This post is designed to give safe weight loss advice to implement into your next fight prep. The goal for you when stepping into the cage should be to be at peak physical strength and aerobically ready to finish three/five hard rounds too.

The body has to be given time to react to a change in weight, diet, or anything else that affects a system inside you. Therefore the dropping of weight should begin within 4 – 6 weeks before the fight.

Whilst you sit here reading this, you are burning calories. The body is constantly doing this and by reducing the amount of calories you intake, the body will use its reserves of fat to function. This is the reason why dieting works, it is the calorie deficiency that causes you to burn from other areas. The process of dieting will inevitably start to burn from your protein stores inside the body also, so the body turns the proteins and fats into glycogen which is used for energy.

To keep the muscle and get rid of the fat, you need a CONSTANT source of protein. This means with each meal and throughout the day there should always be a source of protein for you to top up with. This constant supply will negate the effect that the energy burning has on your protein stores and start working towards keeping the muscle mass whilst burning fat.

Carbohydrates are also not the enemy! During this article I will be talking about alternative training methods which will be more stressful on your body than a mediocre weight session. Therefore some carbohydrates MUST be consumed to enable you to get the most from your workout.

Each gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories, and these are turned into fat if not used (stored as fatty tissue as described above).
The start of the day should be with enough carbs to slowly burn throughout the day. Simple carbs should be avoided and although everyone and their dog knows this fact, it is still important to mention. A good example of breakfast for losing weight would be:

Poached eggs and wholemeal toast
Porridge w/ fruit & nuts

These are just examples that will give your body a protein kick in the morning, but also contain carbs to burn throughout the day. Reducing the carbs throughout the day works because you burn more calories in the day and around workouts than when you sleep. Therefore you need less carbs the later in the day it gets. Contrary to this, most people will have the majority of their carbohydrates with dinner, a mere 2-4 hours before they barely move for 8 hours etc. This leaves a massive amount of unused energy which is turned into fat.

Try and experiment with what works and what doesn’t whilst between fights so that when you are into those final couple of weeks, you will know what works for yourself and not have to take any drastic steps.

Training Methods

Remember, I am only going from personal knowledge and what works for me during my fight preparation. This has been developed and redefined after trying several different methods so that now I know what works for me to get to my target weight.

The best way to drop weight, keep lean muscle and make the best out of your time is to do high intensity resistance training in my opinion. The typical circuit should last no longer than 20-30 minutes and include as many full-body exercises as possible. The reason behind using as many different muscle groups as possible is because this will burn fat from as many places as possible. A simple push up can be turned into a push up with a squat thrust inbetween, and this is an example of how combining two separate exercises will burn more calories than doing these separately.

On the subject of using weights during the circuit, you can use exercises like squat push press and weighted squats and cut the weight to around 60% 1RM. I personally found that doing a five minute round of five different exercises works well and add in a weights round at the end. So below I have listed an example circuit I have used before:

R1: 5 x 1 min version round of tabata training… warrior burpees 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest… repeat

R2: Bosu Ball Push Ups x 1 min, Jumping Lunges x 1 min, V – Sit Ups x 1 min, Bag punching x 1 min, Squat thrusts x 1 min

R3: Repeat R1

Finish with 3 quick sets of clean and press (for example, feel free to change the exercise) to really burn into the muscles.

The combination of the high intensity and weights will burn a lot of calories -- better than steady state running -- and also develop your strength in the muscles so they can keep going for longer and delay the build up of lactic acid in the muscle. This type of training should be aimed to be done every two days maximum, as the high intensity will deteriorate muscle performance otherwise.

The amount of sparring, technical drills and reducing calories will all go towards getting you down to the weight. There are alternative ways to cut such as dehydration but these will not be covered in the information here as I believe the body is put under too much strain if this is done regularly.

The list of exercises is endless, so I will not be providing a list of these as it would be redundant. Think to yourself and be brutally honest about how you fight. If you are a striker, then you will need to be training with exercises that mimic the movement of a punch etc. and add resistance. Think logically about your training and apply these principles. Using default dumbbell curls and bench press might make you look intimidating, but the person who is using functional fitness training for their sport will have the upper hand on the fitness side. This is something you should consider if you are bodybuilding, or training like one whilst preparing for a fight.

This article is only a reflection of how I have changed my training from classic body building and lost 1 ½ stone to stay at my fighting weight now. Some people may agree or disagree, but I hope you can take something from this article. Thanks for taking the time to read it, and happy training.