Cutting Weight – 1st thing first: This article is about how to cut weight for an MMA fight PROPERLY. I will not waste words describing why cutting weight can be dangerous, but I will simply say that it can be and I have linked to a very important article which describes the dangers well. Cutting weight is big business in MMA and pretty much every other combat-oriented sport including wrestling and boxing. I personally don’t believe in cutting weight, yet I have subjected myself to it anyway, because in the sport of MMA it is something that you deal with. Unless you want to weigh 155lbs and fight a guy that walks around at 175, you probably want to cut weight too. The problem I have with cutting weight lay in the fact that it can be very dangerous if not done properly. Here is a good article on the dangers worth viewing to anyone who intends to cut weight:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1284730/how_can_wrestlers_cut_weight_properly.html?cat=51
2nd thing second: Cutting weight is not the same as losing weight. If you are “cutting weight” for a fight, you are not losing 30 pounds, you are cutting 10-12. If you are going to drop 30 pounds for a fight, that will require LOSING weight AND CUTTING weight. They are very different. My advice will suppose that you want to drop about 15 lbs to make weight for a fight.
Finally, the procedure:
Let’s start with an imaginary fighter, Tom. Tom weighs about 170 lbs on any given day, but wants to weigh in at and fight at 155 lbs, because he knows if he fights at 170 he will be a lot smaller than the other guys, who are coming down from about 185.
So I put Tom on my plan for cutting weight. First, he needs to get within 10-12 lbs of fight weight, which for Tom is 155 lbs. This means Tom needs to weigh about 166-167lbs before he can begin cutting (he must lose 3-4 lbs). If Tom weighs any more than this, I will not allow him to begin cutting, because it can be dangerous (see the link above), but as long as he is at this weight, it is safe to proceed.
To get Tom down to 167, he is going to have to control his caloric intake. To find out how many calories you need to cut out of your diet to lose weight, do this: monitor your daily caloric intake (however you are eating and have been eating for the months prior) and write down/record how many calories you currently consume on a daily basis. If you are preparing for a fight then this number should be fairly consistent on a daily basis. If it isn’t, i.e. you eat whatever you want whenever you want, you probably shouldn’t be fighting anyway. Once you figure out about how many calories you are currently consuming, you need to figure out about how many you are burning in your daily activity/workouts/training sessions. Here is an excellent website for doing so:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calories.htm.
So now you know how many calories you usually consume, and how many you are burning, daily. Say you consume 4000 calories a day and burn about 500 (like Tom). That means you are sleeping on about 3500 calories daily, which is maintaining your current weight. To LOSE weight, you need to LOWER the number you are sleeping on, which means you either need to up the amount you burn or lower the amount you consume. Lets lower the amount you consume.
1lb (fat) = about 3500 calories à cutting 500 calories a day = -1lb per week.
Thus, Tom (who is consuming 4000 a day and burning about 500) is going to start consuming only 3500 calories a day and continuing to burn 500, leaving him sleeping on about 3000 and allowing him to cut about 1lb per week. At 172 lbs, he will start doing this 7 weeks before the fight, which will put him at our safe weight for cutting (166-167lbs) about 2 weeks before the fight.
Now he is ready to begin cutting, which begins with an additional 600 calories off of his diet, because training is probably going to slow down around this time. The best things to cut at this time are carbohydrates that aren’t complex. Keep in mind that Tom is now sleeping on about 2500 calories a day. You should never be sleeping on less than 1200 calories per day. This should put him at about 162lbs the week before the fight.
Now Tom begins cutting. He will start drinking 1.5-2 gallons of water per day starting 7 days before the fight, accompanied with a light 1mile jog every morning. 3 days before the fight, Tom will begin consuming only 1 gallon of water. Exactly 24 hours before the weigh-in, Tom will cut the intake of all fluids. This is accompanied by spitting to rid excess fluid.
Usually, for amateur non-title fights, fighters are allowed 1.9 pounds on the top side of the weight. Thus, when Tom steps on the scale at 156.9, he has made weight for his 155 fight.
Once he steps off the scale he will sip 2-3 pedialite drinks (a children’s drink that keeps kids hydrated when they have diarrhea, it’s excellent at rehydrating) and will eat something small every 30-45 minutes up until about 1.5 hours prefight.
If you are wondering about other ways to cut weight, here is a website that explains in more depth each of the ways that people have cut weight. His techniques are very similar to mine when it comes to controlling calories and fluid restriction: http://www.grapplearts.com/How-to-Cut-Weight.html
PLEASE BE SMART ABOUT CUTTING WEIGHT! NEVER TRY TO “CUT” MORE THAN 10-12 LBS BEFORE A FIGHT, ALWAYS “LOSE” WEIGHT FIRST. BE SAFE.
