Kenny Florian’s nutrition consultant George Lockhart says "the weight cut wasn’t really drastic"

George Lockhart has served in the Marine Corps for over nine years and has fought professionally for ten. He specializes in designing performance diets and has worked with the likes of Jon Jones, Brian Stann, and many other Greg Jackson fighters.

For UFC 131, George played a big role in helping Kenny Florian reach his goal of 145lbs for his debut Featherweight bout with Diego Nunes. I had the chance to chat with the Marine and he schooled us in the art of weight cutting.

You’ve served in the Marines for nine years, have fought professional yourself, and currently you’re also a combat conditioning instructor and Martial Arts trainer. How did you become a performance consultant and what do you do in your job exactly?
When it comes to nutrition a lot of my job entails not only getting people spun up in the Martial Arts aspect, but to also help marines that are overweight, underweight or injured. What I do is try to help get them back on track as soon as possible.

Right now I’m a Martial Arts instructor / trainer at the MACE (Martial Arts Center of Excellence) it’s kind of like the hub of the Marine core.  I also work a lot with fighters to help out with their nutrition and weight cut. There are no schools out there for weight cutting and it’s a whole new realm in terms of performance nutrition.

With UFC 131 just around the corner one of your clients Kenny Florian is making his Featherweight debut. When Kenflo first started out he fought at Middleweight and over the years has dropped three weight classes. How difficult is it to drop that much weight and what kind of changes in his diet did he need to make?
With Kenny the weight cut wasn’t really drastic in terms of how much weight he had to lose. The biggest thing was just finding out what his body needs and giving him exactly what he needed and at the right time. A lot of people disagree with the fact that’s he’s cutting weight and getting stronger, but it’s very true. It actually happens to a lot of people we work with. I know this sounds kind of out of the norm, but a lot of people have a lot ‘useless’ muscle. You can get an Olympic wrestler who is 132lbs and he can be more powerful than a guy who is 250lbs.

What it is you have to harness and feed the muscle that you need to use. The muscle that you don’t need, all it does is soak up a lot of oxygen. You get a lot of guys that are just mountains of muscle and they gas very quickly. They are not as explosive or powerful as they look.

You’ve worked with names like Jon Jones and fellow Marine Brian Stann. In your opinion who had the most difficult time cutting weight?
When I worked with Jon Jones he was such an easy cut. He’s a young guy which makes things really simple. Everyone has a different body type and everyone has their own unique challenges. Over the years I’ve been able to find out what those challenges are. Jon being a young guy is such a cake walk, the cut was almost too easy.

Brian Stann he’s such an easy guy too because he’s so disciplined. His first weight cut he was a little bit nervous because the week before this one fight he hit the scales really heavy. I reassured him that the weight would come right off and it just fell right off of him. Having never cut weight before he felt great and did really well against Mike Massenzio in his Middleweight debut.

With all the weight cuts I’ve ever done, when I cut Dustin Poirier down to 145 we did it in only 28 days. First time he ever fought in the UFC, first time fighting at 145. I won’t tell you exactly how much he weighed but he lost around close to 30 pounds. For a lighter guy that’s a lot of weight, for a bigger guy you got a lot of weight to lose because of the ratio. For lighter guys it’s a lot more difficult.

You’re in tip-top shape and you know what kind of food to put into your body. What is your favorite kind of food to eat and occasionally do you have junk food cravings?
Ya every now and then, but my cheats are different from the average person. I kind of view and treat my body like a vehicle, like a Lamborghini. The performance is great, everything is running smoothly, but you want to put water into the gas tank? It just never made sense to me to have a day dedicated to just eating crap. My cheat days would consist of me still eating healthy foods but in a higher ratio. Putting back the necessary nutrients I need and refuelling my body after dieting hard.

We know you just don’t help out marines and professional fighters, but the general public can seek out your services as well. Where can our readers find out information from you if they need improving their diet?
You guys can check out forfightersbyfighters.com. We help everybody. I have group of people that work for me and work with me. The principles for our methods all stay same. We’ve done guys who’ve done bodybuilding shows. We got people who cut 100lbs; I even have one guy who moved into my house he went from 420lbs to 240lbs in three and a half months! It’s crazy, its life changing it’s not only is it the physical aspect, but the psychological aspect as well and people have more confidence.

The reason I’m so passionate about this is because when I was younger I was obese. I had a lot of weight issues growing up. I didn’t know how to eat and I liked to eat a lot. I started self-educating myself and learning what to eat and how to eat it. I lost the weight and can understand where people are coming from.

I’m a fighter; I want to help out fighters. I’m a marine; I want to help out Marines, law enforcement, and other military. But I also want to help out regular people who just want to lose weight and improve their lifestyle.

Ryan’s note: I just would like to say congratulations and all the best to George. Him and his wife just had a new born baby and also congrats to him for finishing his service with the Marine Corps. You can follow George on Twitter @lockloaded and check out forfightersbyfighters.com. Special thanks to Kelly Crigger from Alchemist for helping set this up!