Steps to ensuring you make your bodyweight class

Leo Isaac

leoisaac@powerup.com.au

Three weeks before wishing to compete in a major tournament in 54Kg class the lifter weighs 56.5Kg (5% overweight). This will be a difficult task. In effect the lifter has allowed his/her bodyweight to go too high. For young and growing lifters, 5% over bodyweight class should be considered a reason to go up to the next class.

To make weight what should the lifter do?

1. The amount of weight which is usually lost on the last night before competition is about 2% of bodyweight. For a 54Kg lifter this will be equivalent to 1Kg. This weight would be normally lost between the time of going to bed and getting up.

2. Provided the lifter neither eats nor drinks between getting up and weighing-in a further 0.1Kg (0.15Kg for larger people) will be lost every hour. In major tournaments the 54Kg lifter is prone to weigh-in early. Therefore probably no more than 0.1Kg will be lost before the weigh-in (i.e lifter gets up at 7 am and weighs in at 8 am.

3. In this particular example it is likely that the 54Kg lifter should abstain from food and drink for a number of hours before going to bed. If athlete goes to be at 10 pm and does not eat or drink anything from 5 pm until going to bed, the lifter will lose a further 0.5Kg (0.1Kg per hour for 5 hours).

4. The remaining bodyweight which must be lost in the three weeks leading up to the tournament is 0.9Kg and this must be lost by dietary control. The athlete should weigh himself/herself on accurate scales or at least scales which have been calibrated on a daily basis. Particularly fats must now be reduced to a minimum.

The following is recommended:

• No fried foods or takeaways
• Remove as much fat from any meats that you eat (i.e.cut the fat off). This includes removing skin from chicken. Grill your meat.
• Avoid foods such as cakes, biscuits, crisps etc as all are high in fat
• If you are prone to using sugar use artificial sweetener instead.
• Spread only the thinnest amount of butter or margarine on bread.

but you can:

• eat as much fruit and vegetables as you like
• eat a reasonable quantity of bread provided there is little (preferably none) butter or margarine on it.

For the above 54Kg lifter, the task of losing 0.9Kg in 20 days does not require drastic measures. The amount which must be lost per day is 50g and this is equivalent to energy deficit of 450 Kcal. If the lifter's average consumption is 2,500 Kcal then it should be reduced to 2,050Kcal (18%). This could accomplished by the above modification of diet.

Summary

Lifters has 2.5Kg to lose in three (3) weeks:

  Amount to be Lost                  How

        0.9Kg          Dietary control over 20 days
        0.5Kg          Dehydration for 5 hours before going to bed the day 
                       before competition
        1.0Kg          Weight loss overnight, last night before competition
        0.1Kg          Weight loss in one hour before weigh-in

       2.5Kg          Total