Cutting Weight
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am a fitness advocate, Marine Martial Arts Instructor, former Body Builder and Certified Fitness Trainer by ISSA. Any of the techniques listed below when used improperly can badly injure or kill you. Consult your doctor before beginning any weight cutting or fitness regimen.
Making weight has two phases. Long term and short term.
In the long term, weight and body composition change through training and diet. Regardless of your training/cross-training regimine (CrossFit, Body For Life, sparring, mixed, etc…) or diet (Zone, Body For Life, South Beach, etc…) your body will condition itself to the tasks that you present it.
Body Composition: Through training and diet muscle mass will be maintained or increase, and body fat will be maintained or decrease. Train hard, eat smart, and you will experience positive results. That being said, on fight day, if you are a man you want to be right around 10% body fat, and if you are a woman you want to be around 12% to 14% body fat. These body fat percentages tend to maximize performance for combat sports.
For the short term, we get away from improving overall body composition and address ‘cutting weight’. Why cut weight? Generally speaking, fighting a smaller guy is better than fighting a bigger guy. If you weigh in as a ‘smaller guy’ you will fight smaller guys, which means you will be more likely to win. Of course, everybody knows this, so, everybody cuts weight. At this point it becomes a question of:
1) How much can someone cut?
2) How much of a price will someone pay in PERFORMANCE?
As a serious competitor, cut the amount of weight required to weigh-in to achieve a size disparity between you and your opponent, WHILE preserving maximum athletic performance.
Before moving on, let’s summarize what we have so far. In the long term, change your body composition through training, cross-training and proper dieting. Then, in the short term, before a competition, ‘cut weight’ so that you weigh-in to a bracket/class below your actual weight. All the while preserving maximum athletic performance.
Planning to properly cut weight:
First, get your head right. What are you cutting weight for? Is this your first BJJ tourney? Your first MT match? Your first time ever trying to cut weight? Your second pro fight? What I’m saying is you need to make a risk/benefit analysis before you choose to cut. I’ve got a news flash for you… if you’re competing in a non-rated local blue belt tournament, and try to ‘cut a ton of weight’ to get into a lower bracket, you’re wasting your time. If this is your first amateur MMA fight, and you ‘cut a ton of weight’, you’re jeopardizing your performance to fight a slightly smaller guy. The trade off sucks. The way I look at it, if this fight isn’t your profession, or a stepping stone towards that, is DON’T try to cut a lot of weight.
Second, understand the timeline. How much time is there between your weigh-in and your competition. If it is more than about 20 to 24 hours then you can dabble in short term weight cutting. Anything less than that and I wouldn’t fool with it.
Third, you will need to practice. As with everything in the fight game, don’t ever use ‘new stuff’ on game day. No new punches, submissions, sweeps, strategies…. Do all of that during your work up. Cutting weight is the same way. The first time you cut weight should not be when it matters. PRACTICE FIRST! People respond differently to cutting, so figure out how you will respond before it matters or else you run the risk of flushing a perfect training cycle right down the crapper.
Fourth, understand your target. If you try to cut much more weight than 8% to 10% of your total bodyweight then you are entering dangerous territory. Not that you can’t get the weight off, but you may not be able to put the water back into your system before game time. Poor hydration means poor performance!
Fifth, know what will happen if you screw up. In the UFC fight between Travis Lutter and Anderson Silva (February 3, 2007), Lutter not only failed to make weight, he cut either too much or with improper technique. This resulted Silva submitting Lutter via triangle choke in round 2. I am convinced that Lutter failed to adequately and intelligently cut weight which resulted in him ‘running out of steam’. So, you must be careful as this is powerful magic.
The science of short term cutting weight:
Short term weight cutting takes place 1 week prior to your weigh-in. As you taper training, you ramp up cutting. This secret is to ‘trick’ your body into thinking that super hydration is the new norm. Then, when you stop drinking as much water, your body continues to urinate large amounts… and the weight just falls off.
Seven days prior to your weigh in, DOUBLE water intake and take in half your usual amount of sodium. I’m talking about 2-3 gallons of water per day (yes, it can be done), and eat less than 400mg of sodium in per day. This gets your system used to being super hydrated, while flushing sodium. (Sodium is bad because, as every chic in the world will tell you, it makes you retain water. Specifically, it makes you retain water in the subcutaneous layer between your muscle and skin.)
KEEP EATING! Stick with your normal diet for your work up.
Four days prior to your weigh in, keep your intake HIGH and cut sodium to minimum levels (less than 100mg per day). Also, start supplementing your diet with potassium. Take the recommended dose on a potassium supplement label. Do not get crazy with this, just take what is recommended.
KEEP EATING!
Three days prior to your weigh-in, cut your water intake in half (minimum of 1 gallon). Everything else stays the same.
KEEP EATING!
Two days prior to your weigh-in, cut water intake in half again (minimum of 64 oz). Everything else stays the same.
KEEP EATING!
One day prior to your weigh-in, cut water intake in half again (you will drink about 32 oz of water on this day). Everything else stays the same.
KEEP EATING! (You should be about halfway to your goal on this day).
On the day of your weigh-in, sip water ONLY. Also, IF REQUIRED, eat about half of what you were eating on every other day (keep protein up, this helps to draw water out of you).
Here are some final notes about weight cutting:
- Your weight loss will be gradual at first, and will become dramatic between 36 to 48 hours before your weigh-in.
- Do not freak out when you’re 3 days out and are still 10 lbs over weight. The night prior to weigh-ins you will lose a ridiculous amount of weight.
- If you are ON WEIGHT the day prior (or any other day), keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing. You need to be AT the prescribed weight for 1 minute during this whole fight work up…and that minute is the moment of weighing in. During every other minute you can be any weight you want.
- You will feel crappy for a couple of hours some time during the last 2 days of weight cutting. It should last only a few hours, probably right before you weigh in. If you feel very sick, drink water and have something to eat.
- If on the day of your weigh-in you are not even close, there are techniques you can use to lose additional water weight in a short period of time. I’ll list here some general categories, but will only address specific details in a face to face conversation. THESE WILL SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH WEIGHT CUTTING AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM.
– Exercise
– Sweat Suits
– Saunas
– Stopping water intake for more than 24 hours
– Stopping food intake
The last step, rehydration!
Congratulations, you made weight! But you are dehydrated, so now what? Well, you need to put that water back on, and here’s how:
Right after weigh-ins, drink a Gatorade type drink (32 oz or so). Slug it down, sip it, whatever is comfortable. After this, treat rehydrating by eating and drinking in your usual way. Chugging water won’t rehydrate you faster, instead it will only pass through you. Drink and eat normally, that is all.
Keep up this normal eating and drinking until 2 hours prior to your competition. You should have an empty stomach when you compete (maybe a little water in there), and you should be hungry, but not starving. If you are starving, and you still have an hour before your competition, eat a banana or an apple. Comfortable hunger is the goal.
Everything in this article is a plan only. Considering how we are all different, the plan might need some tweaks to fit you. And that is why you MUST PRACTICE FIRST!
If at any point you pass out, shit your pants, or otherwise lose your ability to function, you did something wrong.
~by John James