Please help with weight cut for tournament

[mmacrazy]

Ok so i have a grappling tournament on november 20th. I am working on getting to 175. Currently I am at 183.

My diet is very clean (now) consisting of a higher protein, higher healthy fats (still not a lot though) and lower on carbs at around 50 grams a day of low glycemic.

The question is though what is the best way to do this without losing too much muscle. I realize of course I will lose some but I want to try and maintain as much muscle as possible.
Any input would be great.

Thanks

[Rosie Chee]

Ok so i have a grappling tournament on november 20th. I am working on getting to 175. Currently I am at 183.

My diet is very clean (now) consisting of a higher protein, higher healthy fats (still not a lot though) and lower on carbs at around 50 grams a day of low glycemic.

The question is though what is the best way to do this without losing too much muscle. I realize of course I will lose some but I want to try and maintain as much muscle as possible.
Any input would be great.

Thanks

Eight pounds is easy enough to lose withOUT any muscle loss - I can gain and lose that much in a few DAYS from water and food weight, simply from manipulating my diet, and you have a few weeks to do this in!

I'd recommend losing as much fat weight as you can up until November 14. After that, you can easily lose the rest of what you need in the week pre-competition to reach your target scale weight for weigh-in.

If all you have to do is lose SCALE WEIGHT for your tournament, then there is a few options you can do such as:
* Water depletion/diuretics
* Carbohydrate manipulation
* Sodium manipulation
All three methods used together and done correctly will expel all the excess water weight from your body.

You just want to make sure that your nutrition is NOT going to be detrimental to your performance. What you have listed is what I might recommend the week pre-competition, but not for long periods of time, and certainly not for ages leading up to it; it would be fine for a few days to a week before the competition, because once you've had your weigh-in, you can consume more carbohydrates, etc.

~Rosie~
The Primordial Woman

[bigbeef]

sauna suit and walk at a incline on treadmill for about an hour, can drop 3-4 lbs no problem. Cut out sodium from your diet.

[Rodja]

3 weeks out and you're fretting about 8 lbs? You can cut that in a day with some carb depletion and a little water loss.

[southpaw23]

3 weeks out and you're fretting about 8 lbs? You can cut that in a day with some carb depletion and a little water loss.

I think that depends Rodja. Speaking strictly from a boxing perspective, I know of a few guys who were on target to make weight, only 4 weeks out from fight night, and did not achieve their target weight. Your body attempts to fight you every step of the way, especially as you get older, and if you do end up losing the weight, many times it will affect your performance and you end up looking flat.

[Rodja]

I think that depends Rodja. Speaking strictly from a boxing perspective, I know of a few guys who were on target to make weight, only 4 weeks out from fight night, and did not achieve their target weight. Your body attempts to fight you every step of the way, especially as you get older, and if you do end up losing the weight, many times it will affect your performance and you end up looking flat.

That's also if you don't know how to load, deplete, and replenish. The general rule is at the most to cut 10% of your body weight. 8 lbs is not even 5% of his body weight.

[southpaw23]

That's also if you don't know how to load, deplete, and replenish. The general rule is at the most to cut 10% of your body weight. 8 lbs is not even 5% of his body weight.

I understand and I agree with you. Learning how to do those things in a "healthy" fashion is the difficult part, it's a slippery slope if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I walk around at 165-170 and the lowest I can get down to without feeling drained is 150, and that's still iffy.

Comparing boxing to MMA in one respect, do you think Lesnar can bounce back from last night? In boxing similar to an egg, once you get cracked open (weak chin), you're never the same again.

[Rodja]

I understand and I agree with you. Learning how to do those things in a "healthy" fashion is the difficult part, it's a slippery slope if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I walk around at around 165-170 and the lowest I can get down to without feeling drained is 150, and that's still iffy.

Comparing boxing to MMA in one respect, do you think Lesnar can bounce back from last night? In boxing similar to an egg, once you get cracked open (weak chin), you're never the same again.

He's been tagged before; the difference might be his training style. When I say that I mean that he doesn't train like he fights.

I can tell you from personal experience as a grappler by nature that I put maybe 20-30% of my training into that aspect and focus far more on the striking during my training. While it does help to correct the imbalances, it is also not a smart way to train because it does not help to highlight the strengths of my game.

[southpaw23]

He's been tagged before; the difference might be his training style. When I say that I mean that he doesn't train like he fights.

I can tell you from personal experience as a grappler by nature that I put maybe 20-30% of my training into that aspect and focus far more on the striking during my training. While it does help to correct the imbalances, it is also not a smart way to train because it does not help to highlight the strengths of my game.

I agree, his stand up game doesn't appear to look all that great. He strikes at such wide angles, that he leaves himself open for counters, almost telegraphing his strikes the entire time, at least it appeared so to me. I've sparred with a lot of guys who train for MMA and they hardly ever focus on their stand up game.

[wearedbleedblue]

sauna suit and walk at a incline on treadmill for about an hour, can drop 3-4 lbs no problem. Cut out sodium from your diet.

You can lose more weight an hour via sweating without exercise than you can exercising to sweat. Blood flow to the muscles lowers the blood flow to the skin.

[mmacrazy]

only reason am slightly nervous is because my weight loss has slowed to a snails pace. I have lost a huge amount of weight to date and am just trying to lose those few pounds without doing to much of the water depletion, dehydration, or things like that.

I guess the question is more if it's possible to lose the weight in just fat so that when I walk in I didnt have to cut any weight the days before. last time I did that I was a little weak and tired the day of the tourny.