water at 0.1 ounces per pound (6ml per kilogram) before a match to refill the water they lost during their diet. It is also a good idea to drink water with electrolytes after weigh-ins.

A study from the European Journal of Fitness, Nutrition and Sports Medicine found that Consuming electrolytes from energy drinks 10-60 minutes before exercise can improve focus, alertness, anaerobic performance, and aerobic exercise performance.

This means we can perform better if we refill our lost electrolytes before a match.

Of course, drinking water with electrolytes doesn’t have any calories or energy we could use for matches.

Thus, after drinking water, it is time to refill our bodies with proper nutrition before the match.

However, do not eat anything 30 minutes before a match as there might not be enough time to digest them, which can cause people to vomit.

Also, do not over-eat, as it might cause people to crash and feel lethargic.

I know how tempting it is to eat a lot after dieting, but it would only decrease our performance before the match.

Eating after a weigh-in and before a match is crucial because we need to have enough calories for maximum strength and endurance.

According to the University of Rochester, a 160lb person loses 432 calories per hour of wrestling. Therefore, we must find a way to store this many calories before a match.

Thus, what foods should we take 1-3 hours before a Wrestling match? Let’s talk about that next.

What Foods Should Wrestlers Eat Before a Match?

What should Wrestlers Eat Before a Match?

The best foods to eat before a wrestling match are foods that have low to medium glycemic indexes, such as vegetables, nuts, seeds, unrefined grains, raw fruits, and lean meat. Some partially processed foods such as Peanut Butter and Fruit Jam work. High glycemic index foods such as mashed potato or boiled rice should be avoided.

It is worth noting that we should stay away from high glycemic index foods as many research papers report a decrease in athletic performance from eating these foods. We will talk about these studies later.

According to the glycemic index foundation, High glycemic index foods have a glycemic index of more than 70.

Here is a simple table summary of a low, medium, and high glycemic index food.

	Glycemic Index
Low Glycemic Index	55 or less
Medium Glycemic Index	56 – 69
High Glycemic Index	70 or more

So, what are examples of high GI foods?

Here are examples of High Glycemic Index foods to avoid according to Harvard Medical School:

Food	Average Glycemic Index
Boiled White Rice	73
White wheat bread	75
Corn Flakes	81
Rice Porridge	78
Instant Oats	79
Mashed Potato	87
Boiled Potato	78

Foods with a High Glycemic Index that aren’t recommended for Wrestlers

This doesn’t mean that wrestlers should avoid all these foods altogether. This means that they shouldn’t eat these foods before a match.

A study from the Journal of Applied Physiology found a significant improvement in exercise time when a moderate-GI meal is ingested 45 min before exercise.

This study was a very impressive study looking at not only the athlete’s performance but also blood tests and muscle analysis.

In fact, a separate study supports this.

A study from the Department of Sports Science at Kyushu Kyoritsu University found that ingestion of a high carbohydrate, low glycemic index meal improved sprint performance in female athletes.

Thus, aside from staying away from high glycemic index foods, we should focus on eating low to moderate GI foods.

But what are examples of this food? Let’s go back to some examples shown by Harvard Medical School.

Foods	Glycemic Index
Corn tortilla	46
Barley	28
Sweet corn	52
Spaghetti, white	49
Raw Apple	36
Raw Orange	43
Raw Banana	51
Raw Mango	51
Raw Dates	42
Vegetable Soup	48
Skim Milk	37
Lentils	32
Chickpeas	28

Recommended Foods for Wrestlers with their corresponding Glycemic Index.

Alright, that’s a lot, and there are more foods than the ones on this table.

So, here is a general rule.

Wrestlers should eat low to medium glycemic index foods before a match, such as beans, vegetables, fruits, and meat, for better performance.

Here are some meal examples wrestlers should eat before a match.

Eggs (poached/scrambled/boiled), spinach, avocado, wholegrain/sourdough toast
Bircher muesli, Greek yogurt, berries
Smoothie with fresh fruit, mall handful of nuts or seeds, spinach/kale (Any vegetable of choice)
Omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and tomato, wholegrain/sourdough toast
Wrap, lean meat or cheese, salad
Garden salad, roast vegetables, mixed legumes, chopped almonds
Garden salad, grilled chicken or tinned tuna or tofu, drizzle extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable soup, ham and cheese toast on wholegrain/sourdough bread
Grilled lean meat, chargrilled vegetables, or salad
Grilled fish with baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, and asparagus
Curries made with lean meat, milk, and lots of vegetables

With these foods, you can expect peak performance in your matches based on Scientific studies. Good luck!

What’s next? If you like watching Wrestling matches, did you notice the blood and injuries are becoming rarer? What caused this? Is the blood we are seeing on those pro wrestling matches real? If you’re interested in finding these out, you may check this post: Are the blood and injuries of Pro Wrestling Real?

Scholarly Article References: