A fashion blogger talks about how she cuts weight for a BJJ competition.
Akikino Yamaguchi is a model, presenter, fashionista, blogger, rock star and now our BJJASIA nutritional correspondent. She is a Japanese Thai hybrid currently based in Bangkok and trains at Arete BJJ. In this article she discusses her bespoke regiment for cutting weight whilst maintaining optimum health, strength and an active career.
It’s that time of year again, preparation for Bangkok’s premier annual Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) tournament, the Copa de Bangkok, has begun. In all honestly, this is only my second BJJ tournament since I began training a year and four months ago. I realise I should be competing more often. This year I decided to compete in the Pena or Light Feather category, which denotes weighing under 53.5hg with the gi on. What does this mean? It means that my naked body weight must be around 51.5kg as my gi weighs around 1.8-2kg. “Oh my god!”, I thought you myself, this was going to be tough. This was something I knew since the day that I decided to register for the competition.
When I registered for the tournament, my weight was around 53-54kg dependent on how much I had eaten that day. I really need to drop around 2kg. My fellow teammates suggested that I simply applied for the next heavier weight class without cutting any weight which was pena or featherweight at -58.5kg, but I decided not to, and my reasons follow.
Doing regular martial training has allowed me to put myself into the inexcusable situation of eating as much as I want whilst also allowing me to build muscle mass and be strong. Trust me, I eat much more than your average girl does. If I let myself compete at -58.5kg, I would have felt like I was going too soft on myself. So, in the end I decided I was going to discipline myself and I decided that -53.5kg it was!
My workout regime didn’t change much, 3 days of training BJJ and 2 days of strength and conditioning at the gym. However, what I really need to change was my diet.
Here was my plan to reaching my desired weight:
1 – Decrease the amount of cheat meals I was consuming. Previously, I would cheat two days a week for a total of 4 cheat meals, but I decreased this to 1-2 cheat meals per week.
2 – Protein and Vegetables were the main constituents of my diet. Fish and lean meat without carbs, although I did eat brown rice on one day.
3 – Drink more water. I considerably increased my intake of water to help keep me hydrated and to flush out toxins. I believe this also helped my body’s metabolic rate.
4 – Removal of all snacks. I haven’t had potato chips for years, so that wasn’t a problem. But I had to focus on cutting down deserts. This was the most difficult thing to abstain form, and did end up having one frozen yoghurt as part of a planned cheat meal.
“Yes! And my weight went down!”
And following that plan, I achieved my weight loss goals. Even though craving flashed into my mind every now and then, I was determined, and I made it through the weigh-ins! Pass!
But, what did I do after my matches were done? Well it was Pizza time of course!
In conclusion, if you understand how your body works, and you are disciplined, losing weight is not necessarily a hard thing to do.
You can find out more about Aki at her blog akinoyuutsu.com