I have not seen much written about water weight loss/cutting with respect to Olympic Lifting so I figured I could contribute some ideas and procedures. I will write this from applied (coach/athlete) perspective not a scientific perspective. You can go here if you need expert advice on weight loss and get their best doet and workout plant, or click to visit website on nutritional cleansing and weight loss.Notes before reading further:
- Do practice runs don't do this for the first time before a meet
- Everyone's body is different and responds different
- I do not have no direct experience relating to hormonal water weight fluctuations so I will not comment on that.
First let's breakdown weight loss into two categories
(1) Tissue Loss (Fat and/or Muscles) - this article will not go into detail regarding methods for this. Although I will say methods outlined by Renaissance Periodization.com have worked for me and my athletes(2) Water weight loss - this article will focus on this topic (How much, how, why, when, etc.)
HOW MUCH WEIGHT
Personal experience(athlete and coaching) tells me you can lose about 1.5kg- 4kg of water weight with minimal effect on performance, assuming you have a 2 hour window to rehydrate. For example a 62-69kg male can lose 2-2.5kg water very close to weigh-ins with minimal performance impact. A 58kg female can lose 1.5kg-2kg of water with minimal impact. Heavier men can lose closer to 4kgs of water because it is in relation to percent of body mass. Any more than these numbers a longer term weight management approach needs to be taken that involves (1) Tissue Loss .
WHEN AND HOW (lets assume an 10am weigh in)
Day BeforeFocus on eating nutrient dense food that is not too salty (or at least no saltier than you typically eat). Drink lots of water until about 6-7pm. Check weight right before bed.Day of Competition Check weight first thing in the morning. Generally most people will lose 0.5kg-1.0kg overnight. Have a very small nutrient dense breakfast. I personally like to have small-medium sized extra-strong coffee as I feel this gets your bowels moving and aids in clearing out some additional weight. Whatever water weight remains can be lost by any combination of the following activities: Sauna, Hot Bath/Hot Tub, or Hot Car. Avoid activities such as running or jumping rope with lots of clothes on. As this tires out the lifter pre-competition. Things like this are to reserved for last ditch efforts and should not be the norm. Everyone's body is different so practice the method you are going to use and figure out how much water weight you will lose in 20-30 minutes. The GOAL IS SIMPLE become dehydrated in the LEAST TAXING WAY possible AS CLOSE to the weigh-in time as POSSIBLE. The longer you are dehydrated the longer it takes your body to recover!Post Weigh-inDrink room-temperature fluids. I like Coconut water or gatorade cut 50:50 with water. Many people like pedialyte and find it particular helpful if you are cutting an amount of water weight more on the extreme end of what is possible. Eat foods that you typically eat before training, hours before competition is no time to try something new. That said have a good amount of carbohydrates to give your body energy
