Boxing nutrition, by the data
What should a boxer eat?
We scored 2,591 foods for boxers. Scroll down, and the same map answers a different question each time.
2,591 foods
Every food, on one map
Every food a boxer might eat, laid out so foods made of similar stuff sit together: lean protein to the right, starchy carbs to the left, fats and oils up top, fruit and sweet things below. Scroll, and watch the map re-colour and zoom as the goal changes.
There are no axes here - a food's exact position has no fixed meaning. What matters is which foods sit close together.
Protein
Where the protein lives
Colour every food by how much of its energy is protein and one corner glows red: lean fish, white meat, egg, low-fat dairy. That is where you shop when every calorie has to earn its place.
Protein champions
The purest protein per calorie
Zoom right in and the leaders are eggs, haddock, flying fish and crab. Nearly all of their calories come from protein, which is why they anchor a making-weight plate.
- Eggs100% protein
- Haddock97% protein
- Flying fish97% protein
- Crab97% protein
- Cod96% protein
Making weight
Fight week: full on fewer calories
Protein keeps muscle - but fight week adds a second demand: feeling full on almost no calories. Score every food on both at once and a different set glows green, right across the same map: the lean, watery ones like white fish, egg white and leafy veg. They keep hunger down while the scale comes down.
Fight fuel
Weight made? Switch to carbs
Once the weight is made the enemy is an empty tank, and the fix is carbohydrate. Porridge oats, rice, pasta and bagels and other grains are the quick fuel you load in the days before a bout and on the day itself.
- Porridge oats69% carbs
- Rice90% carbs
- Pasta85% carbs
- Bagels80% carbs
- Bananas94% carbs
The trade-off
No food wins everything
Plot protein against fullness and the catch appears. The two things a boxer wants most rarely live in the same food: most sit at one extreme, and the corner that has both is nearly bare.
Closest to perfect
The five that come closest
That rare corner with both is not quite empty. The five that get closest: seaweed, prawns, shrimps, liver and eggs - high protein, filling, and dense in nutrients. No food is perfect, but these come near.
- SeaweedSuper 100
- PrawnsSuper 89
- ShrimpsSuper 81
- LiverSuper 74
- EggsSuper 73
Best value
Best value: cheap and lean
Cheap protein is easy to find - but the very cheapest, peanuts, hides 600 calories in 100 g. For a boxer the sweet spot is protein that is cheap AND lean: the bigger the dot here, the cheaper the protein. Dried pulses, chicken, tuna and turkey give the most for the least, while salmon and steak (the small dots) cost several times more.
- Lentils£1.16
- Chicken£3.48
- Tuna£3.67
- Turkey£3.94
- Salmon£9.52
- Beef£8.83
The cost of a calorie
Protein costs; carbs are cheap fuel
Size every priced food by what its calories cost. Carb staples - the big bubbles left and centre - are the cheapest energy there is, while most protein on the right is small: far dearer per calorie. The cheap exceptions: pulses, peanuts and eggs.
Your move
Now explore it yourself
That is the whole idea: one honest set of numbers, re-sorted for whatever the week demands. Now it is your turn - pick a goal and rank all 2,591 foods, search the live map for any food and its closest swaps, or see the cheapest protein on the board.
What does a calorie cost?
The price of every food we could price
The story sized a handful of foods by cost. Here is the whole priced board: every UK food with a real published average price, laid out by what it costs and grouped by food type. Switch between the cost of energy and the cost of protein.
Every priced food by what its calories cost. Refined carbs, fats and sugar are the cheapest fuel; lean protein and watery veg & fruit cost most per calorie.
Bigger dot = more protein per 100 g. Prices: 70 foods, ONS average shop prices to Jan 2025 (Open Government Licence); energy & protein from UK Government CoFID 2021. Hover any dot for the numbers.
Built from 2,591 edible foods in the UK Government CoFID 2021 dataset. General information for boxers, not medical or dietary advice. For a plan tailored to you, speak to a registered dietitian or your GP.