Hi, this is Kevin Don, the Get Fit Guy.

Now, this past week I received an email from a listener whose son is a wrestler,

and he just qualified for the Greco-Roman wrestling nationals.

She was asking me about more healthy ways to cut weight.

So first of all, I want to say congratulations to your son. What an amazing achievement in any sport to qualify for nationals.

And I wish your son every success. So what is weight cutting? Well, it's a practice predominantly used in combat sports, like boxing, mixed martial arts, wrestling and judo, involves athletes losing weight rapidly before a competition in order to qualify for a lower weight class, which theoretically gives them a size and strength

advantage over a lighter opponent. The practice itself is controversial and does carry significant

health risks, yet it remains prevalent due to the perceived competitive benefits. I have a

personal story about weight cutting, I'll tell you, which is that in

2012, I was fortunate enough to win the Hong Kong Full Contact Karate Tournament. I say

fortunately, because I was absolutely exhausted. And the reason I was was rapid weight loss.

So I showed up at this tournament, then to compete in the under 90 kilogram

weight class, and I showed up at 89 and a half kilos.

And it was what we call the same day weigh-in.

So in some sports like boxing, you'll see weigh-ins happening the day before,

which gives you a chance to really cut

weight because you know you've got like a whole day to replenish nutrients and rehydrate yourself.

Some sports to discourage this weight loss are same day weighing. So I showed up expecting to

be under 90 kilo and then in one of those kind of weird sometimes situations we find in sports where organizers are trying to manipulate outcomes.

They had decided that morning that the weight classes were shifting by five kilos.

So I was now going to be in an open heavyweight class with fighters that were

over, you know, 65 pounds heavier than myself. So because I didn't really fancy fighting someone

...