Mat Fraser’s Diet & Training

Mat Fraser has a long history with fitness, having won his first national title at the age of 13. 

He’s overcome huge obstacles both in sport and in his personal life to become a four-time CrossFit Games champion and has refined his training and nutrition over many years.

Here, Built for Athletes takes a look at how Fraser eats and trains day in day out

What Mat Fraser Eats

Mat Fraser has a very simple philosophy when it comes to nutrition.

He doesn’t count macros or calories, but knows roughly how much he should be eating to fuel different phases of his training, and tries to make sure he sticks to good-quality, unprocessed foods.

“Right after a competition, when I take my off-season and I’m not training at all, I’m eating maybe one or two meals a day,” he told BarBend earlier this year. 

“Then when I start ramping back up, I’m only training once a day, so I’m probably hitting three or four thousand calories. 

“And when I’m in full swing, my only purpose in the day is I wake up and everything is directed toward training, that’s when the calories increase to six or seven thousand calories.

“You know what food’s good for you and what food’s bad for you. I hardly ever eat at restaurants or anything like that. Basically, if food comes in a package, I’m not eating too much of it. It’s mainly just meat, vegetables a ton of rice, and probably a good amount of fruit too.”

How Mat Fraser Trains

A key pillar of CrossFit is variable training, and this is something Fraser takes extremely seriously.

He doesn’t stick to a standard formula of doing strength-based workouts in the morning and then cardio during the afternoon or evening. He mixes it up every day.

“There’s a handful of guys who have a 300-lb snatch. But if they go run a mile and then try to snatch, they’re going to snatch 250,” Fraser previously told Men’s Journal.

Fraser also makes a point of working on his weaknesses.