Pre-competition Weight Loss Strategies To Achieve The Desired Category Weight In Combat Sports Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

PURPOSE: To describe the proportion of college combat athletes that follow some dietary and non-dietary strategies to loss body weight before a competition. METHODS: We evaluated 80 college athletes (21.1 ±2.7 y; 51 males, 29 females) from different combat sports (wrestling 23, boxing 7, judo 21, karate 14, and taekwondo 15; 77.5% of the sample had competitions at national level and 21.3% at international level). We applied a questionnaire to account for some of the followed dietary and non-dietary strategies to achieve the desired competition weight three months before a state tournament. The questionnaire consisted of 35 items. The questions asked the subject if he/she usually perform that strategy for pre-competition weight loss. Also, the questionnaire asked the subjects about if they showed some of the most common side effects of weight loss. The results were reported as frequencies and proportions. RESULTS: The most common dietary strategies for pre-competition weight loss were to reduce or avoid the consumption of fats and flours and sugars (Table 1). On the other hand, the most common non-dietary strategies to pre-competition weight loss were increasing physical activity and using sauna (Table 1). The most common side effect related to pre-competition weight loss was overall fatigue (39, 48.8%), followed by low performance in trainings (30, 37.5%), susceptibility to diseases (29, 36.3%) and irritability or aggressiveness (27, 33.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of fat consumption and the increase of physical activity were the most common strategies for pre-competition weight loss. Some extreme strategies were also reported but not as common. Some of the mechanisms of these strategies may be related to the side effects of weight loss and not just for the weight loss itself. A comparison by sex and by type of sports deserves further analysis.Table 1: Proportion of dietary and non-dietary strategies for pre-competition weight loss