First time cutting weight
I’d been on a cut diet over the past couple weeks ever since I knew I would be competing in this tournament and managed to get to 148lbs (from 155lbs) for the featherweight class. Only problem is that the second day of the tournament required weighing in with your gi AND being 2lbs lighter for the same class. My gi weights 3lbs so that means I had 4lbs to cut.
Here’s how my day and weight cutting went:
- Midnight (last night) - no more drinking water
- 7:30am - wake up, use the bathroom, then walk across the street to my gym and check my weight. Still at 148lbs, 151lbs with my gi on. 148 is fine for the no-gi competition, but I need to be at 147 with my gi on.
- 8:00am - Decided I could have an apple for some good carbs/sugar. It would be all the food I’d eat until after weigh ins.
- 9:30am - head to the chiropractor to get my back adjusted. I pinched something a couple of days ago and was having a lot of pain in my lower back. All better now!
- 12:00pm - Arrive at a LA Fitness in Vista, CA (near Carlsbad). Time to put on the plastics. I wore a pair of track pants over the bottoms, a long sleeved under armour type shirt under the plastics on top with a hoodie over that. Spend 20 minutes on the treadmill, sprinting for the first 1/2 mile to work up a sweat, then spent the remainder of the time walking quickly.
- 12:20pm - Spend 10 minutes on an excercise bike
- 12:30pm - Check weight. The scale was not very acurate but it appeared I lost 2 pounds. 2 more to go.
- 12:40pm - Spend the next 20 minutes in the steam room with the plastics still on (I ditched the sweats by this point).
- 1pm - Checked weight again. I had lost another 1-2lbs. I decided this was good enough as I was within a 1/2lb. It was hard to tell with their crummy scale.
- 1:15pm - Drove over to the weigh ins in Carlsbad. When I arrived they told me I didn’t need to wear my gi on the scale afterall. Why did their website insist you would have to wear your gi? I weighed in at 144.5lbs without my gi. Basically, I wasted an hour and starved myself to shed those last few pounds for no reason. Bummer. At least I know I can get rid of about 4lbs in an hour if I ever have to make weight for another match in the future.
Even though it was all for naught, the experience was kind of fun. You see what these fighters go through on TV all the time. It wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought it would be, but then again, I only cut 4lbs. If I had to do much more than that I probably would have had a harder time.
I’m pretty excited for the tournament tomorrow. My buddy’s coming with me to film it. I’ll probably get my butt whooped and go home early but what the heck, it’s all for the experience right?
