Making Weight: Basic Strategy
So you’ve decided to sign up for your first tournament. Or maybe you’ve already done one, and realized how difficult it can be to manage your weight. In either case, we want to provide a starting point - a place where you can learn the basics about what should occur and when. As we grow, we’ll provide more detailed sources on each composite part. But in the meantime, let’s dive in!
Where do I begin?
Let’s start by assuming that we’re trying to settle to our target weight by dropping down to the upper-end of a weight class that’s lower than our current bodyweight. For example, if you’re a male who walks around at 187 lbs., you may want to move down to Middleweight at 181.5 lbs. for a size/strength advantage. We want to do so in the most optimal way possible, so that our place in the new weight class is truly an advantage over our competition, and takes as little away from our training and development as possible.
This process is broken down into two distinct parts:
Fat Loss
Weight Cut
It’s important that these two parts remain separate, and are done in the order we mentioned above. So let’s jump into what each part is made up of.
Fat Loss
Fat loss is a long-term process, taking place for at least 4 weeks, ideally over a span of 8-12 weeks. This process is achieved through reaching and maintaining a calorie deficit - meaning you expend more calories than you take in. While some people attempt this process solely by increasing calorie expenditure, a more efficient method is by deliberately and consistently restricting caloric intake (resource here).
In an ideal world, weight loss will be slow to ensure that the majority of weight lost is fat and not muscle. If we want a competitive advantage at this new weight class, that’s seldom achieved by losing considerable muscle and strength. To ensure that this is the case, we want to lose no more than 2 lbs/week - and ideally closer to .5lb/week. We should keep a close eye on rate of change, and plan out our fat loss weeks/months in advance.
Weight Cut
The process of “cutting weight,” is much more short term, and only encompasses the techniques that make up the last 5-10 days before weighing in. These methods have potentially deadly outcomes when performed irresponsibly, so proper planning is a must. Weight cuts should never have to “make up” for failed fat loss! Procrastinating on your fat loss and hoping you can rely on these extreme measures is a dangerous, slippery slope.
Relative to fat loss, the weight loss in a weight cut is rapid - over the course of hours. This is because the weight lost is from body water and gut content. It’s important to note that since dehydration is so detrimental to performance, day-before weight-ins tend to allow athletes to get away with more aggressive cuts than day-of weigh-ins.
Same day weigh-ins would ideally have an individual on weight, or up to 2% above their target weight when they’re 5 days out from weigh-ins. Anything 3% or higher 5 days out would be detrimental to performance.
Day-before weigh-ins would ideally have an individual 6-8% over their target weight when they’re 5 days out from weigh-ins. Anything exceeding 10% in the last 5 days is extremely dangerous.
Gut content elimination is done through limiting fiber intake in the days before weigh-ins, where water elimination is done by a combined process of water loading, sodium restriction, and even manipulation of carbs. What may be even more important is the method of re-hydrating - since a dehydrated fighter is extremely compromised. The specific nature of each of these techniques deserves greater detail in future blog posts.
The takeaway here is that the incredibly stressful component of cutting weight should be minimized by planned, careful fat loss. The less fat you’re carrying 5 days out from a weigh-in, the less you’d have to rely on the more stressful and dangerous process of dehydration. So let us at Fight Cut take the guesswork out of losing fat, so you can always perform at your best.
