Cutting Weight
As a coach, I often hear questions about weight reduction. Last season, I recall someone ask a common but important question that plagues 60% of high school wrestlers:
“I’m a sophmore high school wrestler who had problems in the past trying to make weight. This past season I especially had a difficult time cutting about 8-10 lbs. before my weigh-in in such a short period of time. How can I cut that much weight (in a healthy way) without losing strength?”
There are many methods to “make weight”, however it can result in harmful effects (impaired muscle recovery, cardiac complications and even death) if done improperly.
Which reminds me of a story of a college friend. 3 days before weigh-ins, he spent between 3-4 hours each day with a trash bag and sweat suit, running around the university track. Then run home, shower, drink a protein shake and go to bed.
The last night before weigh-ins came, he went to the gym for some high intensity cardio. Numerous times during the night he felt massive cramping in his legs and arms due to extreme dehydration. Since that experience, he now goes to the right personnel and figured out how to make weight the proper way.
If you are cutting weight for wrestling, Steve Preston, a nationally-recognized strength and conditioning coach for wrestlers provides 7 simple steps:
- Keep Up Your Strength Training: During the off-season you want to work to gain as much strength as possible. I recommend training 3 times each week in the weight room, working the muscles that are used for wrestling. Be consistent and document your progress. Always strive to add a little more weight or repetitions. During the wrestling season, YOU HAVE TO STRENGTH TRAIN! You will not keep strength gained during the off-season if you neglect training during the season. If you are cutting weight, it is even more important to keep up your strength training. If you are cutting weight, practicing, and wrestling in dual meets and tournaments, your body is using its own muscle for food. You can prevent some of this by getting in a full body strength training workout every 4-5 days.
- Eat More Frequently: Don’t starve your body to make weight! If you starve your body, you are slowing your metabolism down. Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. A calorie is a unit of energy. By starving, you will cause a rebound effect, and have even more trouble making weight next season. The answer lies in trying to lose fat, not muscle and water. You do this by eating more frequently. Four smaller meals each day will allow you to lose body fat while sparing muscle, give you energy to wrestle hard, and be strong the entire match.
- Give Your Body The Correct Amount of Calories: To find out how many calories your body needs to keep up muscle while cutting weight, take your current body weight, and multiply times 13. This is the minimum number of calories you need to consume each day.
- Eat a 40-30-30 Ratio: Now that you know how many calories you need to cut weight and still keep your muscle and strength that you’ve built up, you need to eat the proper ratio of protein, carbohydrates and fats. 40% of your calories should come from lean proteins (egg whites, turkey, lean beef, whey protein powder, skinless chicken). 30% of your daily calories should come from complex carbohydrates (multi grain bread, baked potato, sweet potato, brown rice, oatmeal), and 30% of your calories should come from unsaturated fats (olive oil, nuts). Usually you don’t have to figure in the fats other than a tiny bit of oil on a salad, because the meats that you consume will have a small percentage of fat that will suffice for the day.
- Don’t Jog excessively If Your Goal Is To Make Weight: Nothing is more grueling than a tough high school or college wrestling practice. You shouldn’t get in the habit of jogging for miles, and miles each week in order to lose weight. First of all, it will not give you the endurance for wrestling like good old-fashioned live wrestling in practice will. If you try to lose weight by jogging, you will start eating the muscle off of your body. Aerobic activity is NOT an efficient means of losing fat. A controlled meal plan is the answer.
- Don’t Dehydrate: In order to wrestle at your best, and have your body working efficiently, you need to have all of the body systems working optimally. Each of your body systems requires water. If you have to lose a couple of pounds to make weight after you have followed the above tips, then you will restrict your water intake. Restricting water intake is not the same as not drinking water at all though. You still need to give yourself 3-4 ounces of water every 3 hours on days that you are trying to make weight. Remember, this is to keep up your strength. You need to plan well in order to do this right. Don’t weight until two days before, and get drastic in your weight loss system.
- Stay Away From Sugar: Wrestlers who cut weight by eating very little and doing excessive jogging tend to get sugar cravings. Sugar has no place in your wresting meal plan. The only time my clients consume sugar is immediately following an intense strength training session. If you are within 3 or 4 lbs. of your weight class, you might want to consume 60 grams or so of high glycemic carbohydrates (sugar) on the form of grape juice or apple juice within 20 minutes of your strength training session. This replenishes the body’s glycogen stores and helps with recuperation. In general, stay away from sugars. They have no long-term positive effects on your energy. They are much more likely to be converted and stored as fat.
Paul Escalera wrote "Cutting Weight" on June 6, 2007. This post has 
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