Cutting solutions

[Devo#126]

Alright guys, I’m an in a dilemma. I current sit at 165, 5’8 and I am trying to get to around 145-150 range to fight welter or super welterweight. I have done CrossFit and have lose a little fat percentage but it seems to be that I am maintaining my weight instead of losing it. I am also mixing intermittent fasting with Keto. It almost seems impossible because I am pretty lean already and I don’t want to take a ridiculous McGregor approach to drain my body to maintain that weight......any suggestions? I don’t have any recent pictures however my body shape has not changed, feel free to check my instagram: Devo_loki126

[HeadBodyBodyBody]

Looked at your instagram, there are no recent photos of your physique but judging from what is there, from like 8 months back(?), you're carrying a lot of muscle, if you are already at a low bf and want to lose more weight you're going to have to sacrifice muscle mass. Crossfit is not especially beneficial for boxing... so if you are still working out crossfit-style, you should stop that and focus on boxing fitness if you want to drop to 147. This means running, skipping, calisthenics, floor exercises, sparring, pads, bags, etc. More basically, you need to be eating less calories than you expend; one way to help with that is to drink a ton more water, as this will help satiate you. I think you're right to want to cut down, at 5'8" you're gonna give up height at 160, which is where you're at now.

Do you run a lot, you should be running most days of the week

[Devo#126]

I run about 3 days a week along with the Metacon in CrossFit. I have never been the Type to bulk and then cut, but I feel after CrossFit and I get back to boxing than I’ll lose a little. I just tend to reach a plateau around 158-60. I drink about 8 bottles of water a day with a low carb to no carb-high protein diet. From what I have researched. It looks like the only way to to lose muscle; unfortunately, you don’t see many thread on people losing muscle to make weight.

[HeadBodyBodyBody]

I run about 3 days a week along with the Metacon in CrossFit. I have never been the Type to bulk and then cut, but I feel after CrossFit and I get back to boxing than I’ll lose a little. I just tend to reach a plato around 158-60. I drink about 8 bottles of water a day with a low carb to no carb-high protein diet. From what I have researched. It looks like the only way to to lose muscle; unfortunately, you don’t see many thread on people losing muscle to make weight.

If your plateau is 160 then it is what it is, that's your fighting weight and there's nothing more you can do about it. I would just suggest that doing crossfit is perhaps making you more 'jacked' than is optimal for boxing purposes.

[Devo#126]

I’d definitely sacrifice a little muscle to lose the weight I have a lot of power and great speed which is what middleweight is right? As you said, I just want to loss the weight for height purposes. I’m wondering how much I may lose once I get done with CrossFit and go back to strict boxing? People say you can lose muscle from a lot of cardio but threads also say that you don’t want to do TOO MUCH cardio. I look at guys like Errol Spence and Shawn porter and wonder what their walk around weight is..

[SoldierOfPeace2]

Do you track your calories? If not then do this,

Eat in caloric deficit to lose weight and eat high protein to preserve muscle mass

Find out your TDEE online using https://tdeecalculator.net (note it is just a rough estimation, test it out to find out your true maintenance by going higher or lower)

Minus 500 to 1000 from your TDEE and eat from there

Exercise will help accelerate weight loss

If you do track calories then Idk... but you didn't specify how much time you have, at your light weight it will take a while to lose some decent and noticeable weight

[Devo#126]

There is no time zone as of now. I’ve sparred guys at 160 in which I was decent but I’d rather go down in weight. I’d rather improve speed. Would I still need to maintain muscle mass? I feel like it would still be harder to lose weight being that I am already lean.

[Brymansteel]

How hard did you have to work to get as muscular as you are now? If it is just the way your body is it will likely be really hard to loose the muscle, but looking at your Instagram pics I'd bet you put alot of work into building that muscle. If so it'll probably come off easy once you stop doing crossfit (or heavy weightlifting, etc.) Running and other endurance exercises (skipping, sparring, long rounds on bags) will help. You should find that even if you lose weight and muscle mass you will punch faster which= harder. As others mentioned eating less calories than your burning is essential as well. Muscle mass in my opinion doesn't help at all with boxing assuming your in you ideal weight class, being fast, explosive and lean is what most boxers want. Also, consider figuring out your body fat percentage and doing a bit of math from there to see if being much leaner is an option.

[Devo#126]

I guess the advantage is that it’s mostly genetics. I hadn’t lifted that much in order to get where I am. I figured lifting heavy at a caloric deficit would help but I could Only get so far to where I reached my plateau. I saw that Shawn porter was a football player in high school at 180lbs in which he fights welterweight now which is ridiculous but I’d like to think it’s possible. As for body fat I’m probably around 12-15

[OctoberRed]

I guess the advantage is that it’s mostly genetics. I hadn’t lifted that much in order to get where I am. I figured lifting heavy at a caloric deficit would help but I could Only get so far to where I reached my plateau. I saw that Shawn porter was a football player in high school at 180lbs in which he fights welterweight now which is ridiculous but I’d like to think it’s possible. As for body fat I’m probably around 12-15

Taking in less water is key in cutting weight.