Cutting Weight: How to Do It Right

Here’s the usual drill…

You starve yourself for the week eating most of your calories on Monday and Tuesday, drink a couple bottle of waters throughout the day, practice every day in full sweats and multiple layers feeling lethargic and slow, then get another workout after practice to help lose more weight, feel completely empty the night before weigh-ins, wrestle fatigued and slow for the first few matches, then attempt to gain energy back throughout the day.

Why “Normal” Weight Cutting is Wrong

Aside from the fact that the massive caloric deficit throughout the week depletes muscle mass and extremely increases your stress levels, the main focus for your daily life is about cutting weight not about getting better at wrestling, performing, and being the best you can be. You need food and calories to regulate your hormones which in turn regulates your metabolism, mood, and energy levels. YOU NEED TO EAT. But here’s the catch... you need to know HOW to eat to fuel your weight cut in a way that doesn’t drain you and instead allows you to eat full meals and stay hydrated without all the suffering to perform your best. Here’s how…

How to Cut Weight Right

The concept behind how the elite level wrestlers cut weight is fairly simple; you eat 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 purpose of fueling your training, and timing types of foods to different parts of your training to maximize performance and recovery. The main goal is to maintain and gain lean muscle mass and transition fat weight into water weight. This takes a few weeks and a strategic disciplined diet.

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.

Performance Nutrition

At the Champion for Life Training website, I outline this Performance Nutrition process in a fully detailed guide on how to eat for performance, time your meals, and adjust your nutrition on the final three days before weigh-ins to drop weight safely, quickly, and efficiently while still feeling energized and healthy.

If you have any questions about the performance nutrition, weight cutting, or would like a custom Performance Nutrition Plan, reach out and let me know how I can help!