Weight Cutting for Mixed Martial Arts

As with any sort of health or dietary advice, you will want to consult with your doctor (I am not one!) prior to undertaking anything like this to ensure it will be safe for you.

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There's no real magic to the first part (dieting). You simply have to take in less calories than you use. That means eating lighter and doing more cardio. Also, do your cardio first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach. This will ensure you're burning stored energy and not energy from food you've just eaten.

The second part is "cutting", whereby you lose weight from shedding water, usually done within 24 hours before the weigh ins. There are some specific methods for doing this. The best information I've found (and the methods i've personally used) were found in a combination of two places (I've pasted the links at the bottom of my own explanation).

First, you'll want to get your weight to 8-10lbs above (through proper diet/exercise) your weigh-in weight (so if you're fighting at 155, you'll wanna be 163-165) by 24 hours before your weigh-in.

Here's an example of what I might eat in a day where I am dieting (I walk around 185-190 and fight at 170 right now):
Breakfast (9am.. after my cardio workout): 1/2 cup All Bran Buds and 1/3 cup dried cranberries (I eat this dry, but you could put a bit of milk on it... make sure you drink a couple of glasses of water with it, as the psyllium fibre absorbs a TON of it.

Snack 1 (10:30am): ISO Whey protein powder mixed with lukewarm water (so I can slam it back fast... that shit tastes gross!)

Lunch (12pm): Bison or chicken breast wrap. No sauces (if you have to, you can use a small amount of BBQ sauce or something)... but have as many veggies as you like on it.

Snack 2 (3pm): ISO Whey protein on water

Supper (6pm): This is my "big" meal of the day... Usually it's a grilled chicken breast or steak, plus a vegetable (I personally love asparagus, but broccoli, green beans, etc are all good too) and roasted sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are VERY good for you and it also turns out they're absolutely delicious.

Snack 3 (8pm): This is something I couldn't usually resist... I get really hungry in the evenings, so I'd usually need a small snack. Generally I tried to stick with things high in protein and low in carbs. Can of tuna or smoked oysters... or even another whey protein dose.

It's not a whole lot... but with the cardio, I lose weight like there's no tomorrow!

So once you've got your eating in check, you'll need to think about "cutting" the water weight. Here's how I went about that:

5 Days before weigh in (In weigh in is Friday, start the previous Sunday):
Up water intake to 2 gallons a day. Don't guess on this... have a gallon water jug there with you all day and refill it once. Make sure you're drinking all of this water. It will make you pee like there's no tomorrow. I'm serious. You'll be up two or three times a night to pee. It sucks. A bit extra sodium is ok too, but don't overdo it. Also, it's natural to put on a few pounds (I actually put on about 5lbs the first day and just about had a heart attack) from this. Do not panic.. it's gone within a day once your body adjusts to the increased water.

2 Days before weigh in (If weigh in is Friday, start Wednesday):
Cut out sodium and drop water intake to 1 gallon. You'll still be peeing a lot, but at least you won't be up every couple hours!

24 hours before the weigh in (If weigh in is Friday at 5pm, start Thursday at 5pm):
Your weight should be within 8-10lbs by now. Cut all food and water intake. Totally. No food. No water. This will be very difficult (I actually almost didn't sleep due to being dry-mouthed and constantly thinking about water). You can rinse your mouth and gurgle, but do NOT swallow any water at all.

Do a cardio session (including sauna suit, if you like) late in the evening to begin water loss. Nothing ridiculous... you're not working your conditioning... just getting your heart rate up and the sweat flowing. Usually takes about 20 mins of shadow boxing for me.

The morning of the weigh in:
Weigh yourself first thing. You should be 4-5lbs off. Maybe even less.

Eat 1 Balance Bar (or similar meal replacement bar). The one I used had protein, carbs, fats, and weighed no more than 66 grams. You'll need this for some energy. Again, NO water.

Do one cardio session in heavy clothes. You can also use a "sauna suit" or garbage bag/duct tape to induce more sweating. I do one session in the morning for about 20 mins, then sit around and sweat for 20 mins. It feels disgusting (especially in a sauna suit... the sweat pools around your groin! ICK!). Then into the shower and towel off. I then weigh myself. If everything is right, I've lost around 3-4 lbs (so you should be 1-3lbs off your target now at most).

Now, you should have access to the scale you're going to weigh in on about 2 hours prior to the actual weigh ins. Go and check yourself on this scale (all are different... mine at home was actually 2lbs higher than the commission's scale here in Calgary). If you're within a pound of your weight, you should be good to go in 2 hours without any extra work (I was 170.5lbs at this point... 2 hours later I weighed in at 170 exactly). If you're higher than that, time for one last cardio/sweat session, and you should be good to go.

After you weigh in, you must start the rehydration process immediately. I recommend Pedialyte for this. I actually polished off 2L of it within an hour right after I weighed in. After your first litre of fluid, start the food intake again. Start with simple foods (I had some whole wheat buns and roast beef), and remember to keep drinking water constantly. You want to have a clear urine stream by the time you fight.

Here are the links I found the information I used on:

Making The Weight: http://www.graciemag.com/?c=150&a=4147

Thread where Chris Brennen helps another fighter lose weight before a fight (very informative, if a little long): http://www.mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=L...&FID=96&pc=245

If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them!

(Link to original post on KOTC forums: http://www.keepersofthecage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45497&postcount=2)