Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Reid is now based in the United States where he works as a senior scientist with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute at their laboratory in Florida on the IMG Academy campus. Reid is currently involved with a variety of research streams focusing on energy expenditure, sleep and hydration.

Prior to moving to the US, Reid completed a PhD supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast, based at the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, where he worked as a sports dietitian with Olympic combat sport athletes. A portion of Reid’s PhD work saw him awarded with a young investigator award from the European College of Sports Science (2016). Reid’s research interests centre on body composition management and applied combat sports nutrition, in particular the area of acute weight loss and recovery.

As a practitioner, Reid has experienced working with a variety of weight category sport athletes including competitors and medallists from Judo, amateur and professional Boxing, Taekwondo, Wrestling, kickboxing/muay thai, Brazilian jiu jitsu, mixed martial arts and weightlifting; at the Olympic Games, Commonwealth games, continental and world championship level.

In this podcast, Reid and I discussed making weight in combat sports.

Some of the things we discuss are:

(03:20): What are some of the challenges working with athletes which frequently have to make weight to compete in their sport?

(08:30): What are some of the methods that combat sport athletes use for weight loss?

(14:20): One of the strategies is water loading, can you tell us more about that?

(23:30): Regain in bodyweight following weigh-ins has been linked with success in combat sport. I know you did a study on this, could you please tell us more about your findings?

(29:00):As coaches, how can we safely help the athletes make weight without it having negative consequences for their health?

(35:20): What is the take home message?

Reviews:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...

Links:

http://combatsportsnutrition.com