How Does Weight Loss Affect Athletes Improve Performance?

Athletes often overlook the energy demands of daily training sessions. Total calories required are considerably increased for the training and competing athlete versus the average person, but it should be done in the proper % to total daily intake. If sufficient calories are not included in the diet, an athlete will lose to much weight, become fatigued more quickly and performance will

Some athletes do extra things to help them win, whether it be for a football player doing extra work outs, or taking steroids to a baseball player staying late from practice to work on his hit. In wrestling, some people do drastic things to help them be the best. “Kyle Talley of St. Mark’s, a state champion at 145 pounds last year, now wrestles at 152 pounds, about six pounds lighter than his natural weight” (Tresolini). Many wrestlers use unhealthy ways to cut weight; … “of 713 high school wrestlers studied in Wisconsin, almost half revealed weight cutting habits that included two or more forms of bulimic-type behavior such as food and water deprivation, laxatives or induced vomiting” (Tresolini). While

It is concluded that most of college going athletes have nutritional knowledge and they consume calcium supplements and weight gain supplements very frequently and lack of time is the most responsible factor for their nutrition intake.

However, the important factor may not be dieting per se, but rather the situation in which the performer is told to lose weight, the words used and whether the athlete receives guidance. It is very worrying to experience how unprofessionally some professional teachers and trainers may behave. There is anecdotal evidence of how they set their own standards for body shape and weight, and pass on abnormal eating and dieting myths to the new generations of performers.

According to an article on the New York Times, three collegiate wrestlers died within a three month span in 1997 all from cutting weight (Litsky). Cutting weight is when someone will try to drastically reduce their weight in a short period of time through a variety of methods. The deaths of these three collegiate wrestlers resulted in a hasty decision from the NCAA in an attempt to prevent any more injuries or deaths. An article by Terry Larimer on The Morning Call explains the that policy banned the use of rubber suits and saunas for use in weight cutting practices because they drastically increase body temperature and dehydration, which was the root cause for the deaths of these three wrestlers (Larimer). Larimer also explains changes the NCAA made to the weight classes, adding a seven pound weight allowance to all of the weight classes so that athletes would not have to lose as much weight, with the stipulation that all weigh-in times for competitions would be held 2 hours prior to the event rather than 24 hours (Larimer). This rule was enacted to discourage athletes from cutting weight on the basis that with less recovery time, losing too much weight will not be beneficial to the

Wrestling is a weight-sensitive sport, which requires athletes to weigh in 1 hour before a match. The athlete’s weight determines which weight category they will be placed in for the match. The goal of the athlete is to be able to weigh into the lowest possible weight category, wrestlers will achieve this by many different methods of “cutting weight”. Studies have shown that up to 80 percent of wrestles take some part in weight loss during the season. There are 10 weight classes in college wrestling, and 14 in most high schools.

Cutting weight for competitive advantage in mixed martial arts is perfectly legal and has been practiced for decades. Losing 15 to 20 pounds of weight in less than 5 days can be incredibly gruesome, but through discipline and close supervision, these professional athletes can actually regain all those lost pounds of weight and still be in their best fighting shape for the bout in less than 24 hours. Of course, there are a lot of techniques on how to gain all the lost weight back. However, because of the

In a random double-blind study, 30 male student athletes were assigned a specific supplementation to add to their diets during off season strength training for 10 weeks. Subjects were thoroughly informed of the experimental procedures and before participation signed informed consent forms in adherence with the human subjects guidelines of The University of Georgia and the American

Wrestling operates under a weight class system, meaning that in a match each athlete only faces another person within a specific weight range. This ensures that competition is determined by individual skill and technique rather than natural size alone. The consequence of this system is each player will attempt to qualify for the lowest weight class available to him, as he would have an advantage by facing smaller opponents. The problems arise when contestants attempt to lose large amounts of weight in a brief period of time to compete. To achieve this they attempt to remove all the excess fluids from their bodies through sweating, spitting, or vomiting in order to lose water weight and qualify for a weight class. In addition, skipping meals and starving is normalized within the sport, as the drive to drop to one’s lowest

Losing weight is never an easy task to do; therefore, programs for weight loss are normally created to help an individual reach its target. In order for my roommate to increase his chances in loosing weight and making the football team, he would have to condition himself to excise and a diet. Within a month, my roommate would have to follow and modified his behavior based on the principles of operant conditioning. Although, losing weight could be a difficult task, through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and positive punishment he will be able increase his chances in making the football team.

In today’s society, athletes are revered as heroes. There is immense pressure to be the best. Athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to gain an edge, even if it means compromising their health. For almost three decades, athletes have been supplementing their strength program with anabolic steroids to enhance their performance. To be sure, anabolic steroids are effective supplements to strength training programs, but there is no doubt that the consequences can be deleterious.

Zubac, Ivancev, and Karnincic conducted a similar study in 2015, when they investigated the relationship between hypohydration and reduction rate of body mass (ROR) of elite youth amateur boxers. Additionally, the researchers observed the commonness of hypohydration and ROR between elite youth boxers. The 24 participants for this study were national team members of Croatia, Hungary, and Germany. Respondents were required to be a current national champion, have international boxing experience, and have participated in at least 25 fights. The researchers followed the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) hydration test parameters. All subjects provided a urine sample first thing in the morning on the day of the competition. This gave the researchers the urine specific gravity (USG) to determine the hydration status of participants before the competition. Researchers used a questionnaire that was previously developed, tested, and validated by Aritoli et. al., (2010). The questionnaire asked participants about their competitive experience, the weight class they were participating in, and the body mass they reduced prior to the competition. Researchers also collected measurements and proportions of the participant’s body. Researchers calculated the ROR by taking the athlete’s reported average value of body mass for each weight class category (WCC) and dividing it by the athlete reported body mass reduced prior to the competition. Data were analyzed using

Unfortunately, for most people gaining weight is much easier than losing weight. It is not uncommon for a person to start developing poor eating habits, and then they let their weight gain go too far and get out of control.

One topic that has been talked about for many years within Kinesiology is the debate on whether exercise or diet is more important for losing weight and maintaining weight loss. While both or important for a person's individual health, a person's diet is essentially the foundation for a healthy lifestyle and an important factor in losing weight and gaining nutrients that can help the body develop. Many studies and experiments have shown that a healthy diet goes a long way in helping people lose more weight, but more importantly teaches them how to continue to treat their bodies in a healthy manner. Dieting has been shown to have a bigger impact on weight loss than exercise has. For this reason, it can be said that a good diet is more effective for weight loss as compared to exercise alone.

Football has always been a sport about strength and size. Players would use their strength and size to hurt other people to score a few points. For this reason, Football has become a very popular sport in the United States for many decades. However, since football is based on a person’s size and strength, many coaches around the world have begun to plump up their players to make them more hard-hitting and threatening causing teams to have an advantage over other the teams. With many teams trying to obtain the same goals, many football players have become overweight throughout the years. The main reason for this enlargement of players is due to the diets that players consume daily.