Cutting weight was introduced by the sport of wrestling. This formed because people in higher weight classes or in the middle of two weight classes wanted to become the most dominant fighters they could be. So these individuals started using a number of different techniques to lower their body weights to reach these brackets. The techniques they started to use where dieting, various exercise routines, and dehydration. The weight classes or brackets are as follows 125lbs is fly weight, 135lbs is bantam weight, 145lbs is feather weight, 155lbs is light weight, 170lbs is welter weight, 185 is middle weight, 205lbs is light heavy weight, and 225lbs and above is heavy weight. Also there is a weight class or agreement of sorts called a catch weight. This is when two athletes who will face off agree to fight at a certain weight and show up at weigh ins at that weight, So for instance there isn’t a 115lbs weight class, so two 115lbs fighters could set up a catch weight bout. As a result athletes had more and more success with this practice because they were able to overpower there opposition. So as time went on cutting weight became wide spread in combat type sports such as mixed martial arts, jiu jitsu, judo, and sambo respectively.
Eating Disorders are any severe disturbance in ones eating behavior. This could be from extreme over eating or lack thereof. This is a big part of weight cutting because fighters will develop these eating disorders and not even realize it in order to fight in various weight classes. These eating disorders include starvation, anorexia nervosa and even bulimia.
Starvation is the act or instance of starving and is a big aspect of eating disorders. This in English is not eating and attaining the nutrients to sustain a healthy body. This comes in to play with the weight cut because the easiest thing most athletes can think of when cutting weight is if you do not eat you will lose the necessary weight. Usually a weight cut will start with the necessary healthy dieting, Such as eating the required portions staying away from unhealthy foods etcetera. But as competition becomes closer and the athlete is not at their desired weight from lack of knowledge or discipline they will resort to starvation to make weight.
Anorexia nervosa comes into play during and after the weight cut in the athletes life. Reason being is most fighters will cut till they only have about four percent body fat which is a lot less than the healthy limit. Also most fighters will continuously feel fat even though they are way below their minimum guidelines for weight and are indeed very slim. One of the main characteristics of Anorexia nervosa is an intense fear of gaining weight. If you’re a fighter with massive amounts of stress on you to make weight for a fight in front of how ever many thousands of people you can bet top dollar that fighter has fear of gaining one gram of weight.
Bulimia has all the factors anorexia nervosa has plus binge eating, laxative use, and self-induced vomiting. The reason bulimia becomes involved in the weight cut is because some fighters will over use laxatives in an effort to flush there system. Some athletes have reported using laxatives for over ten days when directions for use say discontinue use over three days. On the weeks leading up to a fight a fighter might eat something he shouldn’t have and feel horrible about it. This will lead to depression and self-induce vomiting to purge them self’s of the guilty feeling and potential weight they might gain. As for after their competition many fighters will be depressed because they know they don’t have a competition for a little while and will feel empty. But they realize that once there competition comes near they will have to go back to weight cutting. This can lead to binge eating up until a specific date the fighter chooses. As with binge eating the athlete will feel a loss of control on his eating habits up until the date he chooses or trys to stick to. This leads the athlete into making excuses on why he’s eating what he is eating and trying to justify it by saying I have so many weeks to loose x amount of weight.
To sum up the psychological impact of eating disorders on an athlete who is cutting is enormous and negative. They have to deal with extreme amounts of psychological stressors and physical stressors. The psychological impacts are as follows excessive dieting, guilt about eating, excessive exercise, weighing one’s self may time, and depression.
Dehydration is the most commonly used technique to cut weight. Dehydration in regards to a weight cut is removing as much water as you can without potentially killing yourself, to rid yourself of any unnecessary weight before weigh ins. This technique is accomplished by not drinking water for one to two days while exercising. If the weight requirement is still not met then the athlete will have to do sauna work. Sauna work is when the athletes puts on a couple layers of clothing and sits in a sauna. This doesn’t sound too bad until you realize the athletes been working out for a couple days without water and now has to sit in a 130 degree room well wearing a sauna suit to induce severe sweating. This practice if not done right has many negative psychological aspects. Such as hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, and severe mood swings. The athlete might see a number of hallucinations such as shimmering people or there teammate saying something unusually bizarre to them. Intrusive thoughts include when some athletes use the bathroom they will look at the toilet water and say dam that must be cold and actually debate drinking it. As for sever mood swings some fighters have been known to attack there teammates in the sauna from fear of claustrophobia or too much stress on there already taxed mine. Also people have been known to die from this practice by hypothermia and kidney failure from too much stress on the body. As mentioned earlier this is usually done with a teammate and athletes have been known to lose up 20lbs well doing sauna work. Although not healthy it is practiced that losing about 7lbs in a sauna is ideal. All of these aspects of a weight cut cause exhaustion. This isn’t like being a little tired from lack of a good night sleep. This is you feel so hungry and thirsty that you can’t even bear the thought of being up another minute but you can’t sleep for days leading up to weigh ins. The lack of sleep is caused by pain such as cramps and unbelievably dry mouth, throat and skin. This leads to all sorts of self-deprecation. Also the body feels worn down like your limbs weigh a thousand pounds. Some people have been known to be held up by a teammate during weigh INS well on the scale.
If all goes well and the athlete makes weight he will start his recovery process. If he does not make weight he will either have to give 20% of his purse to his opponent or not be able to fight at all. The recovery is the light at the end of the tunnel. Once you weigh in and make your goal the endorphins go off like you never thought possible. The athletes will usually start off with small bottle caps of pedialyte and water to rehydrate. Well they are rehydrating most athletes will start to consume food but must do this at a slow pace to avoid becoming sick. Most athletes say the weight cut is the hardest part of a fight and feel victorious right after making weight. All the pain they went through physically and mentally almost doesn’t even matter. The athlete will continue to rehydrate and eat until its time for him to perform.
Although weight cutting has many negative side effects not all athletes deal with the psychological aspects above. Some athletes might have to deal with one or a couple of the aspects named above. But mostly the athlete who is going to fight doesn’t want to bring shame upon him or his fight camp by not making weight. You have to remember that if this person is a true mixed martial artist he has the up most respect for his fight team and in essence is going to war with them. The weight cut is a necessary evil now in the fight game because everyone is doing it on average a person who fights in one weight class walks around 20lbs heavier then said weight class.
In conclusion, there isn’t enough research on weight cutting and its psychological effects. So you have to break down all the aspects of the weight cut and find there different psychological effects. Unfortunately I know a lot about these disorders because of being in the fight game and experiencing some of these psychological effects or seeing some of my teammates goes through them.
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