LAS VEGAS – When Amir Khan usually touches down here in Las Vegas on the week of a big fight, he does so feeling excited, perhaps nervous – but certainly hungry.
The 29-year-old has become well accustomed to the arduous task of making weight during an 11-year professional career which has spanned three weight classes until now, never mind the amateur days when he would sometimes have to make weight every day.
But on Saturday, when Khan faces Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at the new T-Mobile Arena, he will reach far across the weight divide to challenge for the WBC middleweight title, eight pounds above his usual 147lb fighting weight.
The decision has meant an overhaul to the Bolton man’s training regime but, more pertinently, his diet as he attempts to pack on the pounds to cope with the heavier challenge of Alvarez.
It has meant that Khan has arrived on this famous strip of the Nevada desert well satiated for the first time with a new body-builder syle diet now allowing him to walk around at around 160lbs before a small, straight-forward cut to the 155lb catchweight for Friday’s weigh-in.
Here, Amir Khan takes Sport360 through his new diet in his own words.
THE DIET
“Okay so a sample day would go something like this: I will wake up in the morning and have a good breakfast of oatmeal, a vegetable juice and some eggs.
“I like to balance the carbs and the protein for all the meals so that breakfast is perfect.
“Lunch time at about midday I will have one of my shakes, which is full of protein and other nutrients as well as a meal of a salad, vegetables with sweet potato and then a salmon or steak.
“Then at tea time – sort of mid-afternoon – I will eat again, I’ll have a vegetable salad with another shake. Then at dinner time I will eat a proper meal, something like a chicken steak with some pasta and vegetables.”
THE OUTCOME
“I’ve never trained this hard in my life in terms of sheer physical output, which has been very hard.
“I’ve been doing new things in conditioning and strength work but at the same time the reason I coped with it is because the diet has changed a bit.
“Usually I’m cutting weight but this time I’m not going to be cutting weight so I’ve been eating plenty to push myself very hard in the gym.
“It’s all about eating the right stuff at the right time and that doesn’t change. I just eat more now, to get more energy. When I fight or go into the gym I have extra energy and that is showing in how hard I am working.”
THE DIFFERENCE
“Many boxers would eat a lot less than I now am as they attempt to get the weight off.
“Personally, in the past I would start cutting out the carbs a lot earlier in camp but this time I can keep the carbs high. Obviously that’s where the energy comes from.
“When I was making 140 and then also 147 I would still be eating a bit but I would reduce the food massively during the week of a fight. I would hardly eat anything and I’d have to watch what I was drinking too.
“Now I can keep super hydrated all the time and eat at the right time. Sometimes just knowing you can eat helps your body feel good. This can only help on fight night when I’m in the ring.”
