23/01/2026
Weight making via starvation unfortunately still exists.
A lick of fresh air for breakfast, ice cubes for lunch and 3 spinach leaves for dinner.
It’s not only at the higher levels of combat sports, but just as much, if not more so at lower levels. Most concerning of all is that I commonly see it among teens and people competing for the first time.
There are a few main paths that can lead to an athlete ending up eating (or I should probably say, not eating) like this, to try and make weight:
1) Leaving weight management until the last minute and panic cutting as a result, needing to dial in earlier for fights or comps.
2) Trying to cut too much overall, needing to accept that they may be simply trying to compete at the wrong weight class for them.
3) Lack of understanding on how to manipulate weight on competition weeks, without resorting to massive undereating.
Depending on a few factors like your lag time between weigh in and fighting, your age, gender, body composition and your habitual diet leading in to fight week, there are a few simple levers we can pull on this week to manipulate your body weight while still eating a surprising amount.
These levers include manipulation of: food volume, carb intake, fibre intake, sodium intake, water intake, active and passive sweating.
If you figure out which levers to pull and how much to pull them, for your specific situation, your fight weeks and weight making will get a lot more comfortable, healthier and performance supporting 🤝