Cutting Weight, Eating for Performance, and How to Do It Right

When you talk to people about cutting weight, you hear a ton of different stories about all the hardest weight drops they ever had to make. You hear about how difficult it was, how far they had to push themselves, and the mental games they had to play.

For anyone who has had to cut weight before, you can relate. Eating very little for several days on end while pushing your body to make it through workout after workout multiple times a day in full sweats and multiple layers of clothing. At some point in every wrestler’s career, we’ve done it this way a few times.

If you are STILL doing it this way, there is a much better way that allows you to eat full meals and stay hydrated without all the suffering. This is the way most of the elite level wrestlers as well as MMA fighters utilize.

Here’s the usual drill… you starve yourself for the week eating most of your calories on Monday and Tuesday, drink a few bottle of waters throughout the day, practice every day feeling slightly lethargic and slow, then get an extra workout in either before or after practice to help maintain your weight. Aside from the fact that the massive caloric deficit depletes muscle mass and extremely increases your stress levels, the main focus for your daily life is about cutting weight not about getting better, performing, and being the best you can be all day long. You need food and calories to regulate your hormones which in turn regulates your metabolism, mood, and energy levels. But here’s the catch... you need to know HOW to eat for performance and to fuel your weight cut in a way that doesn’t drain you.

How to Cut Weight the Right Way

The concept behind how the elite level wrestlers cut weight is fairly simple; you eat healthy and with performance in mind 95% of the time so that on the last few days before weigh-ins you can drop 6 to 12 pounds while still feeling good and having energy. The basic principles are drinking at least a gallon of water per day, eating food for the sole purpose of fueling your training, and timing different types of foods to different parts of your training to maximize performance and recovery. Learning about food and how it metabolizes into energy, the digestion time it takes for different foods to give you energy and how much, as well as the different energies used during different aspects of your training will help you understand better how to eat for performance and better fuel your weight cut.

If learning about food and metabolism sounds like a tall task to you, I got you covered! On the Performance Nutrition page is a fully detailed guide on how to eat for performance, time your meals, and explains the ins-and-outs of energy and metabolism. Also included are three Pre-Built Protocols for you to choose from depending on your training goals that give you a comprehensive Performance Nutrition Plan including what foods to eat and when. Finally, for your next weight decent, I encourage you to implement my E-Book The 3-Day Weight Cut Protocol for Wrestling which gives you a full rundown on how to adjust your performance nutrition on the final three days before weigh-ins as well as includes a comprehensive diet plan. This protocol is your guide on how to drop weight safely, quickly, and efficiently on the final three days before weigh-ins while still feeling energized and healthy.

If you have any questions about the Performance Nutrition page, weight cutting, or would like help implementing The 3-Day Weight Cut Protocol, feel free to reach out to me through IG or email at mmiller@championforlifetraining.com