Weight Cutting Before a Fight: How to Cut Weight Safely

Making weight is a discipline in its own right. Whether you box, fight MMA, or compete in kickboxing, a poorly planned weight cut can cost you more on fight day than any opponent. Here is the approach we use ourselves at MyFightPrep.

How much can you cut safely?

The rules of thumb most experienced coaches work by:

• Long-term weight loss (fat): 0.5–1% of body weight per week. More than that, and you start burning off muscle and energy.
• The final week’s water cut: a maximum of 3–5% of body weight. Anything beyond that sharply increases the risk and degrades your performance.
• Overall: If you fight at, say, -70 kg, your daily walking-around weight should sit around 74–76 kg — not 82.

If the gap is bigger than that, the honest solution is often a higher weight class — not a harder cut.

The timeline: 8 weeks out

Weeks 8–3: Build the foundation

• Create a moderate calorie deficit (300–500 kcal/day) and keep protein high (about 2 g per kg of body weight), so you lose fat and keep muscle.
• Weigh yourself every morning — after the toilet, before food and water. A single measurement means nothing; the curve over 14 days tells you everything.
• Adjust based on your weekly trend, not on a single bad day.

Week 2: Check your buffer

• You should now be no more than 4–6% over fight weight.
• Start planning the final week in detail: water, salt, carbohydrates, and weigh-in timing.

The final week: The water

• Many use water loading: 1–2 days of extra-high water intake, followed by a gradual taper down toward the weigh-in. Read our separate guide to water loading before you try it.
• Cut back on carbohydrates and salt over the last few days — both bind fluid.
• Avoid hard sweat training in the sauna as your main strategy. It is the most taxing method and should at most be a small fine-tuning adjustment.

After the weigh-in: Refueling

The cut is only half of it — refueling determines how you perform:

• Drink right away, but in portions: about 1 liter per hour with electrolytes, not 3 liters all at once.
• Eat high-carbohydrate, easily digestible food: rice, pasta, banana, sports drink. Avoid heavy, fatty meals.
• With 24+ hours between the weigh-in and the fight, you can typically recover most of the lost water weight.

The 5 classic mistakes

1. Starting too late — a panic cut in the final week instead of steady fat loss over 6–8 weeks.
2. Trusting a single weigh-in — daily swings of 1–2 kg are normal; it’s the trend that counts.
3. Cutting everything at once — an extremely low calorie intake wrecks your training sessions, and bad training sessions wreck your fight.
4. Copying someone else’s cut — your body, your weight class, and your fight date are your own. Data beats imitation.
5. Forgetting the refuel — the fight isn’t won on the scale, it’s won in the ring the next day.

Important

This guide is general guidance, not medical advice. Heavy weight cuts can be dangerous. If you are young, new to the sport, or in doubt, talk to your coach and a doctor — and cut less than you think you can.

With MyFightPrep you get morning weigh-ins, a weight curve tracking your fight date, a food log with an AI food scanner, and water loading planning all in one place — free.