High School Wrestling: Diet and Weight Loss Options

As wrestling season draws near, wrestlers begin to contemplate the weight class in which they may wrestle. Wrestlers often believe that they will be more competitive at the lowest weight they can reach without sacrificing their strength and endurance. This isn't always the case. Too often, wrestlers end up dehydrated. They end up starving themselves and their performance suffers greatly.
If you're looking for an article on cutting weight, this isn't it. If you're the kind of wrestler who can lose ten pounds in wrestling practice, this article may not interest you either. I could never sweat off a lot of weight, so I was always more interested in manipulating my diet to lose weight. There are, of course, a myriad of diets to choose from. I simply want to discuss ten diets of which I am familiar. Maybe one of them will interest you and you can research it further. Let's explore.

1. Low Carb/High Protein Diet

The Atkins Diet is probably the most famous low carb diet. So, what exactly is a low carb diet? A low carb diet limits carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, cereals, grains, potatoes and other starchy vegetables, fruit, and sometimes even milk.

The theory is that carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels which in turn raise insulin levels. Spiking insulin levels is considered bad because the idea is that insulin tells the body to store carbohydrates as body fat and prevents the body from accessing body fat as a fuel source. Supposedly, if you follow a low carb diet plan you can lose excess body fat without having to drastically limit your food intake.
Some low carb diets focus on limiting carbohydrates while increasing one's intake of fat and protein.
Some low carb diets focus more on the glycemic index. The glycemic index essentially measures how much a given food raises one's blood sugar levels. For instance, white rice may have a glycemic index of 58 while broccoli may only have a glycemic index of 15. White bread may have a glycemic index as high as 71. The idea is that a diet composed of low glycemic foods will lead to lower insulin levels which in turn may help one lose weight.

Patrick Holford takes the glycemic index one step further and uses a concept called the glycemic load. The glycemic load takes into account the glycemic index as well as the total carbs in a given amount of food. For instance, a bowl of steel-cut oats (1 oz.) has 2 GL while a bowl of corn flakes has 21 GL. In addition, half an apple has 3 GL while a banana has 12 GL. That is quite a difference. Holford is a big fan of oats. He claims in his book The Holford Low GL Diet, "There are specific foods and food combinations that cause rapid weight loss." He claims that you will never feel hungry on his diet. You limit the number of GLs you eat in a day and you combine carbs and protein at each meal.

Tim Ferriss champions a diet he refers to as the Slow-Carb Diet. On this regimen one avoids carbohydrates like bread, pasta, cereals, grains, potatoes, etc. Then simply choose one protein, one legume, and one vegetable for each meal. For example, breakfast might be scrambled eggs, black beans, and mixed vegetables. Lunch might be beef, pinto beans, and mixed vegetables. And, dinner might be chicken breast, lentils, and asparagus. Eat as much as you want at each meal and eat up to six times a day. But, always avoid carbs and dairy products and always include a protein, legume, and vegetable.

Some low carb diet books include Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Protein Power, The Zone Diet, The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, The South Beach Diet, The Greenwich Diet, The No-Grain Diet, and Sugar Busters.

I suppose the main attraction of low carb diets is that one can burn fat and spare muscle while not having to restrict the amount one eats drastically. On the other hand, low carb diets can make one fatigued and irritable until one gets used to the low carb regimen. Keep in mind that there are several different versions of low carb diets.

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