Water Cutting vs. Dieting For Powerlifting
If you hang around competitive powerlifters for any length of time, the questions of whether or not to cut bodyweight to make a lower class, how to do it, and which ways are best will inevitably arise. Having cut both ways myself and having helped dozens of other lifters make weight for meets, I’ve come to weigh in on the subject (pardon the pun).
I should start with a few caveats. If you are a first time competitor, it is my strong belief that you should not be cutting weight at all. There are far too many other things to occupy your mind with on a first time through, and throwing in a weight cut on top of that is usually a recipe for disaster. If you aren’t attempting to qualify for a big meet or set a record, simply compete where you naturally sit at, and focus on going 9/9.
Secondly, none of this is medical advice. Cutting weight—and in particular, cutting water—can be risky, if not downright dangerous if done to an extreme. I will be going over these concepts in general terms, and intentionally avoiding specific protocols. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me with the contact info at the bottom of the article.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Why Cut Weight?
Cutting weight is a component of all sports that have weight classes, and powerlifting is no exception. Bigger people lift bigger weights, and this tends to be true within weight classes as well. Being heavier than your opponent, all other things being equal, usually provides a strength advantage.
People tend to cut bodyweight in one of two ways: dieting and water cutting. “Gut cutting” is often grouped in with water cutting, although the two are technically separate procedures. Gut cutting is a bit outside the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that it involves emptying the contents of the digestive system before weight ins through fasting and other measures such as laxatives to ensure there is no “dead mass” in the body contributing to scale weight. It can, and often is, used in conjunction with one or both of the other methods of weight loss.
In this article I will compare and contrast the pros and cons of water cutting and dieting, and give you my opinion on when to use each one.
Dieting
I think this is what the average person is picturing when they hear about making weight. Simply put, this involves reducing your caloric intake in the weeks or months leading into a meet to put yourself into a deficit. This will, over time, reduce your body weight in a more stable fashion, reducing the amount of body fat you have and (ideally) preserving lean muscle mass.
The main advantage of dieting is that it carries less overall risk leading into meet day. Because it is a slow and gradual process, you won’t have any unpleasant surprises for the most part. How you feel training during your cut is how you can probably expect to feel on meet day, including strength and stamina levels.
The major downside to dieting, in my experience, is that it can negatively impair your training leading into a meet. Being in a caloric deficit, by definition, means that you won’t be able to effectively build new muscle tissue. Your recovery from hard training will also likely be impaired, and you may not be able to handle as much volume or intensity as you might otherwise. This can spell stagnation or even regression for some people during this period, which is exactly the opposite effect of what you want from your training pre-contest.
Water Cutting
This one is slightly less commonplace, but also occurs in other sports such as wrestling, boxing, and mixed martial arts. Water cutting, as opposed to dieting, is a much more temporary process. It involves manipulating several factors such as water intake, sodium intake, and carbohydrate intake in the week or so before a contest. Increasing one’s water intake dramatically will increase the levels of the hormone Renin in the kidneys, which in turn increases the rate of urination. Essentially, the body becomes accustomed to flushing out water as efficiently as possible. Then, the day before the contest, water intake is cut off abruptly. Renin remains high, and the body continues to flush water even after you stop ingesting it, leading to dehydration. This is often coupled with other strategies to pull water from the body, such as active sweating via light exercise, sauna, spitting, and hot baths. The end result is a body which is temporarily dehydrated and thus lighter on the scale. After weigh ins, the idea is to rehydrate to the bodyweight you were at before the cut, and replenish electrolytes you lost along the way.
The major advantage of water cutting is that you get to compete heavier than you weight in, which as we discussed earlier, usually means you end up being stronger. Your training is also unaffected leading into the meet, which unlike dieting, means it is more productive and can result in strength gains during this period. Finally, water cutting may be an unpleasant process, but it is often more appealing for many to suffer for a day or two compared to dieting for weeks or even months on end.
Water cutting is not without its downsides. The biggest one is that it carries a higher risk factor of not making weight. The vast majority of the time when you hear about an athlete missing weight, in any sport, it was a water cut gone wrong. Things can and do go wrong, such as not being able to sweat out as much water as you anticipated, or experiencing side effects like cramping or headaches.
Water cutting can also be acutely draining on performance. Being dehydrated in general is disastrous for strength and other aspects of fitness, and even after rehydration, sometimes these effects can linger. Some federations have two hour weigh ins, which make the process of rehydrating and replenishing nutrients much harder to accomplish. For small water cuts this may be a non-issue, but for larger ones (anything above around 3-5% of body mass) the risks increase greatly. All in all, this has the effect of meet day performance being less predictable than it otherwise would be, as another major variable has been introduced.
So Which One?
For me, and for many, water cutting is carries higher potential benefits than does dieting. However, it is important to minimize the risks in every way possible to ensure a more stable and predictable meet day performance. My recommendations are:
Not to attempt to water cut more than 3-4% of bodyweight.
If using dieting, it should be done in the offseason (6-12 weeks away from a meet at least) in order to bring body mass down to a point where water cutting will be less risky.
To lose as much weight as possible from fasting, gut cutting, and water intake manipulation before relying on harsher methods such as active sweating or hot baths.
To have a plan in place to rehydrate FULLY to the bodyweight you were at previously in the time you have available after weigh ins. This includes fluids, electrolytes, and other nutrients.
To seek the advice and assistance of an experience coach or nutritionist along the way.
I hope this has helped shed some light on the positives and negatives of cutting weight for powerlifting, and gives you some more information to make an informed and responsible decision for yourself. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on instagram or via email.
Happy Lifting!
