Evidence shows that weight cycling during adolescence can be a major issue, as it might negatively impact growth and development [18]. Importantly, it has been suggested that Selleckchem CFTRinh-172 athletes beginning to cut weight at early ages are at higher risk of weight loss-related
problems [5]. It is worthy to note that the range of body weights of the various weight classes in sports recently included in the Olympics (e.g., female: boxing, wrestling and taekwondo) are considerably broader than the range of those sports with longer tradition in the Olympic Games (e.g., boxing and judo). While the range of the more recent Olympic sports varies around 15%, the difference of the upper limit between two consecutive categories varies around 5–10% in boxing and judo. Thus, an athlete with a body mass at the midpoint of two weight classes in judo and boxing would be more tempted to reduce his/her body mass to a lower class, whilst an athlete in the same condition, but competing in taekwondo, would be less prone to move to lighter class, as the reduction would be more dramatic. However, no study was conducted so far in order to compare weight management behaviors between those combat sports. With regard to the magnitude of weight loss, although most athletes reduce body weight in a range of 2–5%, a considerably high percentage (i.e.,~40%) reduces 5–10% of their body weight [5, 6]. Furthermore, most athletes reported that their greatest body weight
SC79 reduction was of 5–10%; however, many athletes reported reductions of more than 10% of body weight [5, 6, 10]. Such reductions are frequently undertaken in a few days before competitions. In most cases, athletes reduce weight in the week preceding the weigh-in [5,
6, 15]. The Table 1 summarizes the main findings of the studies on the prevalence and magnitude of weight loss in combat sports. Table 1 Weight loss prevalence and magnitude in combat sports’ athletes Sample Prevalence Magnitude Authors SBI-0206965 order Brazilian judo (n = 145) Males: 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl 62.8% Malesa: 5.6 ± 2.2 kg Brito et al.[10] 8.5 ± 4.2% Brazilian jujitsu (n = 155) Males: 56.8% Malesa: 2.9 ± 1.5 kg 4.1 ± 2.0% Brazilian karate (n = 130) Males: 70.8% Malesa: 2.5 ± 1.1 kg 3.6 ± 2.2% Brazilian taekwondo (n = 150) Males: 63.3% Malesa: 3.2 ± 1.2 kg 4.3 ± 3.2% Iranian wrestling (n = 436) 62% 3.3 ± 1.8 kg (5.0 ± 2.6%) Kordi et al.[17] Brazilian judo (n = 822) 86% (all categories) Most of the athletes reduced between 2–5% Artioli et al.[5] 89% (heavyweights excluded) Brazilian judo (n = 105 males and 20 females) Males: 77.1% Males: 4.5 ± 3.5 kg Fabrini et al.[19] Females: 55.0% Females: 1.7 ± 0.8 kg USA judo (n = NR) 70–80% NR Horswill[20] Brazilian Olympic Boxing Team 100% 5.8 kg Perón et al.[13] Canadian taekwondo (n = 28) 53% NR Kazemi et al.[11] USA high school wrestling (n = 2352) 62% 2.9 ± 1.3 kg Kinigham and Gorenflo[21] 4.3 ± 2.3% USA college wrestling (n = 63) 89% 5 kg Steen and Brownell[6] USA high school wrestling (n = 368) 70% 2.