How Much Weight Can Be Cut For A Competition?

A Fortified Iron poster wonders how much weight competitors can cut before a competition.

He asks:

Know this doesnt affect me but ive always wondered, how much weight can people drop pre-comp in a hurry? Ive seen stuff here and there about fasting and water loss and was just wondering what sort of amounts people achieve?

Responses:

Here's how I made the 198s for the AAPF IL State this March:

I ate normally up until 36hrs out. 36hrs from weigh-in, I dropped all solid food and just went to protein drinks. 24hrs out I dropped water and took 25mg pamabrom twice during the day (one at 24hrs and the other at 12hrs). Once I got to the hotel, I did three thirty-minute sweats in the bathroom with the heat lamp and the shower on. In the morning at 7am, I did thirty minutes worth of sweating to lose that last pound or two. Since I woke up with nightmares and I was sweating and twitching pretty bad. I weighed in at 9am and made weight at around 197.5lb. As soon as I weighed in, I drank a liter of Pedialyte, followed by water and Gatorade, eating two bags of chips during the day. I hit the IHOP, a Mexican restaurant, and some other goodies during the day.

I weighed in at 212 a day before the weigh-ins and competed at 215. No strength loss as I hit squatting and deadlifting PRs and went 650/385/573 for 18-19 y/o AWPC squatting, DL, and total WRs.

I did this with no scripts and no cardio. I thought it was pretty easy and would have been easier with a sauna/steamroom. Also, I don't know if the pamabrom even works, but I figured, hey, why the hell not. Hope this works for you all.

I lost 10 in 5 days with no illegal compounds. I know of people that drop 25 pounds pre contest.

I've dropped 12lbs since tuesday for Imperium.

In think the more important question isn't what is possible in general but what is possible for you. That depends on so many factors it would be impossible to giveyou an accurate answer.

Some but not all of those factors would include.......

Existing diet prior to cut
AAS or not and what type your on
Body fat %
Body size
Personal discipline
What methods of weight loss you plan to use or are willing to use

Ive seen Dan Petrillo drop from 187 down to 165 within 2 days.

Ive dropped from 232 to 218 in a 3 days with no strenght loss.

For USAPL contests where i'll only have 2hrs between weighing in and lifting, if i'm lifting on Saturday, i'll start cutting on Tuesday. To weigh in at 181, i cut from 190, preferably 195, with minimal strength loss.

i dropped about 8 lbs in under 2 days for the Imperium meet... All it took was a lot of water cycling, and some mild diuretics and I was set.

I can easily drop or gain 10 lbs in a day.

I take it that the bigger you are the more you can drop? If mark here is dropping in the region of 9-14lbs to get to 181 then I assume there must be bigger guys dropping lots more.