How I Made Weight by Losing 5-lbs in 5 Days

[NorwichGrad]

”If the PRIZE is big enough, the size of the PRICE you have to pay is irrelevant.”

I entered my third weightlifting meet this past Saturday. What made this meet a bit challenging is that I personally set a personal goal to lift at a lighter weight class (85-kg).

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...post1293891721

(PS - Disregard what I wrote in that thread regarding losing 10-lbs in a week. I misspoke.)

I don’t know how you physique athletes do it to make weight, but please share. I would love to learn from others.

Actual preparation actually began a month before when I stopped drinking beer and soda, and I stopped eating processed crap. I still ate whenever I got hungry, just no junk allowed. I didn’t track my macros either. I just simply ate clean. On August 23, I weighed around 200-lbs.

So by September 14, I was 192-lbs just by eating clean. At this point I still had 5-lbs to go.

SUN – 192lbs (87.3 kg) Started drinking 6 bottles of water a day. (12 half-liter bottle). I was given the guideline to eat the following for the whole week:
Breakfast – 4 eggs and 2 toast
Lunch and Dinner – Chicken breast and some rice and veggies

MON - 191.6 drank 6 bottles of water

TUE - 191.2 drank 10 bottles of water

WED - 190.7 drank 12 bottles. Violated guideline when I substituted beef with my coach’s knowledge. And I skipped carbs.

THU - 190.4 PANIC TIME! Only 0.3 lbs lost? Coach got mad. He said no beef because it stays in system much longer than chicken. He got even madder when I did not consume carbs the day before because I was carb depleted too early. He said eat chicken and rice. 14 bottles of water. I was starting to feel ‘NOT RIGHT,’ as if I was going ‘cookoo.’ Apparently overhydrating can cause one to become somewhat schizophrenic.

FRI - 191.4 BIGGER PANIC. WTF HAPPENED? Coach said relax. This is normal since I ate rice the day before to replenish carb. Coach said eat chicken only. No more carbs, fruits, veggies. 10 bottles WITH LEMON. I consumed 6 lemons that day. Stopped drinking and eating at 2PM.

FRI at 8PM – 2 cycles of HOT BATH.. Lost a pound.

SAT - MEET DAY
Woke up early
3am – 188.4 lbs
3:30 am – HOT BATH Also had some serious heart palpitations.
4am - 187.4 lb
4:30 - left the house and drove 2.5 hours. Turned up the heat in the car and wore hooded sweater.
7:00 AM - 186.3 (84.7kg) GOAL ACHIEVED. Hallucinating by this point.

So what is this hot bath thingy, you ask? Basically, I filled up my tub with hot water and submerged my body in it for ten minutes. Taking a shower will open up your pores, while take a bath will seal the pores. After 10 minutes I got out of the tub and wrapped myself in towel for 10 minutes and just let the sweat pour. You could potentially lose 1-lb per cycle. This thermo-thingy should only be used as a last resort. I had to use it because I was a bonehead and did not listen to my coach.

Hats off to you bodybuilders. You do this for a living.

[Plateauplower]

I remember many occasions making weight for wrestling tournamnets, no food for a day, wearing a plastic garbage bag to cut the last few lbs of water, weigh-in then rehydrate and eat about 2 days worth of food. Its not smart or healthy to dehydrate to make weight, and they check hydration levels now for wrestling, but didnt then. That doesnt sound fun cranking it out at the last minute, I remeber it very well though.

[silverlightning]

that must have been mentally tough for you. i remember when i had to lose 5 lbs in a day or two for high school wrestling. chewing gum and spitting, sitting in the sauna, running with a rubber suit, not eating. it was never fun and that is why i hate cutting weight to this day.

[acrawlingchaos]

By the skin of your teeth.....

I imagine you probably left some strength behind on the cut. When dropping water, making sure most of it is from depletion will help maintain strength, but dehydrating yourself can tank you hard. Hitting a PR in that condition must have been on nothing but sheer will.


Any ideas on what you would do different next time around.... and congrats man. Impressive lifts.

[heatwave13]

Wow, what a crazy ride that was, but you made it. I saw a lot of that back when did olympic lifting. Props to you for committing to that.

[Marius_Ursus]

Crazy cut.

You need to talk to Gary, bro.

[NorwichGrad]

Thanks, fellas!

My strength was zapped for sure.. I got red lighted on my second snatch because of slight press out just from being fatigued. Opening with a 100-CJ was a risk I took. The 105 was all out. And the 110 attempt I was completely drained.

Next time my plan is to have a bodybuilding lifestyle from an eating standpoint.. I neglected to reduce excess fat after last year's Holidays. I plan to maintain around 195ish during off season. Plus it's healthy anyway.. In fact, I plan to have one day a week of dedicated bodybuilding routine. I will mainly do isolation and some chest exercises on bb day because I already do lots of back and front squats, back exercises and overhead movements as a weightlifter.

The hot bath thingy was not even planned by my coach.. But because I didn't listen to him when I ate beef instead of chicken, he had no choice but to have me do it.

[induced_drag]

I have dropped weight a few times. It can be easily done with carb, water and sodium manipulation. Doing it without having a big impact upon your strength can be tough. It is pretty easy for me to drop about 8lbs in one week with just carb restriction. I dont have to go keto, but pulling back to aprox 200g/ day will do this. Problem is my glycogen loss tanks my strength.

I have to find a way as well in the near future that works for me. I stay at 203-205 ish and will have to make 198's. I however do my best lifting bloated up a little on few days of high carb, high sodium. This will put me in the 210 range. My weight class is 198, so I think if I want my best showing, it will be a cut to 195ish and then start carbing and salting up timing it so I can make my weight and then come in lifting about 5-6 lbs heavier.

In the end, I am not sure if I will go through the trouble, but I have been trying to figure out what I will do for my next comp.

[angrypenguin54]

You can check out fighters logs as they probably do the most prolific weight cuts for competition. Usually the weigh ins are the day before though, giving them time to replenish. Its not uncommon to see a 15 to 20 lbs swing from weigh in to fight time.

It is generally not recommended to cut much weight for same day weigh ins, maybe a pound or 2 at most. Dehydration cannot only affect your performance, but can lead to injury.

With all that said, great job on the meet and the PR!