For combat athletes, the fight can begin before they even step inside the ring. Varun Sanyal knows.
The mixed martial artist’s campaign at the Asian Games ended abruptly on Saturday after he was declared medically unfit ahead of his quarterfinal bout. Sanyal reportedly passed out in a sauna while attempting to make weight.
Around 30 minutes after the session, he developed light-headedness, dizziness and muscle cramps. A medical evaluation diagnosed mild dehydration and his bloodwork showed Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) at the upper end of the normal range.
The episode offered a stark reminder of the lengths to which combat athletes go to make a weight category. The 2024 Paris Olympics gave us a devastating glimpse when Vinesh Phogat skipped and jogged in a sweatsuit, cutting her locks to shave a few hundred grams ahead of her final bout but could not make weight.
“The fastest and most common way to cut weight quickly is dehydration,” sports scientist Nikhil Latey told HT. “If you are already severely dehydrated and sit in a sauna, your blood pressure drops, causing you to faint. The increased stress on the kidneys can also lead to elevated blood urea levels.”
Why and how they cut weight
Athletes approaching a weigh-in may jog, wear layers of clothing and do cardio, sleep under heavy blankets or sit in saunas to lose water weight since this method cannot burn fat, carbohydrates or muscle at a faster speed. It produces dramatic numbers on a scale but also puts the body under enormous strain.
{{/usCountry}}Athletes approaching a weigh-in may jog, wear layers of clothing and do cardio, sleep under heavy blankets or sit in saunas to lose water weight since this method cannot burn fat, carbohydrates or muscle at a faster speed. It produces dramatic numbers on a scale but also puts the body under enormous strain.
{{/usCountry}}Multiple athletes are likely to go through this process during the Asian Games as they compete in combat sports such as wrestling, judo, MMA, wushu, boxing and taekwondo.
“If you compete in the 52kg category and your walk-around weight is 56kg, you need to lose about four kilos. Can you lose four kilos in one night? Sure. Is it advisable? Absolutely not,” Latey stated.
The healthier approach is to begin much earlier and pace out the weight loss. He recommended allowing around three weeks for a 4kg reduction, targeting roughly 1 to 1.25kg a week rather than attempting to shed several kilos in the final hours before competition.
If the effects of rapid weight cutting are well known, why do combat sport athletes still go through it? When undertaking a gradual process, the athlete spends much of his training camp in a calorie deficit – eating less than their basal calorie intake – potentially leaving him tired and weaker.
“When you start losing weight early, you get weak,” Latey added. “A deficit leaves you with low energy, which affects your training, confidence and aggression. That’s why coaches and athletes try to delay it, even though they know they have to make weight eventually.”
The toll it takes
Rapid rehydration after weigh-ins restores circulating blood volume, but replacing all the fluid lost from the body’s tissues takes longer. Severe dehydration can affect muscle function, concentration and physical performance, while the combination of dehydration and fatigue can increase the risk of injury.
“The real issue as you get older is that your body mass – muscle, fat and organs – starts working against you,” he explained. “Your body’s resilience and ability to tolerate severe water loss declines before negative side effects kick in.”
The consequences are not restricted to the hours surrounding the weigh-in either. In fact, it can cause long-term damage. Repeated severe dehydration stresses the kidneys, cardiovascular system and impairs muscle function considerably. It can also contribute to headaches, dizziness, mood changes and impaired concentration.
“The risk of injury increases as you lose so much water,” Latey said. “You aren’t just losing water from underneath the skin or from your bloodstream, you are losing fluid from inside your cells and around the brain.”
Severe dehydration can alter the body’s fluid balance. Cerebrospinal fluid is especially relevant in sports where athletes are exposed to repeated impacts to the head. Any imbalance there causes compounding fatigue and affects movement, reaction time and performance, causing potentially fatal injuries during the bout itself.