I am 120 5’5 and athletic lean, and I need to get down to 116 in body weight in a month or so for weight checks. I wrestle on Mondays and Thursdays, and I am currently eating 1200 calories. I was eating 1500 when I was 121-122, but I have dropped to 120 now; is there any way to improve this to lose 1-2 pounds per week? Or am I already on track to make it?
I always despised cutting weight. I used the off-season to lose weight, depending on whether I wanted to be lighter or remain in the same weight class as the previous year. I’ve always been pretty good about my weight. I suggest. Intermittent fasting may work or may not. Regardless, I usually go for fifteen to twenty-one hour fasts. That was all my body could do, and it felt like I was at my peak physical condition. I ate the night before and drank water and coffee the next day. I would not eat directly before practice, but rather an hour or three hours earlier to let my body to digest it, followed by a modest meal.
Best Wrestling Diet for Weight Loss and Peak PerformanceWhat is the ideal wrestling diet for weight loss? Many wrestlers reduce weight in order to compete in a lower weight class.I’d like to discuss a proper way to decrease weight for wrestling.Wrestling nutrition is a crucial aspect of a wrestler’s eating plan. If you follow a solid weight loss diet, you will be the best wrestler possible while maintaining your full strength.This is not an article about starving yourself, dehydrating yourself, or determining the best age to lose weight. Crash diets weaken wrestlers when it comes time to compete.Begin your wrestling weight-loss plan early. Do not wait until the week before a match to compete or rank.
I feel quite competent to answer this because I wrestled for seven years and did well for myself.
The question implies that all wrestlers can drop weight that quickly, which is just not true. I wrestled in the 195-pound weight class, and dropping six pounds in one practice was nothing. One of my best friends wrestled at 120 pounds, and I believe it would have killed him to lose 10 pounds.
The thing that most individuals trying to “watch their weight” (and non-wrestlers for that matter) don’t realize about weight loss is that at some point, the calories will be burned off by the sheer amount of exercise you perform as a wrestler. The problem arises when you eat a burger, for example, with a bun and pickles and cheese weighs around a pound and a half. When you eat that, you put a 1.5 lbs weight in your stomach. And if you are working right, your body is going to use every last bit of that burger as fuel. But while it’s in there, it’s in there.
It’s quite simple. Go on a weight loss regimen (I strongly recommend LCHF with intermittent fasting, but there are alternatives).
You can lose weight solely through exercise (wrestling or otherwise), but it takes so long and so hard that winning is nearly impossible.
I answered countless such concerns, and I always cited my dietary master, one professor Dr. Robert Lustig. In his excellent novel Fat Chance, he addresses Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Phelps revealed in his own interview that he consumes and spends 12,000 kcals when training. Can you train like Phelps? Good for you; go for it! If you can’t be like the rest of us plodders, opt for LCHF.
I wrestled at 112 lbs. sophomore yr of HS (128 jr. &138 sr) and each yr it followed football where I was more like 150. So weight loss had to be dramatic. First, I dropped most normal food and went on a controlled calorie diet of liquid drinks designed for this purpose. I dressed in a plastic weight-loss suit and ran for 20–30 mins/day in an enclosed shower after practice. One week I was cutting it close and gathered spit in my mouth to expel the last class of the day (tough on answering questions but I made weight). It gave me a lasting sense of self-discipline when I needed it (only to dissipate in college life of the 60’s).
Our weight consists primarily of lean muscle, fat, and water. All of these are broad categories, not individual substances. This does not directly refer to macronutrients.
Wrestlers manage water because it moves quickly.
Bones, muscle, nerves, organs, and so on are all part of lean.
Fat encompasses both the physical fat and all of its supporting structures. That’s some water pockets, connective tissue, blood vessels, or anything.
Water encompasses the entire urinary and digestive tracts, as well as all glycogen and the water in which it is dissolved.
Wrestlers deplete all of that water. Only lowering glycogen is sustainable, and this is achieved by going low carb to enter ketosis.
The only method to lose weight quickly before a wrestling tournament is to dehydrate. You must teach your body to quickly eliminate fluids from your body in order to gain weight and then replenish fluids in order to wrestle your match.
I’ve had wrestlers do this during the years that I’ve been coaching. One 115-pound wrestler could lose 5-10 pounds in an hour of working out. He would be prepared to wrestle at any time. So you need to train your body to perform the same thing. Your nutrition is also quite essential.
My spouse is a former wrestler, and this is what he did. Wrap yourself with plastic and run. You should be sweating profusely. Eat lettuce. Plenty of lettuce and fruit. I used to get inside the gym mats wearing plastic and sweatpants. Just don’t dehydrate yourself. It’s okay to consume only water. Just not too much.
Wrestlers frequently use calorie restriction, increased exercise, and water manipulation to achieve weight class criteria. However, these habits can be unhealthy, resulting in dehydration and vitamin imbalances. Wrestlers must prioritise safe and sustainable weight-management measures. For more information on sports nutrition and weight control, visit my Quora profile on Athletic Performance and Health.
The same rule applies to everyone: calories in must be less than calories out. Wrestlers often cut calories while maintaining protein intake, and they continue to exercise for strength and cardiovascular/endurance. Strength training helps to maintain muscular mass, which contributes to overall metabolic burden. Endurance training improves oxygen transport and burns calories immediately.
In terms of weight reduction, a 3500-calorie deficit equals one pound of body mass loss. There are formulas to determine the daily burn, but specialists will often conduct direct measurements, such as monitoring O2 conversion to CO2 for a given level of work.
Losing weight for wrestling should always be done in a healthy and safe way. It’s critical to prioritise your health and speak with a healthcare professional, such as a doctor, sports nutritionist, or licensed athletic trainer, who can offer tailored advice depending on your individual situation.
Start with a mix of long runs up to 5-6 miles and high intensity interval training.
Even if you get used to doing all that and haven’t wrestled in a few months, it’s still going to feel straining because you wouldn’t be used to wrestling someone and tensing all your muscles at the same time, so make sure you’re wrestling a lot in the offseason and hitting the weights hard.