Losing weight with dehydration

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refuseresist
refuseresist Posts: 934 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know body builders do this before a show? And jockeys, boxers etc before a weigh in.
Does anyone have experience of this? What does it change in the look of your body?
I am not advocating this as a method of weight loss. Any experiences would be of interest

Replies

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    A lot of people who are close to a healthy maintenance weight have reported that a "whoosh" event of the body releasing several pounds of water overnight results in a noticeably less plump or puffy body. My, and I'm still obese, 'whoosh' events have not been so pleasing.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    I'm a competitive bodybuilder and when a bodybuilder uses this they only do it for a few hours for the actual show. It's used to help the muscles look grainy, but it makes you feel absolutely horrible. It doesn't change the look of any areas still holding fat. Jockeys and boxers do it to make weight, it has nothing to do with how they look.

    Water is very important to the metabolic processes that convert fat into energy. Attempting to maintain a dehydrated state could cause hormonal issues and would not be helpful for fat loss. If someone had a special event coming up they may benefit from eating to reduce bloating, but dehydrating would not help (it would actually make them feel terrible).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited July 2016
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    refuseresist wrote: »
    I know body builders do this before a show? And jockeys, boxers etc before a weigh in.
    Does anyone have experience of this? What does it change in the look of your body?
    I am not advocating this as a method of weight loss. Any experiences would be of interest

    It's not a way to lose weight at all...it's something that is done temporarily right before a show or competition...in the case of a body builder it will just make them extra, extra cut because they're at extremely low BF already and then dehydrated on top of that.

    I used to wrestle and I'd do this just before a meet to make weight...as soon as I made weight I would start hydrating and eating and put on 10 Lbs in a matter of hours and could thus wrestle in a lower weight class at a heavier weight. It's a very temporary thing...like hours. It's kind of hard on the body too.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    That's not really weight loss though so I don't see the point of it other than for competition.
  • refuseresist
    refuseresist Posts: 934 Member
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    Thanks all.
  • scoii
    scoii Posts: 160 Member
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    I used to do it for judo competitions. Luckily my natural/normal weight was 2-3kg above fighting weight. A week of calorie counting (poached chicken breasts and bananas) and a day of dehydration was all that was needed.

    Unfortunately your skin becomes pretty horrible so you need a heavy moisturiser and your immune system goes very low. I used to get cold sores often and missed one competition completely with a cold.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    That's not really weight loss though so I don't see the point of it other than for competition.

    It is not FAT loss but it is weight loss.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    That's not really weight loss though so I don't see the point of it other than for competition.

    It is not FAT loss but it is weight loss.

    Technically, yes, but if we're going to define it like that, none of us is on here to lose "weight". Otherwise we could just cut a leg off and be done with it. Or travel to the moon - problem solved!

    Fat loss is the aim, not just reducing the force due to gravity by any means possible.

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