Calling All Fighters! Weight Cutting Survey

[OBarley]

Hello,

I work with the research staff at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. We are doing research into weight loss in combat sports and have developed a short (10-20 mins) anonymous online survey. If you currently compete in any combat sport you are eligible to complete it. If you can spare the time you would be helping the scientific community get a better understanding of weight loss in combat sports. The survey is both desktop and mobile friendly.

If you have any questions I would be happy to help,

Oliver Barley, Msc

Survey link - https://ecuau.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3xvWwwRj6QdlESF

 

[loyalyolayal]

Done.

 

[BCNASH]

Done. I had to use google to convert lbs and inches to metric though lol.

Will you be making your findings public? I am very interested in the results of your research.

 

[Gabicho]

Done.
Also hope to someday read about the findings.
For the record: I walk around at 81kg and i compete at either 68 or 74, depending on the level of the competition. I diet down, then cut.
68kg is death and doesn't work if i don't plan it at least for 2 months in advance.
OINK!

 

[BCNASH]

I walk between 175-180 lbs eating whatever I want, and diet down to 163-165 lbs for my two month camp until fight week (MMA). I then cut the last ten by water loading that week then cutting it off. The night before weigh in day, I take a 20-30 minute Epsom salt bath to take 1.5-2 lbs off. Depending on what my weight is that day, ill do another one in the morning but I usually wake up right on weight and can skip the sauna all together. I feel I keep my stamina and strength this way and get back to between 163-166 lbs the next day for the fight. I can get into more details of my water loading if it helps for your data, if not, sorry for oversharing lol.

 

[kjg1672]

I walk between 175-180 lbs eating whatever I want, and diet down to 163-165 lbs for my two month camp until fight week (MMA). I then cut the last ten by water loading that week then cutting it off. The night before weigh in day, I take a 20-30 minute Epsom salt bath to take 1.5-2 lbs off. Depending on what my weight is that day, ill do another one in the morning but I usually wake up right on weight and can skip the sauna all together. I feel I keep my stamina and strength this way and get back to between 163-166 lbs the next day for the fight. I can get into more details of my water loading if it helps for your data, if not, sorry for oversharing lol.

I wouldn't mind hearing about water loading. I've heard guys say they do it, but I don't know the details of how it's done.

 

[OBarley]

Done. I had to use google to convert lbs and inches to metric though lol.

Will you be making your findings public? I am very interested in the results of your research.

Yeah I didn't consider that places don't use the metric system. I should have made the units optional. Thanks for doing the conversions yourself
I will come back and post the results once we have them.

 

[OBarley]

Done.
Also hope to someday read about the findings.
For the record: I walk around at 81kg and i compete at either 68 or 74, depending on the level of the competition. I diet down, then cut.
68kg is death and doesn't work if i don't plan it at least for 2 months in advance.
OINK!

Thanks for filling it in. That's quite a lot of weight to lose. I will come back and post the results once it's finished.

 

[OBarley]

I walk between 175-180 lbs eating whatever I want, and diet down to 163-165 lbs for my two month camp until fight week (MMA). I then cut the last ten by water loading that week then cutting it off. The night before weigh in day, I take a 20-30 minute Epsom salt bath to take 1.5-2 lbs off. Depending on what my weight is that day, ill do another one in the morning but I usually wake up right on weight and can skip the sauna all together. I feel I keep my stamina and strength this way and get back to between 163-166 lbs the next day for the fight. I can get into more details of my water loading if it helps for your data, if not, sorry for oversharing lol.

It is interesting to hear about waterloading. One of my colleagues Reid Reale is doing a lot of research into water loading. I'll forward this on to him.

 

[j123]

I wouldn't mind hearing about water loading. I've heard guys say they do it, but I don't know the details of how it's done.

http://tim.blog/2013/05/06/how-to-cut-weight-ufc/

tldr;

Trick the body to pee out the water reserves from sudden changes. You can lose around 5-10lbs with it depending on how much your body tends to hold on to. It needs to be combined with other methods to do the larger cuts you hear from most pro fighters. I myself cut about 15lbs. Water load/cut + epsom salt baths. Anything left will be sauna-ed out and possibly spitting

 

[DoctorTaco]

I wouldn't mind hearing about water loading. I've heard guys say they do it, but I don't know the details of how it's done.

i waterload a few days out from my fight.

I drink a gallon of water everyday all ready, so that doesn't change. For a fight on Saturday I'll bump up to 2 gallons on Tuesday and wed, back to 1 gal on thurs, and then no water Friday. This combined with restricting/monitoring my salt intake helps me flush out a lot of water weight

 

[BCNASH]

My water load is similar. Assuming a Friday night weigh in, I drink two gallons of water sunday, Monday, Tuesday, 1 gallon Wednesday and only have a glass of water with breakfast on Thursday. That is the last time I will eat or drink until weigh in, with the exception of a protein bar Friday morning/afternoon with high protein content. This is to make sure my body is ONLY eating fat and water and not muscle; that is the idea behind the protein bar. unfortunately, you will be urinating every 30 min to an hour, but that is what you want. just be prepared to wake up to pee at least 3-4 times a night while doing this

 

[KikoJones]

This is interesting to me. Doesn't this process flush out your electrolytes? In that time between weigh-ins and the match, do you really recover enough? I've known fighters that do huge weight drops and look skeletal on the scale but tell me they're good to go the next day.
Of course, I've never done it so I don't understand the process.

 

[Balto]

The water load thing is super common in BJJ.

Ultimately though I don't think it is really much different than sweating out the same amount in a sauna. It might be more convenient and easier, but it should be the same net dehydration effect.

A lot of people in BJJ act like it's 5-10 lbs of "extra" water you are losing, but I'm pretty sure that the water is not really extra. You are just tricking your body into peeing more than it should, and as a result you lose water through your dick rather than your sweat glands.

I know so many guys that water load for IBJJF tournaments under the theory that "they won't have to cut anything since it's same day." But I think it just ends up being the equivalent of fighting 5-10 lbs dehydrated. I tell people to just diet down and that's it to avoid any dehydration effects since you weigh in immediately before.

If anyone has a better explanation, I'm down to listen.

 

[BCNASH]

This is interesting to me. Doesn't this process flush out your electrolytes? In that time between weigh-ins and the match, do you really recover enough? I've known fighters that do huge weight drops and look skeletal on the scale but tell me they're good to go the next day.
Of course, I've never done it so I don't understand the process.

The article posted above by @j123 is a good point of reference on how to get those electrolytes back; I usually water down pedialite (for first hour) and Gatorade to gain those back. I typically get at least 10 lbs back from that and eating and I feel great. As a disclaimer, I practiced the cut and went 5 rounds sparring and 3 conditioning rounds to see how my body would hold up before I ever did the cut for a real fight.

As a matter of fact, I was forced to pull out of a fight after making weight before (by my chain of command after being told I was good to go beforehand; I had no leg to stand on. Military gets what they want) and I rehydrated with Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew and ate 6 McChickens and felt fine then too, while putting back on 10 lbs. Obviously I wouldn't do that before a fight the next day but I didn't feel light headed, sick or weak is the point I was trying to make lol.

I don't cut any weight for BJJ comp. You cannot gain everything back you cut if you do a same day weigh in in the hour or so between that and hitting the mat. You will gas and fade badly.

I am also a big proponent of not drinking distilled water during a cut, because that can be terrible for you from what I read. When they distill the water, they remove all of the nutrients as well as any impurities. I go with regular old water for my cuts.

 

[j123]

The article posted above by @j123 is a good point of reference on how to get those electrolytes back; I usually water down pedialite (for first hour) and Gatorade to gain those back. I typically get at least 10 lbs back from that and eating and I feel great. As a disclaimer, I practiced the cut and went 5 rounds sparring and 3 conditioning rounds to see how my body would hold up before I ever did the cut for a real fight.

As a matter of fact, I was forced to pull out of a fight after making weight before (by my chain of command after being told I was good to go beforehand; I had no leg to stand on. Military gets what they want) and I rehydrated with Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew and ate 6 McChickens and felt fine then too, while putting back on 10 lbs. Obviously I wouldn't do that before a fight the next day but I didn't feel light headed, sick or weak is the point I was trying to make lol.

I don't cut any weight for BJJ comp. You cannot gain everything back you cut if you do a same day weigh in in the hour or so between that and hitting the mat. You will gas and fade badly.

I am also a big proponent of not drinking distilled water during a cut, because that can be terrible for you from what I read. When they distill the water, they remove all of the nutrients as well as any impurities. I go with regular old water for my cuts.

I did the distilled water before and it didn't make a difference, so I just save my money using tap water instead.

I used my own "recovery" drink with orange juice and 1tsp of salthe potassium in OJ is about 470mg per serving, and 1tsp of salt is almost 1g of sodium so its good to me. Definitely cheaper than spending $10-12 for Pedialyte.

Same day weigh-ins depends, if you have assurance you will compete 5-8h in, then you work with that. I've done semi-big cuts with MT events when I know I'm guaranteed near the end of the day, so I can do a 10-12lb cut (4.5-5.5h)

 

[BCNASH]

I did the distilled water before and it didn't make a difference, so I just save my money using tap water instead.

I used my own "recovery" drink with orange juice and 1tsp of salthe potassium in OJ is about 470mg per serving, and 1tsp of salt is almost 1g of sodium so its good to me. Definitely cheaper than spending $10-12 for Pedialyte.

Same day weigh-ins depends, if you have assurance you will compete 5-8h in, then you work with that. I've done semi-big cuts with MT events when I know I'm guaranteed near the end of the day, so I can do a 10-12lb cut (4.5-5.5h)

You are lucky, I have never had a BJJ event when I knew when I would step on the mat. Granted, they posted a "schedule" that they never stick to, but too unpredictable to go for a big cut for me

 

[KikoJones]

I walk around 170 lbs and for Old Man Worlds last year I needed to weigh 168lbs in the Gi. That shouldn't really be an issue but knowing how strict they are about weight, I didn't want to chance it. I got to Vegas on Wednesday and competed on Saturday. To ensure I made weight, I'd get up, do 4 miles in 40 min on the Hotel Eliptical and drink only water and eat clean. By Saturday I was 168lbs in the Gi and was feeling 100%. Had Pedialyte between matches.
I couldn't endure the heavy weight cut you guy go through. I just don't have the disciple to stay away from Pizza for more than 3 days.

 

[j123]

You are lucky, I have never had a BJJ event when I knew when I would step on the mat. Granted, they posted a "schedule" that they never stick to, but too unpredictable to go for a big cut for me

hmmmm pretty tough, I've never done a BJJ tourney, but I hear different things, like the heavier no-gi divs. are later on the day, but then again I hear the organization is off and you end up competing quite early due to poor management.

 

[Gabicho]

I also do the waterloading.
One wrestling coach told me it was a very bad idea, because i was flushing out all minerals and vitamins out of my system a few days before competition, but i honestly did not feel any downsides. I was taking a supplement and feeling ok (as ok as you can feel during a cut).
The waterloading also helps me to reduce appetite and hunger, so it helps to avoid cravings.

I did not think much of his advice since his method of cutting consisted of starting the dehydration process a week before weigh in; lots of training, lots of sweating, almost no drinking and almost no eating for a week. It worked for him in his youth: dropped something like 10kg in a week, every two weeks, but, a couple years into his retirement he became a wreck, with about 40 extra kg and a whole lot of interesting health issues.

For same day weight in, i diet down, but do not cut anything other than maybe not drinking water the same day or night before.