Attn: Wrestlers Re: Weight Cutting

Training Powerlifting
1

Ok, I began cutting weight to make 170 lbs for an upcoming BJJ tourney on August 12th in the middle of last week, like the 22nd or 23rd. My starting bw was 200, with a 36 inch waist. The abs were obviously blurry.
Basically, I had been eating like crap for a while…pizza, beer, cheesecake etc.

Now I am eating lean chicken, lean beef and ground beef, turkey and whey protien shakes for protien (I aim to get 150-200 grams a day).

For carbs, which I have reduced by quite a bit to about 80-100, I eat a little fruit but mostly veggies like carrots, corn, broccoli, lettuce and cabbage. I usually will have a slice of wheat toast in the morning.

For healthy fats, I eat a handful or two of natural, unsalted peanuts or (most of the time) almonds and have a very little bit of pb on my toast in the morning.

I am 19 and 6’1" and my walking weight was 190 this past thursday the 27th. I am lanky, not really ‘jacked out’. My waist is just over 34 inches. I am losing about a pound a day and the abs are becoming less blurry. I am wondering if I am doing this the right way.

I drink plenty of water (at least a gallon) and sometimes green tea. I have never really cut before (I don’t count making 185 which was nothing). I don’t believe 185 (the next class up) is my weight. At 200, I felt like crap and was retaining a lot of water.

At 190, I feel good. Yesterday, I just did 500 consecutive squats. So I don’t feel tired or weak. My thing is, I have had some wrestlers tell me not to cut so much, but on the other I have some BJJ guys telling me it’s entirely possible and I’d get used to it.

Sorry for the long-windedness here. What say you wrestlers ?

2

I think cutting 30lbs in a month is possible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you have considerable strenght and endurance losses. Especially since I have a feeling that the last few pounds will be water weight, and if weigh ins are that day, you probably won’t have time to re-hydrate fully before your matches.

For wrestling and boxing i have had to cut that much, and gave myself 2-3 months to do it and I noticed a few things:

My joints ached all of the time.
My strenght was severly impacted
my endurance lessened (which since I was carrying less weight, you would think the opposite).
I became a bleeder. I would get hit in the nose and it would just go forever.
My injuries went up.

If you feel like the weight loss is affecting you too much, you may want to move up a weight class for this one, and start earlier next time.

However, if you are hell bent, here are some options:

go on a liquid diet. They do work. They suck, but they work. I would pick a good protein power and use that. Slim fast is just sugar. (Just make sure one meal is real food and clean (good vegies, good protein; keep the pasta and rice out). Unless you’re not hitting the weoght, then its a small chicken breast (or broiled fish), and a salad with lemon juice (no dressing, fatty. You’re making weight.)

Grapefriut. Don’t know why, but it works if you eat it. Maybe it has less fructose, so the insulin spike is less??? Or maybe because you’re eating it instead of a candy bar…

Water, water, water. Until two weeks before, then start cuting it gradually. Right after weigh ins, drink gatorade, pedia lyte, or whatever to get hydrated and eletrolytes back into the system.

To drop that water weight: Got one of those plastic sweatsuit? Get one. Got access to a sauna room? Good. Start exercising in it. Get used to opressive heat. Oh, and get a buddy to make sure you don’t pass out and die. By the way, this is a stupid practice and no one sould do it.

Also, do yourself a favor and wash that suit after you use it and let it dry. You will thank me and everyone in smelling distance will thank you.

If you are lifting still, stop going for mass, and just try and keep your strenght up. I actually like Randy Coutures circuit, but thats me.

A little oil is good just for you, just to keep your joints semi-healthy. Emphasis on little.

Gpd luck. You can e-mail me if you want for more input.

3

Cutting weight for wrestling was the worst thing I ever did. I lost weight the wrong way (water weight) and was never able to perform the way I was capable. I was always sluggish, and not nearly as sharp mentally.

Looking back, being at a heavier weight was and is the best route. That being said, if you haven’t cut weight before, try it and you’ll see what I mean.

4

Dude, as long as you get down to 180 about a week prior to the competition, you could easily cut ten lbs of water weight. Usually the weigh-ins are a day before the actual competition. I’ll never forget the time I weighed myself a week before our first preseason tournament and I was 193, my coach started laughing his ass off because I was supposed to be wrestling 162…long and the short of it is I made it, but it wasn’t very fun.

5

Dude give the velocity diet a whirl. Back in wrestling days while other guys ran around the track endlessly and spit in a bottle all day (all water-weight and very catabolic) I would just drink them protein shakes. Sooooo much easier and strength doesn’t go down (even set a PR while on it) . The combined effect of liquid diet- for the most part- and weight training = around from 190 to 168 in about a month :slight_smile:

6

As a caveat to my earlier post, BJJ competitions usually have weigh-ins the day prior, during wrestling the weigh-ins were day of…while it is hard on the body to cut water weight, I still stand by that method, maybe not the fifteen or so pounds of water weight I dropped on top of starving myself all week in order to cut around 30 or so, but still cutting around 10 lbs is a minimum for most sports such as that.

7

Berardi’s got an e-book on this subject: The Grappler’s Guide to Sports Nutrition. I highly recommend it, as it has strategies for both calculated, long-duration cutting and quick’n’dirty down-to-the-wire weight drops. Give it a look-see.

8

Gentlemen, I am not cutting a lot of water weight, or at least not planning to. I wanna get to 178 or less before cutting the water. I figure I will be 175-178 before the sauna. I AM in fact eating, just not near as much.

Sparring and so forth hasn’t been much harder than normal. In fact, I am not hauling around that extra ten-twelve pounds and I feel better doing it.

The plan is to keep my weight at 188-191 from now on to make this cut easier in future.