How I cut weight

[benonmsn]

Some back ground: I am 27 years old. 6', 187lbs. I hover around 13% BF on a normal day. I have been involved in wrestling since 1990, bjj since 2002. My maintenance caloric intake is about 3800 calories per day (but I don’t pay attention, as long as I am eating plenty), I do not eat low fat, or low carb in any way whatsoever. My exercise for the past 4 years comes from 3-6 days of jiu jitsu @ 1.5hours per session. I do have a good amount of lean muscle mass, I was previously 210lbs, with about the same BF%. Lean muscle mass is what I attribute to my metabolic rate. If I don’t eat after 7pm, I will be 3 lbs lighter in the morning after I use the restroom.

I did find that the larger I was the worse off my endurance was. I could have countered this with more endurance training, but it was hard to find time to do more training, so I stopped weights, and just concentrated on bjj, and that’s where my weight has been for the past 4 years or so.


My target weight for competitions is 167lbs. I start my routine about 3 weeks out, but sometimes with only a week. It was pretty routine to lose 2-9lbs in a day in high school for tournaments, but that’s a different routine entirely.


A couple notes: I am a carnivore by nature. I keep my office at 78 degrees. I don’t drink soda, I don’t really eat dessert foods, or juices, I really don’t care for bread or rice, I usually get 7 hours of sleep a night, but sometimes as little as 4. I do chew tobacco, which does have a positive influence on my metabolism (and water excretion if needed in a time sensitive weight cut). I also don’t measure the amounts I am eating, but give measurements in a quantifiable form that seems accurate to help others, it’s usually some scoops of this, some of that etc.

7:45am: breakfast. Handful of spinach with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and some shakes of Tabasco for flavoring. On the side I will have a few pieces of sandwich style turkey or ham.

8am: power walk with dog for 45min. doesn’t cause a sweat or make me tired, but will start your (my) metabolism early

9:30am: at work. I work on the 9th floor and take the stairs, once I am in my office I sit on my ass basically and only my keyboard gets a work out.

10;30am: time for a snack. This is something to keep my stomach satisfied. I can go to the entire day without eating till I get home and eat a pack of bacon, and pancakes, but that’s not the best route. I usually get a scrambled egg, with copious amounts of spinach, plenty of water.

1pm: lunch time. Weight cutting lunch time is a salad. 2 cups or so of bell peppers, 1/2 cup or so of garbanzo beans/kidney beans, 1/4 cup hardboiled egg, couple cups of spinach, some onion, maybe some jalapeno (not to many for sodium reasons(water retention) ) with no dressing / sauce. I also walk to the cafe not at my work, the walk is about 15 min. I make the walk brisk, but don’t power walk it.

4pm: time for another snack. This is usually in the form of a small portion of what the cafe is selling as the special. It may be 1 enchilada, 1/4 piece of lasagna, a small soup etc etc. this is more to keep me going, then to satisfy my appetite, which is insatiable and knows no limits.

6pm: take dog out again, another 45min, power walk, some jogging. After that I have another breakfast meal.

7pm: bjj.

8:45pm: at home and last meal. This meal needs to have little to no fat, or carbs. I don’t want fat in my stomach being packed on my body while it sleeps. I want my body to burn my fat off while I sleep. This will be a stir fry type deal, a couple pieces of sandwich meat sliced, a bell pepper or 2, some onion, some cilantro, ginger, fennel seeds, dandelion greens, cayenne, , parsley and a teaspoon or so of flax seed oil in a non stick pan. When I cook it, I am not wilting it, just putting some heat on it. If there are any juices left over drink them, they are not to be wasted. All of those ingredients are important. They all have positive effects on metabolic rate and are generally good for you. I am sure all the herbs have the same calories as a half a head of romaine lettuce, but the positive effects they have far outshine "filler" vegetables.



Week before competition:

I will increase and supplement my cardio. While at home I will do sets of pull ups with a weighted backpack of 35lbs. I will just do sets of 10 or so every hour or so. I will also torture my dog on our nighttime "walk". we will power walk 5 min, sprint for 30 sec, then slow down to a jog for 5 min. I repeat this for 30-45min, or until my dog is dying. (45lb bull terrier that looks like she is on steroids by the way) when we walk, and don’t run, she also gets a weighted backpack of 10lbs.
Food intake stays the same.

At this point I am on weight, and have no issues.

Day prior to competition I stop eating at 6pm, this is to ensure no problems. I don’t eat again until after my weigh in, which is usually after my first match. At this point I drink some half and half water/gatorade. I will also make slurry out of peanut butter, banana, honey and skim milk if I have at least 45 min till my next match. If I don’t have that much time, it’s just gatorade / water mix. Straight gatorade sometimes upsets my stomach and makes me feel sluggish for my next match. I just want some hydration and some electrolytes. I am good without the food for about 20 min of hard action. That’s about 2-3 matches. After that point, without proper food, I am spent. It also takes energy to digest food, and a full stomach when competing can hinder your comfort.




On extreme weight cutting, like back in high school and with USA wrestling: 2 days notice till competition, 10lbs to lose

Breakfast: glass of water. turnip greens, dry. A multi vitamin, copious amounts of chromium picolinate
Lunch, glass of water, an apple.
Dinner, watery brothy soup, a bite of "meat"

1 day till comp
Breakfast: glass of water, 3 multivitamins, copious amounts of chromium picolinate + guarana
Lunch: Zilch
Dinner: big steak, chew steak in mouth, swallow juices, spit out meat.

3 hours before comp.

Trash bag, cut out holes for arms and head. Make custom trash bag for legs, wrap with ace bandage to keep together, and go run. At this point I am chewing tobacco, and spitting all I can. After an hour of this check weight, maybe 1 more pound to go. Run for 30 more min, undress, dry off, and check weight, 1/4lb left. Sit on toilet for 30 min, squeeze everything out, and piss all you can.

Weigh in naked, make weight! That’s the extreme way to lose, I never used any diuretics (unless you count guarana). Never used laxatives.

I have however used clenbuterol with good results before. Clen usually causes me to cramp a lot, and it’s hard to gauge how much water you need. You should be taking L – Taurine if you are using clen. Clen is also only good for week or 2 week cycles, on your down time you should be taking benedryl to help your receptors become receptive again.


I am no expert but this is what works for me. I have never, not made weight and am always at least 10lbs heavier then my competition weight, sometimes 20lbs.

[SuperGuido]

This is excellent, thank you!

I just finished with an experimental one week weight cut to see how my body reacted.

I lost 12 pounds without limiting water (something I refuse to do). I saw a noticeable decrease in the "soft" areas of my body, and my shoulders/arms were still the same size.

Unfortunately, I could NOT recover after work outs, and my endurance/strength sucked. Injuries wouldn't heal, knees hurt, shoulders popped, etc...

Maybe someone can give me some pointers?

This is what I did:

Activity:
-20 minutes moderate cardio every day
-BJJ 2 hours six days a week. Heavy emphasis on conditioning (15 minutes rope jump, around a 1000 stomach reps, several hundred pushups, etc...)
-Armstrong Pull Up Program (Pull Ups every night, push ups every morning)

Food:
-I fasted for three days, then ate light for a day, then fasted again for three days.
-On "Recovery/Tournament" day, I continuously ate handfulls of granola, dried ginger (bad stomach), dried dragonfruit, and raw carrots. Small portions, but continuous.

Fasting = Body weight in water oz + Diluted Pineapple/Grape/Apple Juice + Enhanced Whey Powder in Water/Juice

Internal Cleaning:
-This sucked. I have a troubling stomach, so I wanted a completely empty gut going into the comp.
-First two nights: Serving of Psyllium Husk in the evening, full glass of Prune Juice in the morning.
(By "This Sucked", I mean I felt like I had the stomach flu all day on the second day...i.e. Strong Laxative Effect)
-No movements by "Recovery/Tournament" day, though, so that's good.

Supplements:
-Ribose
-Creatine
-Multi
-Green Tea/Grape Seed
-Omega 3/6
-Saint John's Wort
-Vitamin E
-Vitamin C prior to workout

---

This was a practice attempt, and while I appear to have lost 12 pounds of fat and intestinal weight without limiting water, my energy and recovery was COMPLETELY shot to hell.

Am I doing something wrong?

Should I try an enema night before instead of doing the Prune Juice/Psyllium Husk thing?

Is fasting a bad idea? Should I try to eat small portions of food instead?

---

Thanks again for posting this!

[benonmsn]

What is your body make up?


you didnt eat enough. thats all there is to it. its easy to go a day without food, maybe even 2 days. when were were cavemen/woman some days we didnt eat, thats no big deal. but if your not used to not eating, you are going to shut down. thats why i have 4 or so small meals. my body doesnt know what im eating doesnt have enough calories to store energy untill its digested, and im then eating another meal. i suggest you eat more, but eat low cal things, such as spinach, or just an apple, that will help. if i didnt eat for 3 days i would be in trouble, and very lethargic. about 900 cals a day is good to drop down to.

Also, there is most likely a big diffrence in how your body is metabolizing fat vs what you are eating. if we think of a curve, a little food will probably help you lose weight versus no food. a little food will help your body work and be efficient, no food just shuts you down.

I can, and i think you could as well, lose more then 12lbs in 1 week, without starving. also conditioning your body to more then 1 starving days is bad for many reasons. besides the reasons above, you could be setting up your metabolism to horde food, rather then burn it.

Another helpful hint is to either stay warm, or stay cold. both will make your body work to keep you cool, or keep you warm, both need calories, which you want to burn.

altogether i would not do what you did, you could lose more weight, eating more, have more energy, and be able to recover better after injuries......

[Yohan]

I'm about to start practicing cutting weight as well. I've just made my weight loss goals and am going to see if I can drop from 168 to 155. Thanks for the thread, I'll be referring to this along with my other resources.

[BudoMonkey]

I have more problems putting the weight back on. Any suggestions?

For my last fight I intended to drop from 165 to 155, and I've been stuck at around 153 ever since.

[BudoMonkey]

Here, this well help me Benon: What do you typically eat on one of your 3500 calorie days?

[benonmsn]

I have more problems putting the weight back on. Any suggestions?

For my last fight I intended to drop from 165 to 155, and I've been stuck at around 153 ever since.

i have no issues putting weight back on. Just stick to the basics, carbs, fat, protien. you can do a 3 in 1 with peanut butter. i will eat 2 peanut butter sandwhiches in 1/2 " of peanut butter, washed down with a protien shake. i will also eat 30once steaks, washed down with milkshakes. i can really eat all day long, 4lbs at a time. you just have to work at it. competitive eaters train to eat more food by..... eating

When i was a freshman in high school i was 6' 135lbs. my senior year i was 155lbs. all this time i was eating like crazy. but it was not untill i took it to stupid crazy that i gained weight. eat 5000 calories, count them and make sure you are getting that much, you will be fine. drink weight gainer with your meals, have 5 full meals a day. the more you eat the more you can eat, your body will adapt. the more you stuff your stomach, then more you can stuff your stomach. think of what those 600lb obese people eat that cant move, thats like what i eat. 4 cheese burgers, onion rings, milk shake, side of bacon. 4 times a day. my body is so used to it, and my metabolism so high now, i think im set for atleast 10 years.

when you get bored, eat, before you go to bed, eat, you can do it! make sure you are excersizing though, your body will love the extra food as long as you are making it use it

[benonmsn]

Here, this well help me Benon: What do you typically eat on one of your 3500 calorie days?

its 1:55pm, i will tell you what i have had thus far, and is very typical.

at 7:30 i had left overs. about 6 cups of beef stew, and half a box of macaroni and cheese, and a glass of horchata.

10am at work i had 2 maple long john doughnuts.

12:45 i had 3 chicken enchiladas with avacado on the side, rice, beans, a chocolate chip muffin (large)

1:50 nestle drumstick with fudge center

[benonmsn]

beef stew - 600 cals?
mac and cheese 600 cals
horchata - 4 cups - 500 cals

doughnuts umm 300 each? i dont know

enchiladas - maybe 600 cals
rice and beans 250 cals maybe
avacado - 100 cal

drum stick 360

thats about 3500 right there, and ai have a few more meals to go. i also like to eat right before i sleep

[Yohan]

Here, this well help me Benon: What do you typically eat on one of your 3500 calorie days?

I just started eating 3500 calories a day too - I'm at maintenance.

breakfast: oatmeal and strawberries
Snack: protein bar and strawberries
Lunch: Tuna casserole and strawberries
Snack: Tuna casserole and strawberries (carbing up for MA practice)
Workout
Snack: protein powder and gatorade
Dinner: A huge bucket of root beer and almost half a 16" pizza

Tuesday it was:

Breakfast: Snickers oatmeal, strawberries
Snack: protein bar, strawberries
Workout
Snack: gatorade and protein powder
lunch: Chicken thigh/drumstick, strawberries
Probably run 2 miles
Dinner: Chicken quarter, spinach
Snack: protein bar, spinach
7th meal: veal chops, some vegetables