Introduction
Most athletes are concerned with either attaining
or maintaining an optimal body weight and com-
position for their sport, or event within their
sport. For some athletes, increased body size
can be an advantage (e.g. basketball, rugby and
American football), providing that the increase
in size is the result of an increase in the athlete’s
fat-free mass. For other athletes, body size is not
nearly as important, but it is critical to maintain a
low relative body fat (% fat mass) and a high rela-
tive fat-free mass (% fat-free mass) to optimize
performance (e.g. distance running, soccer and
swimming). For still other athletes, their body
weight is dictated by a specific weight category
(range of weights) within which the athlete must
fall in order to be eligible to compete (i.e. weight
category sports).
Weight category sports include all sports in
which the athlete must compete within a given
weight category. Examples of weight category
sports are provided in Table 49.1. There are
also sports, or events within a sport, which are
weight controlled. In these sports or events,
competition is not organized by weight cat-
egories, yet the tradition of the sport or event dic-
tates a slim figure, and thus a low body weight.
For example, in diving and figure skating, ath-
letes are rated by judges as to how well they
perform a certain dive or skating routine. While
the emphasis in judging is to be placed on the
athlete’s performance, appearance does play a
significant role, and a leaner body is associated
with success. Examples of weight-controlled
sports are provided in Table 49.1. Weight-
controlled sports are included with weight cate-
gory sports in this chapter as they share a
number of common nutritional concerns.
Weight-controlled sports are also addressed in
Chapter 39.
Weight category and weight-controlled sports
and events present a unique challenge from the
nutritional perspective (Wilmore 1992). Many of
these athletes are consciously trying to either
reduce weight or maintain a weight well below
what would be considered normal or optimal
for them. This leads to a variety of unhealthy
nutritional practices, including skipping meals,
avoiding specific foods or food groups which
are necessary for meeting the minimum daily
requirement for certain vitamins, minerals or
macronutrients, and the binge–purge syndrome,
including the use of diuretics and laxatives,
among others. This chapter will focus on nutri-
tional issues unique to weight category and
weight-controlled sports. It will address tech-
niques used to achieve weight loss and weight
maintenance for these sports, the health, physio-
logical and performance consequences of weight
loss and maintenance through these techniques,
and practical considerations as to how to best
achieve and maintain an optimal body weight
for these sports.