I’m going to explain the method I used to drop 17 pounds here, but first a caveat. This is not the way to lose weight for aesthetics. If you want to look good, the method I outline below is not the best way to lose weight. That’s because the vast majority of the weight I lost doing this was just water weight. You’ll see below how much and how fast I put the weight back on. This method can be helpful for combat sports, weightlifting competitions, and bodybuilding. You could also use this method for the last few days before a photoshoot, but you better already be lean going in.
In the Fall of 2015, I competed in my first powerlifting competition. The competition was nine days after Thanksgiving, so it was not ideal for cutting weight. Thanksgiving is a high holiday to those of us in the North Country. And while you could definitely have a big eating day on Thanksgiving and make weight nine days later, I made the rookie mistake of letting my “It’s Thanksgiving” excuse bleed over into the Friday, Saturday, and (gulp) Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Sunday night — 214
On that Sunday, I feasted on beers and pizza while watching the Vikings beat the Falcons. I went to bed weighing 16 pounds more than my weight class. I sat at 214 and needed to weigh in at 198. Here’s how I made weight.
Monday morning — 212.4
On Monday morning, I’d held onto carbs from the pizza and weighed 212.4. I skipped breakfast and do not remember lunch or dinner, but I think I had a big dinner. I lifted my maxes and drank two gallons of water. On this day I salted my food liberally.
Tuesday morning — 210
On Tuesday, I weighed 210 in the morning. I skipped breakfast and ate lunch at Chipotle. While I love Chipotle, I limited my “burrito” (I got a bowl) to just 60 carbs. I ate 12 ounces of chicken alone for dinner. I drank two gallons of water throughout the day. The only salt I ate was whatever was in the Chipotle bowl.
Wednesday morning — 207
Wednesday the work began. I weighed 207 in the morning. I did not eat until 5 p.m when I ate five hard-boiled eggs. I then went to a work event and caved a bit: I ate tons of shrimp and celery with some ranch dressing. I thought this may have been a big mistake, but it turned out fine.
Thursday morning — 205.8
On Thursday I woke up at 205.8 and was a bit surprised my weight was not in the 204 range. This being my first cut, I grew a bit scared when I realized I still needed to lose 7.8 pounds in 24 hours. I skipped breakfast and had three cups of coffee before 10 a.m. At that point, I cut out all water other than the occasional small sip. The only thing I ate all day was 10 ounces of chicken. I started to get a bit sore at 2:30 p.m. After work, I went to the sauna weighing 203 pounds. After a while in the sauna, I went home and weighed 201. At this time I felt very sick and generally awful. I saw my fiancé after I got out of the sauna and could barely even talk to her. I slept fine, but my pee was already very yellow. I savored a few ice cubes before falling asleep.
Friday morning (when I woke up) — 200.4
On Friday, I woke up weighing 200.4 pounds. A drop of .6 pounds overnight is very small for me on a normal night (sometimes I lose four or five pounds in a night), so I was worried. I headed straight for the sauna. I did four sets of the sauna for eight to 12 minutes depending on my ability to “stay with it.” I rested between two and five minutes between sets, depending on how hard the last session hit me. This was intensely difficult, and before each session I recruited someone to watch me and make sure I stayed awake. I’m telling you: the sauna can be hard. I did it alone (with supervision), but I will never do it again without having my soon-to-be wife, a buddy, or fellow competitor there with me for moral support.
“I’m telling you: the sauna can be hard . . . I will never do it again without having my soon-to-be wife, a buddy, or fellow competitor there with me for moral support.”
Friday after the sauna — 197.8
After the four sessions, I weighed myself and was at 197.8 so I took a glorious cold shower and left the gym at 7:30 a.m.
Friday at the weigh-in — 196.4
I got to the weigh-in a bit nervous. It was my first weigh-in. What if my scale was bad? What if theirs ran heavy? There was a second chance weigh-in about ten hours later, but I needed those ten hours to rehydrate and get some calories working through me. Two hours after I limped out of the sauna, I weighed in at 196.4.
Friday after breakfast feast — 210
After making weight, I drove to the grocery store and bought an apple fritter that I ate before even making it to the checkout. I drank a pedialyte and a bottle of water. I then met my now-fiancé at Perkins for breakfast. I ate three Perkins pancakes slathered in peanut butter and syrup and an omelet. I drank tons of water. By the time I got home, I weighed 210 again.
I lifted the next day at a healthy 212 pounds.
Now, I am by no means a heavy duty powerlifter or anything. I just enjoyed lifting weights and wanted to see what I could do after training for a short while. And while the meet went well, there are many lessons I learned from it. However, this weight cut went very well. I do not recommend going into a weight cut like this after a day of beer and pizza, but I still made it work.
And even though I was outlifted by a lot of the guys in my weight class, I was bigger than the guys who did not cut.
Many of the experts recommend not to cut weight for your first powerlifting meet, and that’s probably sage advice. I wanted to do the meet and decided to cut not knowing if it would be my only meet ever. I do not regret cutting for it. But if you know you’re going to do powerlifting meets throughout your life, it probably doesn’t hurt to keep the added stress of a cut out of your first meet’s preparation.
Since this meet, my focus has been elsewhere (on my career and engagement), so I have not had the chance to replicate my cut. I think most guys can realistically expect a 10 pound weight loss with pretty minimal effort. That’s a doable, not-so-unhealthy cut where you will lift heavier than your weight class without over-taxing your body. One other factor on my weight cut is that I was a kind of fluffy 214 to start. In my opinion, a guy with low body fat is going to have a more difficult time cutting weight as aggressively even though most the cut is water weight.
Jan 2019 Update: 19 months after writing this, I see this guy’s cut and realize how unimpressive my cut was–wow:
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25777457/tj-dillashaw-makes-biggest-weight-cut-career
