Weight categories are necessary for safety and fair competition in some sports and weight making enjoys a long history and culture in such environments. Although strategies include long term changes in body composition, acute weight loss is typically undertaken in the period immediately before a competition weigh-in via dietary modification, increased exercise, and other strategies that achieve moderate to severe dehydration.

Acute weight loss practices may impair performance and result in serious health and safety risks, however there is evidence that chronic and acute weight loss practices can be undertaken safely and in conjunction with competitive success. A pragmatic approach to making weight involves collaboration between the athlete, coach, and performance support personnel to develop an individualised plan that targets the characteristics of the athlete and their event.

Sporting organisations should play a proactive role in supporting the health, safety and performance of athletes who compete in weight category sports. This role includes the development of weight management policies, support for education activities, providing access to a Core Multidisciplinary Team CMT consisting of an accredited sports dietitian ASD , sports doctor and psychologist, and contribution to an environment and culture that prioritises athlete welfare while supporting performance outcomes.

During training and high intensity exercise carbohydrates are used for energy. When carbohydrates are not replaced, the weight of the stored carbohydrates and the water bound to them is reduced 5. However, it is important to consider that when carbohydrate restriction is too great leading up to competition, there is not enough time to replenish this energy source prior to competition and performance may be negatively impacted.

One important consideration when deciding which acute weight loss strategies to use is the amount of time between the weigh-in and the beginning of the competition. The shorter the amount of time an athlete has to recover after the weigh in, the less aggressive they should be with weight-cutting strategies if they want to perform their best.

Since many acute weight loss strategies restrict fluids and some carbohydrates, replacing these between the weigh in and competition are vital for maximizing performance. Recovery recommendations will vary based on the amount of time the athlete has between the weigh-in and the competition and whether they are competing in a multi-day competition with multiple weigh-ins or not.

The following recommendations will focus on one day competitions where the athlete only has a few hours to recover after the weigh-in. One way to calculate this is by taking their weight at the competition weigh-in and subtracting it from their normal, fully hydrated weight.

For every pound lost, they should try to consume 24 oz of fluid before the competition starts. Right after the weigh-in, athletes should drink oz followed by consistent intake leading up to competition to help keep the volume of fluid in the stomach high. This helps speed up how fast it leaves the stomach so it can be absorbed 4.

When recovery time is limited, it may be difficult to drink enough volume to fully account for the deficit, so athletes should try to consume as much of that fluid as possible as long as it does not cause any GI problems.

Athletes should consume electrolytes along with fluid especially if they used increased sweating as part of their acute weight loss strategy. This can help retain more of the fluid they are ingesting and help them rehydrate faster compared to drinking plain water 6.

Some of the easiest ways to consume electrolytes are by drinking sports drinks or eating salty snacks. Combining both strategies can help increase the amount of salt being consumed and speed rehydration 7.

The other area of nutrition athletes should focus on during the recovery period is carbohydrate intake. During bouts of high intensity exercise lasting minutes, this is going to be the primary fuel source for their activity.

Since athletes typically weigh-in before eating anything, providing the necessary energy to fuel them before the start of the competition is important for performance.

Athletes should try to consume When time is limited carbohydrate dense, liquid options may be the easiest to consume and digest.

Picking foods that have a high glycemic index and that are low in fat and fiber are typically well tolerated and work best 1,7. Some good options are things like fruit snacks, Rice Krispie treats, fig bars, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, pretzels, and sports drinks.

Although the strategies mentioned above are most likely to be effective for weight manipulation, there are a few other strategies that can boost performance that may be worth trying.

One is ingesting caffeine about an hour before competing. Caffeine can make exercise feel easier and improve exercise performance in activities with similar requirements to most weight class sports 7.

For reference, an average 8 oz cup of coffee has about mg of caffeine and a shot of espresso has about 65mg. Especially when there is not enough time between the weigh in to replace the carbohydrates that were restricted during weight cutting, caffeine may be one way to improve performance.

One other strategy athletes can try when they have a limited amount of recovery time is using a carbohydrate mouth rinse. In this scenario, the athlete would rinse their mouth with something like a sports drink for about 10 seconds and then spit it out. It is unclear if this strategy is effective in most weight class sports, but it is low risk and may be beneficial for athletes who do not have enough time to consume or cannot tolerate the amount of carbs they would need to recover from cutting weight.

Regardless of the acute weight loss and nutritional recovery strategies athletes decide to use, they should test them before and during practice and less important competitions 7. There are several factors to consider when developing an effective plan, so determining how many strategies and which ones lead to the best performance for the individual athlete before getting to more important competitions can help prepare the athlete to compete at their best when it matters most.

Have questions? Please feel free to talk to an Athlete Training and Health Performance Coach or Meredith Sorensen, Sports Dietitian, MS, RD, LD with the Memorial Hermann Rockets Sports Medicine Institute. Meredith can be reached at Meredith. Sorensen memorialhermann.

An inability on the part of the athlete to "make the weight" will disqualify the athlete from competition. Strategies have often been devised by athletes to assist in meeting a particular weight category standard, many of which compromise both the ability of the athlete to compete at the optimal level, in addition to placing significant adverse stresses on the function of many bodily systems.

There are two general approaches with respect to how an athlete should achieve and maintain a competitive weight standard. The first is the development of a training program in which the athlete seeks to develop maximum strength and fitness while at all times maintaining the target weight for competition.

The second strategy is to develop maximum strength and fitness without a primary concern for the weight limit, with a concerted weight loss effort immediately prior to competition to come under the standard. The second strategy is premised on the theory that the athlete can bring a level of strength to competition that would otherwise only be attainable at a higher weight.

The number of times during a competition that an athlete will be tested for compliance with the weight category limits varies from sport to sport.

In amateur boxing and wrestling, in which the competitions may span a number of bouts over a period of several days, the athlete will be weighed at the beginning of the competition and then prior to each succeeding match.

Once the athlete has achieved a desired weight, it must be maintained throughout the competition. All weight category sports place significant demands on the body during both competition and in training with respect to sufficient caloric intake, proper nutrition, and hydration. The management of weight targets is another aspect of how the athlete will plan the training for a competitive season, a process known as the periodization of training.

In these sports, weight management is as important to athletic success as the development of sport-specific technique, for without making the proper weight, there is no competition. There are no additional risks to an athlete who maintains competitive weight year-round.

Athletes who must dramatically cut weight before competition create potential physical and psychological risks that must be carefully considered. Weight cutting strategies should first be implemented in the dietary choices made in training, where nutrition-rich, and relatively low-calorie, low-fat foods will reduce the accumulation of excess weight.

The body's ability to repair itself during the rest intervals between workouts is founded on its nutritional intake; when athletes are monitoring their weight, they must seek maximum nutritional return for reduced caloric value. When the athlete seeks to lose weight through a "crash" diet in the period leading up to competition, nutrients that are not stored in the body, including the water-soluble vitamin B complex and vitamin C, may not be present in sufficient quantities to perform their respective maintenance and repair functions.

Vitamin C , as an example, is essential to the production of collagen, a building block of bone, ligaments, and tendons. When the athlete must lose 5 lb 2. The sudden loss of fluids, which must be maintained through the entire competition, will likely impair the performance of the athlete.

The loss of significant quantities of body fluid will directly impact blood volume, which limits the ability of the cardiovascular system to function at peak efficiency.

When the athlete competes in successive bouts at reduced fluid levels, the risk of a heat-related illness triggered by dehydration is significant, as the body's thermoregulatory system will not be able to cool itself as efficiently through perspiration.

Peak athletic performance will require a complete commitment to the employment of competitive strategies and the execution of demanding physical maneuvers. The additional stress imposed on the competitor to make weight or be disqualified may serve as a significant distraction to the efforts of the athlete to maintain competitive focus prior to the event.

The most common dehydration techniques used in weight category sport are the use of "sweat boxes," or similar artificial heating of the athlete to induce perspiration, and taking diuretics. The use of diuretics is a time-honored practice in sports such as boxing; these are substances that stimulate the increased production of urine by the kidneys.

Many diuretics are prohibited in international competitions that are regulated by the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA , although this ban is aimed more at the use of diuretics as a steroid-masking agent than for their use by athletes to achieve a weight.

Diuretic use for any purpose will lead to disqualification. In some youth sports, weight categories are a means of ensuring safety for all participants; American football for players below high school age is an example. see also Boxing ; Rowing ; Weight gain ; Weight loss ; Wrestling. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

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MLA Chicago APA " Weight Categories. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. More From encyclopedia. com Weight Lifting , The origins of weightlifting as a sport are primal, with the main goal the ability to lift more weight than an opponent.

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a weight in boxing and other sports intermediate between bantamweight and lightweight. It ranges from …. About this article Weight Categories Updated About encyclopedia. com content Print Article. You Might Also Like Weight Gain. These dangerous weight loss practices present many negative impacts on the sport of wrestling and in extreme cases lead to the death of some wrestlers.

These deaths associated within wrestling were due to lack of hydration, and malnutrition associated with weight loss. These practices have led the NCAA to implement many changes to the weight classes and weight loss programs. These changes were made in April of to help wrestlers at the collegiate level, better manage and lose weight in a healthy way Hanley, Studies have shown that with the constant weight cutting that a wrestler goes through in a season, it has been linked to a variety of physiological variables that could influence wrestling performance Finn et al.

Finn et al. The effect of weight cutting on a wrestler has only presented even more challenges for athletes competing in the sport. With the lack of nutrition or hydration an athlete competing in wrestling are experiencing the same stressors as other athletes in other sports, along with the constant fear, and stress associated with weight cutting and making weight for competitions.

For a wrestler, losing weight typically will consist of a three- to four-day weight loss period, followed by an immediate binge of food and liquids immediately following the weight-in of a competition Finn et al.

Though bulimia is a medical condition that must be diagnosed by a trained medical professional, typical practices of weight loss in wrestling mirror symptoms of bulimia. The popular style of weight loss within wrestling is a major concern for athletes competing in wrestling, and later can develop into a severe case of bulimia or even evolve into a case of anorexia.

Therefore, for a wrestler not only are they attempting to compete in an athletic sport, they are also competing in a constant struggle of managing and controlling their weight and mental stability.

With all the concerns with weight cutting within wrestling, an athlete will have much more to deal with than many other sports, but these concerns can be resolved through proper training and teaching within the sport of wrestling.

These concerns are typically associated with the habits that a wrestler develops during their introduction to the sport of wrestling Allen, Therefore, to help eliminate not only the risk of developing an eating disorder due to wrestling, but also the constant mental and physical struggles that an athlete may experience.

Proper training and support must be shown at the beginning of the introduction of wrestling, through coaches, parents, and teammates. With the introduction of any sport there is an emphasis on safety.

Therefore, a young wrestler and their parents should be introduced to the fundamentals of the sport, alongside the importance of nutrition and hydration associated with making a weight class.

This education to the athlete and parents can help them realize the dangers associated with wrestling beyond the physical damage that it can do to the body, but also help illustrate the psychological damage that can be done as well.

By educating all members of the sport, the wrestling community can start developing safer and healthier ways of cutting weight. Alongside the initial education of all factors that contribute to physical and psychological damage associated with a wrestler.

Wrestlers and their parents should attend meetings that reeducate them on the topic of weight loss and nutrition to reinforce the importance of safety within the sport.

With having the athletes and their parents being educated of the potential risk with wrestling, along with the education of eating disorders, nutrition, and hydrations, the next most important to be held accountable for the safety of the wrestler is the coach.

When coaching a wrestling team, there are a list of responsibilities that must be achieved to ensure the safety of the athletes and help foster an environment that all athletes are given the best opportunity to succeed. These needs can sometimes overshadow the individual athletes of the sport.

Due to wanting to have a complete roster of wrestlers, where you can have an athlete in each weight class. A coach may ask an athlete to drop weight in the pursuit of achieving a full roster. With this strategy the coach is completing their roster, at the expense of one of their athletes.

This meeting should include discussing with the athlete what their weight class goals are, along with discussing their goals for the season. By doing a meeting with each athlete the coach is protecting their privacy in their ambitions and goals within the sport, along with helping them develop a safe plan to help alleviate the issues that are associated within wrestling.

Along with meeting with each athlete, the coach is also responsible for ensuring the safety of the athletes within the practice room. Therefore, as a coach, developing an intense practice that can help athletes manage their weight is important, but also ensuring no athlete goes overboard in their pursuit of weight loss.

These pursuits of weight loss may include wearing multiple layers of clothing to help dehydrate themselves, turning the temperature up in the practice room and also refusing to hydrate themselves.

As a coach, they must be aware of the environment and the safety of the athlete. Therefore, if an athlete is struggling making weight and resorting to extreme measures of weight loss, the coach should step in and reevaluate the goals of the athlete from the preseason meeting.

Since the goal of the coach is to better the athlete and help them perform at the highest level they can compete at. Wrestling is not only one of the oldest sports in the world, but its also one of the most misunderstood sports people can compete in. Throughout the evolution of wrestling, wrestling has become more accessible for any athlete to compete in and find success in, but to accomplish this many physical and psychological concerns were created as well.

These concerns led to many changes within how the NCAA handles weight loss within wrestling. However, throughout all the struggles, concerns and boundaries that are presented within wrestling.

Wrestling helps foster many important life lessons within their athletes.