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what's up guys gabriel varga here today
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we're going to be discussing
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weight cutting and you guys know this is
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something that i want to talk about
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right now because my opponent this last
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week missed weight came in five pounds
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over the fight was canceled i didn't get
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to compete and it left a little bit of a
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sore spot right here so i thought you
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know one of the biggest things that i
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could do after this is talk about how i
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make weight every time how i've turned
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it into almost a scientific process so i
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know exactly every night every morning
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what i can eat what i'm going to weigh
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in at what my body should feel like so
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there's no surprises that's basically
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what you want you don't want any
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surprises and then we'll talk about how
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i cut that last little bit of weight as
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well this is going to be a great
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in-depth tutorial for anybody who is not
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already familiar with the best way to
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cut weight or at least for me this is
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the best way to cut weight i've played
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around with all the different methods
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and this for me is exactly what i've
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broken it down to so when i go through
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this experience this week-long for me
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experience of cutting 10 pounds it is as
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pleasant as it can possibly be so stick
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around guys because after the intro
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we're going to be talking about a
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beginner breakdown of how to cut weight
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how to make weight for your upcoming
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fight
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[Music]
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all right guys just a little breakdown
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first of my experience with weight
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cutting i've had over 40 fights i've
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ranged from the early in my competition
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competing at 135 pounds moving up to 140
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now fighting at 145 pounds and when i
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initially started there was no weight
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cut involved i just walked at 137 pounds
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or so i weighed in at 135 then when i
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moved up to 140 pounds later in my
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amateur career i was walking around 145
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pounds now i currently walk between 155
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to 157 pounds and i need to get on the
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scale at
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145 pounds so for me we're talking a 10
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to 12 pound weight cut which overall
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compared to a lot of other people is
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very small now this is not an absolute
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you can cut more weight than that but
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i'm always thinking about longevity in
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my lifestyle after i compete i still
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want to be healthy i don't want my body
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to be run down i don't want my organs to
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have taken too much damage so instead of
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going ah you know i'm going to cut 10
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and a half pounds of water weight i just
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go i'm sticking to a nice low number i'm
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only going to cut i'm only going to aim
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for five pounds of max i feel like that
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is a nice comfortable amount that i can
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do
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on on weigh-in day of the morning of and
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it doesn't hurt my head i don't leave
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with with a big headache feeling all
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dehydrated and falling down my heart
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rate is not exploding through the roof i
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don't feel overly over overly fatigued
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it's a safe amount for me to cut so
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first let's talk about the two ways that
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you can lose weight we have number one
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dieting just you know taking in less
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food changing up your diet so you're
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having maybe less carbs so every day
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your body is giving up a little bit of
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weight you're dropping on that scale and
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you can do that for a number of days
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until you get exactly where you want to
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be
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and then you can cut off a big bunch
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generally for me the morning of of
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weigh-ins and that's all water weight
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and for me i like to do a nice even
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split down the middle whatever amount of
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weight you have to cut i like to do half
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and half diet and water so for me that
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leaves me five pounds of dieting to do
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before i get to my weight cut now this
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is all gonna be trial and error for you
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but in my experience and with my current
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routine i know it's very easy for me to
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lose one pound per day with a fairly
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you know a fairly aggressive diet but
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enough that i am still eating food
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throughout the day i'm not starving i'm
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not
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laying down fatigued if i need to train
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i still can i have to you know draw back
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the intensity a little but i can still
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do it now you probably could diet for
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two days and drop five pounds but like i
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said you're going to be starving
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yourself so for me i go one pound a day
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and that is so easy to do it's just a
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matter of just being dedicated with you
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know the complex carbs cutting those
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down i don't eat a whole lot of fruit i
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don't eat a whole lot of any grains
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i'm avoiding one of my favorite things
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to eat is rice i avoid that obviously
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not having any pasta
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and it's just a lot of proteins and a
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lot of leafy greens now that's not all
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i'm eating i do take in other things but
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that is the majority of the diet and as
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i do that day by day and you get to know
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your stomach and you know how hungry you
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are and what you should feel like but
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every day i lose one pound and when
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you're losing that one pound i go okay i
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have five pounds to cut it's five days
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of dieting so let's say my weight cut or
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my weigh-in day is friday i just go okay
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you know what i need to start dieting on
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sunday i have sunday monday tuesday
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wednesday thursday and each of those
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days i'll lose one pound
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so
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boom there you have it by the time i get
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to
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friday morning i am down halfway now
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something else that a lot of people
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don't keep in mind a lot of people
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forget when they step on the scale if
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you are stepping on the scale every
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morning you are going to be much lighter
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than if you go to sleep so i always make
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sure that i just weigh myself generally
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in the afternoon that's just a normal
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time for me to weigh in so i could be
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155 to 175 sorry 155 to 157 now if i
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were to weigh in in the morning
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i will definitely be 155 max because
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overnight i know this now
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one and a half to two pounds of weight
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is coming off from the time i go to
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sleep
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to the time i wake up and i'll actually
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jot this all down on a piece of paper
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i'm going to do an example for you guys
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right now and you'll see that i write
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down each day of the week leading up to
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weigh-in day i can write down okay
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friday is weigh-in day and i'll go
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what can i go to bed at what do i need
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to wake up at and that is something
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important to keep in mind so what i do
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we're going to do a detailed breakdown
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here
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to make sure i'm tracking everything
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right i go okay
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five days out from the event
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i go how much am i weighing at night and
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i start making a little map i go if i am
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157 pounds at night i know i'm gonna
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wake up at 155 pounds and then when i go
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to bed the next day i go okay i need to
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go to bed exactly at 1 56 which means i
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know the next morning i'm going to wake
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up 1 54. and then the next night i go i
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have to go to bed at 1 55 so i'll wake
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up at 1 53 and i keep this process going
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morning and night morning and night
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until i know exactly on
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fight morning or way in morning when i
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get up i'm gonna be
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150 pounds max which leaves me four or
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five pounds of weight to cut so i can go
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to bed at 152 pounds the night before
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i'm cutting weight and i've actually had
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a number of times where i have had to
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eat a little bit more food at night you
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know i get on the scale and i go oh look
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at according to my my calendar here i'm
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supposed to be going to bed tonight at
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154 pounds so if i'm 153 pounds i go you
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know what i can eat i need to put some
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again not not heavy carb food but i need
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to put some weight back on here so we
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can drink a little bit and i can put
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some food in my body and i'm going to go
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to bed exactly at 1 54. so i know the
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next morning i'm going to wake up at 152
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and i don't leave anything to guessing i
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don't want to cut too much weight and go
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oh you know
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it's uh way in morning and i only have
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to go and cut three pounds instead of
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four because there's extra energy that i
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could have in my body there it's very
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easy to cut one extra pound once you're
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already sweating we're talking about 10
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10 15 extra minutes in the sauna so i
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might as well have that extra energy
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this is all about being very scientific
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and making sure that you are i your body
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is in that ideal state where you are not
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too exhausted to compete now i want to
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take a moment guys and talk quickly
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about when is the ideal time to cut your
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water weight and for me i've never
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really understood the idea of you know
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let's say it's friday morning and i need
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to make weight on thursday night doing a
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water cut because then i have all night
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where my body is dehydrated and then i
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got to wake up the next morning
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generally and cut more weight and you're
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just putting your body in a l
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long state of distress so i've actually
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talked with other fighters about this
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raymond daniels in particular which you
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guys should know he's an amazing amazing
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kickboxer
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karate athlete and now competing in mma
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as well and he has the same idea as me
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he goes why would you want to put your
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body in a state of stress for too long
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you can only drain your body of so much
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water and he had a great analogy he's
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like take this orange he cuts an orange
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and a half and he goes take the orange
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and he does this with his students
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because if you squeeze the orange
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and you put in 50 percent effort
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and it drains during durian drainage and
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you fill a cup up about this much and
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then you wait
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a whole bunch of time let's say 10 hours
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and you come back it's not like you're
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going to have more liquid to drain in
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this orange
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it's going to be the same amount of
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liquid
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but if you take the orange and you just
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squeeze it all at once you're gonna get
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the same amount of liquid so why don't
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you just do it all in one go the only
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reason i can think that you wouldn't do
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your entire weight cut in one go is if
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you're cutting so much weight like if
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you're going for myself i'm cutting 10
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pounds i'm sweating off 10 pounds of
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liquid i probably don't want to do that
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all in one go because we're talking
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probably two and a half hours in the
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sauna and that's probably getting
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dangerous but in my opinion in that
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scenario you're cutting too much weight
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so if you're wanting to stay fit and
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healthy and safe you stick to that
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that lower amount we're doing 50 diet 50
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water weight so again this is just my
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personal opinion this is just something
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that i've learned that my body likes but
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i i do all my water weight cut in one go
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and i do it as close to the weigh-in as
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i can if my weigh-in period is 9 a.m to
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10 a.m just like happened this last week
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with bellator at 252 bellator
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i am there at seven o'clock in the
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morning to start my weight cut and i go
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okay i want to have a nice buffer so i
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give myself two hours so when nine
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o'clock rolls around i can get right on
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the scale if i'm if i'm done at 8 30 i
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only have to wait half an hour in this
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last instance uh i think i got on the
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scale at 9 20 just because i went around
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nine i'm like oh yes still i still have
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point two of a pound
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to cut so i just went back started again
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just took a little bit longer because
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you have to walk back and forth and you
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have to get all warmed up again but yeah
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overall i like to get as close as i can
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so my body is in that dehydrated state
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for a minimal amount of time we're
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talking we're talking less than three
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hours
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where i am dehydrated and right away i'm
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getting fluid back into my body now if
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you decide to follow my advice and
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you're gonna cut all your water weight
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on weight morning let's talk about the
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different methods that you have you have
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number one getting in a hot dry sauna
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like one of those just a big room you
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have number two getting in the hot bath
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and sweating off in there you have
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number three getting into a sauna suit
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and getting on the treadmill
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and the most recent one which i had the
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opportunity to try for the first time
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this past week is number four and that's
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getting in a portable sauna now in my
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experience i have never tried a sauna
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room for more than a few moments maybe
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at the end of a weight cut when i've
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already done something else it's just to
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get off the last pound but i've never
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done it because i know from experience
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just from going to the local rec center
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going to the pool that the being in a
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room that's so hot with my head in there
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is just unpleasant and i spend the whole
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time in the sauna with a jug of water
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dumping it on my head but you cannot do
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that in a weight cut your your skin's
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going to start absorbing that liquid so
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i've never even bothered trying to cut
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weight in an actual sauna i just know
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it's going to go terrible for me
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the method number two is getting in a
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hot bath and i tried this a number of
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times because people is raved about how
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quickly you can cut weight the water
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temperature just goes up really
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enormously high like a hot tub is
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normally uh within in canada a hundred
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and or sorry down in the states about
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104 is quite hot for for a hot tub 103
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is nice and comfortable 104 pretty hot
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105 is getting roasty
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but when you're gonna do your bath you
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want to be getting it up to like 100 809
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to that point where it's just burning
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and once you manage to make it in which
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can take five or six minutes to even get
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in the tub it's so hot people were
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telling me oh you only have to be in
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there for 10 minutes and in 10 minutes
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you can cut three four pounds of weight
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you're sweating so much and i tried it
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and it never went well for me i just i
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ended up having to get out i'd spend
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three or four minutes in there maybe
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five and i'd have to get out because i
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was getting dizzy and then i'd spend 10
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minutes on the floor trying to recover
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then i'd get back in and i remember one
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time
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putting on a timer for three minutes
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and
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i counting in my head i'm like okay my
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eyes are closed i'm gonna count to 180
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and i can get out and i don't know what
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happened but i looked over and i thought
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three minutes was up and it had only
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been 45 seconds it was like torture so i
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gave up on that method of cutting weight
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i think it's very dangerous my body did
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not enjoy it so generally for me the
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type of cutting i do is putting the
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sauna suit on and getting on the
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treadmill and this one has been the best
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for me
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up to this point
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i always feel like on fight day i'm fine
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my muscles are a little sore from from
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doing that run when you're when you're
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you know a little exhausted you don't
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have as much
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energy that you as you normally would
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but i still feel good i still feel
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healthy and i'm ready to compete the
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next day without having any dizziness
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but like i said it is a little bit
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exhausting because you are going for
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that run and generally i run for five
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minutes i walk for two i run for five
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hour walk for two takes me about
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hour and 20 minutes overall with some
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stretching and stuff to cut that
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that four pounds let's say now this past
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week
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bellator for the first time because of
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covid brought portable saunas for us
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because they didn't want us getting into
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an actual sauna where we're in close
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contact with others so we each had the
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option
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of having a portable sauna in our
00:14:04
warm-up room so i said yes please i'm
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going to take one of those and i'm going
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to try it out for the first time so i
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put my sauna suit on in the morning
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um a little bit of of a rub all over my
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body that really helps you sweat more so
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i just put the put the rub on i put the
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sauna suit on i went down i did a little
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bit of a little bit of shadow to start
00:14:24
getting warm a little stretch and then i
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got into my portable sauna and i have to
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say this was the best weight cut
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experience i've ever had because the
00:14:32
portable sauna as you guys can see here
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i'll throw up a video your head sticks
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out and because your head's sticking out
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even with the tooth on
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i feel like the overheating factor which
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normally happens in a dry sauna one of
00:14:44
those cedar saunas your head is not
00:14:46
overheating so even though your body is
00:14:48
very warm you don't get that that
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dizziness that rush to your head where
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you feel like oh this is terrible and
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it took me i did 12 minutes and this was
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just a random guess for me the first
00:15:01
time i'd done it but i did 12 minutes in
00:15:03
the sauna then i jump out and i do three
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minutes of shadow boxing i'd take a
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minute off and then i start again and i
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did that for about an hour and 20
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minutes and i cut pretty much right on
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four pounds and it was a nice
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comfortable cut i was so happy with it
00:15:18
so
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yeah i mean i'll do another video on
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uh
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on this portable sauna so you guys can
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just see it in more detail i can talk
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about it in more detail but those are
00:15:28
your basic weight cutting methods you
00:15:29
can do the dry sauna with your heads in
00:15:32
it it's a big room with lots of other
00:15:33
people you can do your bath your
00:15:35
overheated very very hot bath you can
00:15:37
put a sauna suit on do some type of
00:15:40
workout biking running shadow boxing
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light pads or you can try the portable
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sauna i think those are the four basic
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options which
00:15:48
seems like most people utilize and yeah
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my favorite is definitely the portable
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sauna now and it's very important for
00:15:54
you guys to learn every time you do a
00:15:56
weight cut you need to learn from trial
00:15:58
and error how much weight you cut per
00:16:01
let's say 10 minutes because i've had a
00:16:03
lot of people tell me once they get
00:16:05
going once they start really sweating
00:16:06
they cut one pound
00:16:09
every 10 minutes now that will depend on
00:16:12
what kind of water loading process you
00:16:14
did that's a very important part of
00:16:16
weight cutting we'll talk about that in
00:16:17
a moment if you don't do a lot of water
00:16:19
loading you won't have as much water to
00:16:20
give up but
00:16:22
for me personally i find that it
00:16:24
probably takes about 15 to 18 minutes to
00:16:27
cut a pound of water
00:16:29
i'd say 15 is is usually on point but
00:16:33
yeah it's very important for you to do
00:16:35
your own research test your body out see
00:16:37
how much water you will give up because
00:16:38
if you don't know you're just going to
00:16:40
get in and you might over cut and
00:16:42
there's no point in overcutting because
00:16:43
that's just extra fatigue on your body
00:16:45
extra
00:16:46
you know hardship that you're going to
00:16:47
have to deal with on fight night when
00:16:49
you're that extra tired because you know
00:16:51
you oh i still oh i was gonna stay in
00:16:52
for an extra 20 minutes and all of a
00:16:54
sudden you're two pounds under weight
00:16:55
why would you do that i always make sure
00:16:57
i come right in on weight and if i'm a
00:16:59
half a pound underweight
00:17:01
it's even before the official weigh-ins
00:17:03
i'll drink half a pound of liquid so i
00:17:05
come in right at the limit and my body
00:17:08
is again not in that
00:17:10
state of stress for longer than it needs
00:17:12
to be now for talking water loading
00:17:13
that's also a crucial element to the
00:17:16
weight cut period you'll hear here some
00:17:18
people talk about taking in eight liters
00:17:21
of water per day
00:17:23
leading up to the weigh-ins now this is
00:17:25
a very very good process to keep your
00:17:28
stomach full you know you're you're
00:17:30
putting in all that water you don't even
00:17:31
have that much room
00:17:33
to be
00:17:33
to be eating but personally for me i do
00:17:37
about
00:17:38
four or five liters a day and i don't do
00:17:40
any more than that i've tried eight and
00:17:42
i just found i spend the whole time
00:17:44
running to the washroom throughout the
00:17:45
day it's so hard not to go to the
00:17:46
washroom
00:17:48
any longer than 20 minute increments and
00:17:50
it's just so frustrating and i've tried
00:17:52
both methods and i go you know what four
00:17:54
or five liters a day with my little bit
00:17:56
of food i feel full enough i'm not
00:17:59
starving and my body seems to have lots
00:18:01
of liquid to give up there's so many
00:18:02
little details and personal details that
00:18:04
you will find that your body responds
00:18:06
well to with weight cuts like i said
00:18:08
it's all about trial and error i'm
00:18:10
giving you guys the tips that work well
00:18:11
for me but as you guys do your own
00:18:13
research you do weight cut number one
00:18:15
two three you start getting up to ten
00:18:17
you will start learning exactly what
00:18:18
your body needs exactly how to make
00:18:20
weight and as long as you really pay
00:18:22
attention to the little details every
00:18:25
time you learn something and you can
00:18:26
utilize it in your next weight cut to
00:18:28
make the experience that much better and
00:18:30
for me now this past week it just being
00:18:32
even when i'm doing a new
00:18:34
overall experience of weight cutting
00:18:36
with that portable sauna i was able to
00:18:38
just make it such a nice relaxed week
00:18:41
no surprises no guesses no oh man i'm
00:18:44
overweight or i'm underweight it's just
00:18:46
everything's on point and that's all
00:18:48
just through that recognition
00:18:50
of what is happening every weight cut
00:18:52
and just
00:18:53
logging in data and and taking in
00:18:56
information and just utilizing it every
00:18:59
time as best i can to make myself the
00:19:01
best athlete i will be on fight night
00:19:03
because these weigh-ins if you do them
00:19:04
wrong they can really hurt you so if you
00:19:07
guys have any further questions on
00:19:08
weight cutting i know i probably didn't
00:19:10
cover everything there's just so much to
00:19:11
talk about you throw it in the comments
00:19:13
below i will try and get back to you
00:19:15
this is a very important element of the
00:19:18
fight game if you are going to be a
00:19:19
fighter you have to make weight you have
00:19:21
to make sure that you're respecting the
00:19:23
promotion especially if they're flying
00:19:24
you in they're spending money on you you
00:19:26
have an opponent who's come and make
00:19:27
weight it's very important that you take
00:19:29
the time and the effort and put in the
00:19:31
research to make sure that you can
00:19:34
actually get down
00:19:35
to that weight that you signed and you
00:19:37
agreed upon if you guys haven't already
00:19:39
make sure you get subscribed i hope you
00:19:41
enjoyed the video today and i will see
00:19:43
you back here soon for another episode
