Now that I’ve made my decision, it was actually much easier than I thought, and had I approached it correctly from the beginning, I could saved some consternation over it.
My current weight is 169.6 lbs or 76.657 kg. As you can see from the charts, that puts me in the 181 lb weight class for most Federations, or the 183 lb class for IPF (which includes the USAPL who does a couple of meets a year in my area). That’s a lousy place to be, which is why I struggled so much with what to do. Competing at the bottom of a weight class puts one at a significant disadvantage because you’re competing against much heavier individuals. So my thinking was, I need to gain weight to get closer to the limit of the 181/183 class. However, I’d have to get pretty fat to do it, which I’m unwilling to do.
To give you an example of what I mean, based on my recent Dexa Scan I carry about 153 lbs of lean body mass. If I began to eat at a caloric surplus to gain weight, even at 15% body fat (which I consider almost obese at this point in my life) I’d weigh 176 lbs. Of course that’s assuming all the weight gain would be fat. I could obviously add some muscle, but being realistic, at 54 years old and already at 87% of my theoretical genetic limit for fat free mass, chances are that very little of any weight gain I attempt will be muscle. Over years perhaps, but not in any reasonable short term timeframe.
However, I am currently within shooting distance of the 163/165 class, which would be ideal as I’d be at the very top of that weight class. By using standard practices for weight cutting that athletes in all weight class sports have used for eons, I should be able to lose 5% of my body weight just before weigh-in’s without any difficulty. Let’s do some maths:
169.6 – 5% = 161.12.
Just like that, I am in the lower weight class. In other words, maintaining my current body weight (and I’d actually like to be a tad leaner) should allow me to hit either the IPF or other Federation’s weight class by just manipulating water weight before the weigh-in. The fact that I actually need to drop less than 5% would make it even easier. Some more maths:
- 169.6 – 163 = -3.89%
- 169.6 – 165 = -2.71%
By losing a small percentage of my current weight in time for the competition weigh in, I’d make weight and be back to my actual body weight in time for the competition.
My goals have become much clearer now. I can focus almost entirely on getting stronger at the powerlifts and just eat to maintain my weight, or even lose another couple of lbs to get to 10% body fat which is both where I’d like to be personally, and where anecdotal evidence indicates performance would start to be adversely affected by getting any leaner. Once I’ve chosen a meet to enter, I will need only to execute a proper weight cut to make the class limit.
I might practice a weight cut to see how I do with it. I’ve done it before, but it was a long time ago, I was much heavier (I competed in the 198 class) and I really don’t recall how I did it exactly. I am reading up on the common practices now and I’ll give them a test run to remove that last bit of mental stress that comes from being unsure of outcomes.
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