how to cut weight for a fitness photoshoot
So you are trying to cut some weight for your fitness photoshoot. Luckily for you, I have well over a decade of experience in the MMA realm personally, so weight cutting is something I’m fairly familiar with. Now, there are levels to cutting weight for a fitness photoshoot, so I’ll escalate the further we go through this article.
Your fitness photographer, Kaia Lola, who cut from 145lbs to 125-130lbs regularly for competition.
Here are a few generalized pointers that anyone can follow to cut weight before working with a fitness photographer:
Start early: Don't wait until the last minute to start cutting weight. Start your weight loss journey as soon as you know the date of your shoot. This way, you can make progress gradually and minimize the stress on your body. I know that, especially as a woman, sometimes my body needed extra time to get the ball rolling on weight loss regardless of if I was doubly meticulous as my male counterparts.
Eat a balanced diet: Cutting calories is essential to lose weight, but you need to make sure that you're still getting all the nutrients that your body needs for performance and for your health, in general. Unless you’re doing a keto diet or similar that you’re familiar with, please continue consuming a solid balance of protein, fats and carbs. As you head towards your session, however, make sure those sources are as wholesome as possible. Examples: 1 cup of quinoa contains 22g protein/117g carbs/10g fat/10g fiber as well as tons of potassium, phosphorous, folate, etc! And don’t feel like you have to just have chicken breast, throw some lamb in the mix to give yourself some variety knowing it’s almost 1-1 in nutritional benefits to chicken.
Watch your sodium intake: Sodium can cause water retention, which can make you look bloated and less defined. Limit your sodium intake by avoiding processed foods, adding less salt while cooking, and drinking more water the week leading to your session. I’ll expound on this further into the article.
Increase your cardio: We all know cardio is a great way to burn calories and lose weight. Add more cardio to your routine in the weeks leading up to the shoot, but if you dislike running as much as I do, feel free to swap it out for stair climbers or HIIT routines.
Get enough rest: Losing weight can be stressful, both physically and mentally. Give your body and mind enough rest by getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. When we don’t get enough rest, our hormones such as leptin, cortisol, ghrelin, all increase or decrease in ways that negatively impact our insulin sensitivity, hunger and overall decision-making.
Now for the nitty gritty of cutting weight for a fitness photoshoot:
1. Sweating in Sauna, Steam Room or Hot Tub
If you have access to a sauna, steam room or hot tub, you can cut a few pounds doing 15min increments in these facilities. If you are not accustomed to doing this process like a wrestler or MMA fighter may be, I encourage you to limit this part of the process as it can be dangerous taken to the extreme.
When I was doing weight cuts, I found that wearing a sauna suit in the steam room or sauna was certainly effective, but made me feel awful - quickly. Later in my career I discovered that sitting in a hot tub doing the same 15min increments felt much more relaxing and spa like and was, surprisingly, just as effective!
If none of these sound like an option for you, you can always throw on a sauna suit and hit the track or treadmill to shed a bit of weight. This can be a bit of a challenge if you work out in a commercial space that blasts cold air, but if you can be outdoors in hot weather, in a garage or space with no AC, that should work.
2. Water cutting for Fitness Photoshoot: sodium, distilled water, water consumption
This is another one of those to take your time with and not necessarily do to a t the first time you attempt it, but this is what we used to do leading to a fight weigh-in.
Step 1: As early as possible, start making sure to get 1 gallon of water in every day. This is integral to being physically prepped for the next steps.
Step 2: 1 week-4 days out you should consume 2 gallons of distilled water. Distilled water lacks the nutrients you would normally consume drinking water, so your body begins flushing out profusely.
Step 3: Day 3-4 you would reduce to 1.5 gallons.
Step 4: Day 2-3 reduce to 1 gallon.
Step 5: Night before reduce to 1/2 gallon.
We would stop consuming water 12-24 hours prior to weigh-ins and this is when we would start the hard cycles of sauna/steam room/hot tub. But I must emphasize that this was to meet a very specific weight for a short period of time with a slow rehydration process that involves electrolyte restoration with Pedialyte, glycogen replenishing with easily digestible carbs, etc. I recommend assessing your experience level with these processes and testing from there. It took me a few years of tinkering with this process to find out what works best for my body and you will likely need to do the same. Take what seems feasible and try it out, but keep in mind that lighting and posing plays a massive roll in the final look, so you’ll be shocked at how much of a difference that component alone makes for you.
BONUS TIPS FOR CUTTING WEIGHT FOR YOU FITNESS PHOTOSHOOT:
Take it from body builders and if you decide to do a weight cut or sweat session to get more definition, grab a jar of icing to consume right before your session. One of my dearest friends, a former bodybuilding competitor said the guys would do this right before competition to get a tight vascular look!
I don’t suggest starving yourself like we tended to do, but I do suggest altering what you eat the day of to have as little sodium as possible. You don’t want to be starving though, so feel free to bring a container of saltless peanut butter for your rice cakes. This allows you feel full from calorie dense food that is less likely to cause any sort of bloating.
Of course, please talk with your doctor/coach/nutritionist for more personalized direction, have a friend for support when testing the sweat cut options and know that anything that feels dangerous should be stopped immediately. I am not aware of each of your individual health histories or otherwise, so this is just me speaking from personal experience in my own sport. I wouldn’t do these steps as often as I used to if I could go back in time, but I‘ve found they’ve been helpful in the short-term periodically.
Be safe and see you soon!
