We have a much needed article based on the nutritional side of Weightlifting. The author of the article is Anthony Wainwright who I urge you to follow on Twitter @nutrition_2_win. Anthony delivers very good information on nutrition, as you will find out very shortly, so don’t miss the other free bits of advice he has to offer! Over to Anthony...




Making weight is one of the most discussed topics in sports where competitors are divided into weight classes. Competitors in sports such as Weight Lifting, Boxing and wrestling will often take part in dangerous practices, in order to compete in the lowest weight class possible, trying to gain any possible advantage.

Common ways of making weight include Dehydration (through sauna’s and severely restricting fluids), use of laxatives, restricting electrolyte consumption and extreme dieting. All the afforementioned techniques are not only dangerous, they are hugely counter-productive to athletic performance.

Athletes need to focus on maximizing the strength and ability of functional tissue, and at the same time, keep body fat to a minimum. For example, there are 2 athletes competing in a weight lifting event, they both weigh 100kg. Athlete A has 10% body fat, where as Athlete B has 20% body fat, this means that Athlete A has somewhere in the region of 10kg of extra muscle, and we all know, fat doesn’t lift weights!

Let’s take a look at the things which can be reduced in order to make a lower weight class, whilst maintaining optimal performance:

Fat: Fat is simply stored energy, each time you consume more calories than what you burn, your body will store it for future use. Fat is used as an energy source primarily during long, low intensity aerobic exercise. This is useful if you are going to be competing in Iron Man Triathlons, but certainly not for Weight Lifting where your efforts are 100% anaerobic. Any extra fat is useless, and serves only to make you heavier. Getting rid of body fat should be the number one priority for any athlete interested in cutting weight, however, it is also the one that requires most discipline. Dieting for an athlete is not the same as dieting for your next door neighbour who wants to get rid of her ‘muffin tops’. Losing body fat, whilst maintaining or even increasing your performance is one of the trickiest things in sports nutrition, something I will cover in detail in another article.

Glycogen: Glycogen is your body’s reservoir of stored carbohydrates. It is the energy source your body taps into when your energy requirements exceed that of low intensity aerobic work. Glycogen is stored in the muscles and in the liver, ready to be used as and when is needed. If your glycogen stores are depleted, carbohydrate consumption will top them up. The thing with glycogen, when it comes to making weight is this; for each gram of glycogen, your body will attach 2.7 grams of water to it in your muscles and liver. So if you have 700g of stored carbohydrates in your body, you will be carrying 1.9kg of water alongside this, making a total of 2.6kg. I know at first, this seems contradictory (weightlifting is intense, surely we need glycogen?). Well to use an analogy, think of glycogen as petrol in a race car. A race car with lower petrol is no slower or less powerful than a race car with a full tank. You see, glycogen only dictates how long you can keep your work rate up, it doesn’t affect maximal power. I would never recommend completely depleting your body’s glycogen stores, but they certainly don’t need to be full for an event where extremely short bursts of maximal power are required.

Water: Water weight isn’t just a side effect of glycogen storage, your body weight is 60-70% water. Many athletes use saunas to sweat out excess water, they also restrict fluids, sometimes for 2 days in order to rid the body of water content. Without water, your body simply cannot function, every single reaction that occurs in your body, needs water to take place. Being dehydrated is probably the best way to under-perform. Athletes like to think that they can weigh in, then re-hydrate (in some sports where the weigh in is the day before the event, this is possible) but for weightlifting, where you are weighed in just an hour before the event, it is impossible.
Water is held in the body, bound to electrolytes (sodium and potassium mainly). Sodium holds water extra-cellularly, which is why it can be responsible for ‘water retention’ problems. Potassium on the other hand, holds water intracellularly, keeping the muscles hydrated and functioning properly. The key to dropping water weight safely, is by manipulating your consumption of electrolytes, focussing on foods with higher potassium and lower sodium. This will allow you to lose any extra water weight that is not beneficial to your performance. Coconut water (not milk) banana’s, kiwi fruits and fresh greens are all good sources of potassium, as is red meat, which you should be eating anyway!
Sodium reduction is something that is good to start just 3 days out from an event, If you start too early, your body will release a hormone called aldosterone which will influence your body to hold onto any sodium you do consume, and will restrict any loss of fluid. Once you cut sodium, you will need to INCREASE your water consumption to a minimum of 5 litres per day. Without water going in, aldosterone will be released, with lots of water going in regularly, your body has no real need to retain water. I advise people to stop drinking water approximately 6 hours before the weigh in if necessary, this will give your body time to excrete fluids from your digestive system, but not enough time to dehydrate if your potassium level is high enough.

Fibre: This may raise a few eyebrows, but a simple explaination of how fibre works should help your eyebrows lower themselves. Fibre works by sitting, undigested in your digestive tract, it attracts water, which acts as a cleanser effectively. A high fibre diet is also known as a high residue diet. All the extra weight in your digestive system is completely unnecessary for lifting weights, so cutting down on the higher fibre foods such as grains and fibrous vegetables in the 3-5 days leading up to an event can lead to a decent amount of weightloss. Obviously, fibre is hugely beneficial to health and performance over the long term, and is something athletes should pay attention to for the rest of the time.

Rough timeline for making weight:

8-10 weeks out: Start focussing on reducing body fat (future article)
(glycogen lowering will happen throughout the dieting process)

5 days out: Switch to a low residue diet, remove foods such as brown rice, broccoli, sweet potato’s. Also bread and pasta, however, if following my fat loss protocol, bread and pasta will be only a distant memory to you.

3 days out: Reduce sodium intake as much as possible. Ketchup, sauces, condiments, tuna in brine, egg whites are all sources that need to be cut out. Drink lots of water. Dandelion Root Extract is a brilliant supplement to take at this time. It works as a mild diuretic, but is a good source of potassium.

6 hours out: Stop drinking water.

Following these fairly straight forward guidelines will help you lose the maximum amount of weight possible, without affecting your performance. After weighing in, eat something light and take on some fluids, I tend to opt for a banana, some coconut water and a few Hobnobs or Jaffa cakes.

You should be weighing yourself everyday, to ensure you are on track. As a rule of thumb, if I am 2kg heavy at 5 days out, I am on target. I know that the adjustments made in the final few days will reduce my weight by 2 - 2.5kg.  Weigh yourself first thing every morning after going to the toilet, this will give you a true reflection of your actual weight.

I hope this article has been helpful to anyone who has to make weight. I also hope that it prevents anyone from taking potentially dangerous and performance destroying steps to making such weight.