The Current State of Weight Cutting in Thailand and How to Cut Weight Safer

This article was inspired by my appearance on The Muay Thai Show podcast, hosted by John Wolcott. We spoke about a whole host of topics including, nutrition, psychology and, of course, Muay Thai! You can watch the full episode here.

Weight cutting can be incredibly dangerous, especially if not done correctly. And Thailand is lagging far behind in the methods they use to cut weight.

A stereotypical Thailand weight cut involves lots of sweat suit runs throughout fight week and severe restriction of food and water.

A common mistake I see is the perception of water loss as body fat loss. So if a fighter weighs 1kg less after a run, they often perceive this to be fat loss.

In reality, almost all of this weight loss comes from dehydration through sweating. So, as soon as water is consumed, the body holds onto it and the weight is regained.

Dehydration is a high-risk method of cutting weight, with a potential to significantly damage both your performance and health. For this reason, it should only be used to lose the last couple of percent of your bodyweight once all other stops have been pulled out.

In Thailand, dehydration is the first go-to method when weight cutting for a fight, meaning they’re beginning the weight cut with the most high-risk method, without using any of the other safer low-risk methods to make a dent in the required weight loss.

This often means that fighters are in a slightly dehydrated state for the entire fight week, which will have a massive impact on their physical and psychological health, as well as their performance.

So, what are these low-risk methods I’m talking about?

I’m glad you asked.

Two low-risk strategies that are vastly underused are water loading and the low fibre diet.

Water loading involves drinking high volumes of water for 4-5 days, followed by a day of water restriction the day before weigh in.

The theory behind this is that your body gets used to frequently urinating and it takes a little time to catch up. So, you maintain a high rate of urination but aren’t consuming much water, which means you’re at a net body water deficit. So this is one way to lose up to a few kilos without having to sweat in the sauna or sweat suit.

The low fibre (or low residue diet) involves restricting fibre intake to below 10 to 15g daily for 2-3 days before the weigh in.

This strategy can typically lead to 0.5kg to 1kg weight loss alone from just cutting out fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other high-fibre foods for a couple of days.

Usually, we have undigested food matter in our digestive system, especially if we eat a high fibre diet, which can weigh a significant amount. A low fibre diet allows us to get rid of this undigested food matter in our gut, and therefore reduce our bodyweight.

The main benefit of this method is that it’s very low risk for both our health, and our performance. For 2-3 days, there is no significant risk to this method. Compared to dehydration, where there is a much larger risk.

Using a combination of these methods can allow you to lose several kilograms before you’ve even touched the sweat suit! This will have a large positive impact on your health and performance if you’ve previously been cutting weight ‘Thai-style’.

You want to be dehydrated for a short a time as possible, so avoid dehydrating using the sauna, sweat suit, hot bath etc. until 24 hours before the weigh in.

I know it’s common practice to do sweat suit runs during fight week in Thailand, and you may not be able to avoid them for whatever reason, be it to keep your trainer happy, or to fit in with the other fighters at the gym…

…So, if you do end up running in a sweat suit more than 24 hours before the weigh in, make sure you are drinking plenty of water or electrolytes during the run and after, to avoid dehydration. In this case, you may acquire some benefits from heat acclamation without the harmful effects of dehydration. A win-win.

Check out this clip from our podcast, you can watch the full episode here.

Summary

• Weight cutting in Thailand has plenty of room for improvement, to protect the health, performance, and longevity of fighters.

• Dehydration is the primary method of weight cutting in Thailand, but it’s also the most detrimental to our health and performance.

• Water loading and a low fibre diet are two lower risk tactics that can help a fighter cut a few kilos before they put the sweat suit on, meaning they have less weight (or even none!) to cut via the more risky active dehydration methods.

• If you do run in a sweat suit prior to the last 24 hours of your cut before weigh in, ensure you drink plenty of fluid to minimise dehydration.