Tips for Cutting Weight?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hey. Me and my housemate are having a little competition : who can cut the greatest % bodyweight in 1 month. Weigh-in will be 17 December. I am treating this as a cut at the moment, doing weights, intervals/hard cardio, fasted walks, eating no junk food, carb cycling.

I wonder what you guys would suggest for the period surrounding the weigh-in? I’ve never done a weight cut before. I have no need to box/wrestle/powerlift on the day, nor will I be wearing speedos (but let’s see where the day takes me!) So I’m literally looking for ideas about how to cut max weight…

Currently I had planned to:
Fast the day prior to weigh-in
Eat low carbs for a few days in the run-up ti weigh-in
Do depletion workouts
Cut water (at what time?)
Take some laxatives the day before/ maybe two days before to lose some ‘dead weight’.

Any tips/ suggestions? I’m open to change.

Stats: I weighed 186lbs this morning. ‘Semblance of abs’ lol - would estimate above 15% BF? I dunno
Doing weights 5x week, 2-3 conditioning workouts, 1 hr fasted walk daily.
Food: Carb cycling: 5 low days, 1 med, 1 high. Low: 150g C, 300g P, 40g C…med: as low but with 300g C, high: with 600g C, lower P to 200g.

Thanks guys

EDIT forgot to mention there’s been some SEVERE shit-talking from him, and there is a cash incentive…so want to win

2

Well, since it’s just weight and not fat, you’re probably better off not lifting and letting the muscle go as well.

3

http://velocity.T-Nation.com/free_online_program/sports_body_training_diet_velocity/velocity_diet_30

4

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
Well, since it’s just weight and not fat, you’re probably better off not lifting and letting the muscle go as well.[/quote]

I don’t want to do that.

5

I just had to make weight for a competition last Friday. I weighed 249 Sunday the 10th and 231.4 Friday afternoon. Going extremely low carb plus water loading will take a lot off in 4 or 5 days. Its not a fun way to lose weight and its only temporary, but it works if your goal is to win by any means. I will go in to more detail if you would like to try it.

6

I’m sure Professor X would have some good advice on “dropping weight” :wink:

7

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/how-ross-edgley-lost-12kg-in-24-hours/story-fneuzkvr-1226761474692

8

Start cutting sodium and start cutting water back gradually a couple days out.

I’ve dropped a few pounds pretty quick in high school to make weight for wrestling. I wouldn’t advise 4 layers of sweats and an hour of cardio with “quench” gum to induce spitting, but hey, it works. I’d personally just cut back on the water and sodium a bit leading up to it. If you get into the crazy stuff I don’t think it’s worth any negative health effects. I think if I tried any high school shenanigans now I’d probably die (srs).

9

[quote]Timmeh wrote:
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/how-ross-edgley-lost-12kg-in-24-hours/story-fneuzkvr-1226761474692

[/quote]

Good article. That’s what I’m saying. I know it’s transient weight loss. I actually look more like his ‘prune-like’ ‘after’ photo FML haha.

Lil mo/ others who’ve done it: this is what I’m planning to do in the week leading up:
Carbs at 50g/ day. Day before weigh-in, I’ll be on chicken salad and fish oil, and take some laxatives. PS I’m planning to do a morning weigh-in (and not as harsh as the sort mentioned in the article) - and don’t worry guys, I am not planning to die from this lol
Day-6: 8 litres water
Day-5: 6 litres water
Day-4: 4 litres water
Day-3: 3,litres
Day-2: 2 litres
Day before: 2 litres (cut water 8-10 hours before bed)

Training: will lower volume until ‘day-2’, and on that day, and maybe ‘day-1’ also, planned to do a high-rep full-body ‘depletion’ workout a la Lyle McD UD2.0…

What should I do with sodium/ electrolytes? I normally hold a lot of sub-Q water anyway (any idea why that may be/what to do?) and remember, there will be no performance aspect of this: just winning money off my mate who is a cocky shit lol. So I can feel like death for a minute, as long as I’m depleted.

Any ideas/ input appreciated guys. I know this is illusion/not fat loss…IDC It’s a bet. HOPING DENTIST X GETS IN ON THIS TO SHARE HIS WEIGHT-LOSS EXPERTISE

10

Ask Christian Bale.

This isn’t a great idea for a contest. Why not do it based off of body fat percentages instead of body weight?

11

Did you guys notice the measurements the guy in that linked article haad at the end of his 24 hour experiment? He lost 4" from each arm. That’s some serious dehydrating -lol. When I was last talking to a friend who trains several big name UFC fighters, he was telling me how they drop so much water weight in such a brief period, that they have to rely on IVs in order to get them back into actual fighting condition before their matches.

So I get that you don’t want to lose muscle if at all possible, and any water lost is going to be due to what you do at the end of your cutting period before weigh in, so no need to worry about that yet. Some people have hit some very good points, so I’ll just list a few of my own thoughts here, probably repeating a couple of things that have been said I guess.

-Ketogenic diets are the fasted way to lose fat. They also run the risk of muscle loss. Cyclical keto plans (CKDs) are probably your best bet to the quickest fat loss with ‘some’ concern for preserving muscle. Maybe not the most muscle, but better than starving yourself and intentionally losing LBM in the process.

-Intervals are key for carry-over effects from cardio. You can still have small amounts of carbs each day before these training sessions, which will not only make them more productive, but will essentially be completely used during the process, leaving your body relying more on fatty acid metabolism the rest of the day. Also, a nice combination of certain fat burning supplements (yohimbine, caffeine, tyrosine) or a preformulated product (HOT-ROX, Meltdown) can help a bit as well.

-Even if you’re in a caloric deficit, and are running very low carbs, excessive protein intake can prevent your body from realling dipping in to its fat stores. This is why I’ve had clients that face very difficult stalls lower their intake a bit (still getting enough though!), and fill the gaps in their daily calories with more fat.

-Don’t think you’re too hardcore for regular refeeds or slight bump ups. These serve a big purpose in terms of perventing (or at least minimizing) a lot of metabolic slowdown that comes from intense dieting.

S

12

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Did you guys notice the measurements the guy in that linked article haad at the end of his 24 hour experiment? He lost 4" from each arm. That’s some serious dehydrating -lol. When I was last talking to a friend who trains several big name UFC fighters, he was telling me how they drop so much water weight in such a brief period, that they have to rely on IVs in order to get them back into actual fighting condition before their matches.

So I get that you don’t want to lose muscle if at all possible, and any water lost is going to be due to what you do at the end of your cutting period before weigh in, so no need to worry about that yet. Some people have hit some very good points, so I’ll just list a few of my own thoughts here, probably repeating a couple of things that have been said I guess.

-Ketogenic diets are the fasted way to lose fat. They also run the risk of muscle loss. Cyclical keto plans (CKDs) are probably your best bet to the quickest fat loss with ‘some’ concern for preserving muscle. Maybe not the most muscle, but better than starving yourself and intentionally losing LBM in the process.

-Intervals are key for carry-over effects from cardio. You can still have small amounts of carbs each day before these training sessions, which will not only make them more productive, but will essentially be completely used during the process, leaving your body relying more on fatty acid metabolism the rest of the day. Also, a nice combination of certain fat burning supplements (yohimbine, caffeine, tyrosine) or a preformulated product (HOT-ROX, Meltdown) can help a bit as well.

-Even if you’re in a caloric deficit, and are running very low carbs, excessive protein intake can prevent your body from realling dipping in to its fat stores. This is why I’ve had clients that face very difficult stalls lower their intake a bit (still getting enough though!), and fill the gaps in their daily calories with more fat.

-Don’t think you’re too hardcore for regular refeeds or slight bump ups. These serve a big purpose in terms of perventing (or at least minimizing) a lot of metabolic slowdown that comes from intense dieting.

S[/quote]

Thanks Stu. So just to clarify from what you wrote and what I know of your training ideology anyway:

Do a CKD, possibly emphasise fat above protein, remember to refeed - maybe like the Anabolic diet? Or the Jamie Lewis Predator diet? At the moment I tend to emphasise low-fat protein such as baked chicken breast, eat ‘clean’ carbs mostly and have to remember to yam down fish/coconut/olive oil to supplement my fat intake.
And you like to do just a few HIIT/ similar per week don’t you?

13

As far as downing coconut oil, I found that a good tasting extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil (is that name long enough?) works really well with green tea. It melts into the liquid and the flavors go pretty well together.

Eggs with plenty of butter, and heavily marbled steak also worked well for me to get plenty of fats in.

14

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
-Intervals are key for carry-over effects from cardio.[/quote]

What do you mean by “carry-over effects”?

15

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Did you guys notice the measurements the guy in that linked article haad at the end of his 24 hour experiment? He lost 4" from each arm. That’s some serious dehydrating -lol.[/quote]
No joke. Looks like some kind of year-long bulking transformation, notomuch a month of cutting weight.

OP, I’d spend the next few weeks researching weigh-in strategies from fighters and lifters and see what clicks for you. I know Matt Kroc and Tim Ferriss (surprisingly) have written articles about dropping 20-30 pounds in a day. Nate Green’s “Bigger, Smaller, Bigger” had him dropping 21 pounds in five days. And I’m sure there have been threads about it in the Combat and Powerlifting forums here.

In the meantime, in addition to the training/nutrition tweaks already mentioned, maybe try cutting back on common “allergens” (like dairy and wheat). Some people see pretty quick weight loss on elimination/detox-type diets.

Out of curiosity, would you say your roommate is in better or worse shape than you right now? As in, with all his hype, does he actually have a chance of putting up a challenge?

16

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

SUGGESTIONS
.

Out of curiosity, would you say your roommate is in better or worse shape than you right now? As in, with all his hype, does he actually have a chance of putting up a challenge?[/quote]

Thanks Chris, yeah the Nate thing on TF’s blog was interesting. I think I’m good with: 1) dieting as per my current plan (which is based around non-allergenic foods IME such as the aforementioned, potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice and celery mainly
2) Week before weigh-in: cut carbs, water taper. If I need/want to, then hot baths/ binbag cardio in the morning before my housemate wakes up.

And as to challenge: that’s the thing. I let him use my weights, never rub my lifting #s in his face, encourage good diet and training habits…and the dude is a whiny bitch!! Lol there’s some mythical past where he could ‘lift RIDICULOUS WEIGHT’ like for example the dude would have you believe he clean and pressed 300lbs… Hardly. I am gonna use this as a ‘be quiet and just work hard’ kind of lesson which incidentally earns me £. Friendly competition…still though I want to WINNNN lol

17

[quote]dannyrat wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
Well, since it’s just weight and not fat, you’re probably better off not lifting and letting the muscle go as well.[/quote]

I don’t want to do that. [/quote]
Then why are you taking part in this extremely catabolic challenge? You’re going to lose muscle if you intentionally dehydrate.

18

[quote]dannyrat wrote:
Thanks Stu. So just to clarify from what you wrote and what I know of your training ideology anyway:

Do a CKD, possibly emphasise fat above protein, remember to refeed - maybe like the Anabolic diet? Or the Jamie Lewis Predator diet? At the moment I tend to emphasise low-fat protein such as baked chicken breast, eat ‘clean’ carbs mostly and have to remember to yam down fish/coconut/olive oil to supplement my fat intake.
And you like to do just a few HIIT/ similar per week don’t you? [/quote]

Well, I certainly wouldn’t suggest not eating enough protein to support your lean muscle and I’m not really familiar with specific high fat diets, but if your body is prone to covert extra aminos into glucose (in the absence of available carbohydrate sources), you may need to keep a lid on how much you’re getting in order to reap the full fat burning benefits of ketogenic approach.

As to my comment about interval work having more of a carry-over effect, I was refering to how such an approach has been shown to not merely keep your metabolic rate elevated longer after a session, but also improve your body’s ability to process glycogen when training and fatty acids when at rest. This is in contrast to the people that do a bout of steady state work, and burn say 200 calories during their session. Once they’ve finished, there’s not as much of an after effect in regard to their metabolic processes. (I wasn’t trying to compicate things, just describe my reasoning)

And yes, I usually only do 2 HIT sessions per week when cutting.

S

19

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
As to my comment about interval work having more of a carry-over effect, I was refering to how such an approach has been shown to not merely keep your metabolic rate elevated longer after a session, but also improve your body’s ability to process glycogen when training and fatty acids when at rest. This is in contrast to the people that do a bout of steady state work, and burn say 200 calories during their session. Once they’ve finished, there’s not as much of an after effect in regard to their metabolic processes. (I wasn’t trying to compicate things, just describe my reasoning)
[/quote]

Thanks for that explanation. I knew about elevating the metabolic rate, but not about the effects on glycogen and fatty acids.