Do women lose weight when they menstuate?
Ok, go with me on this. I wrestled in high school and some in college, and during the interminable weight-cutting sessions on the stationary bike or in the steam room, the natural topic of conversation was, of course, losing weight. We discussed every possible means of doing it and what effect on your weight various actions had. Most of these discussions tended to be pretty tongue-in-cheek, but then again, after an hour in a sauna with 3 layers and a wool hat on, farting out that last few ounces starts to sound pretty attractive. For our purposes today, remember that this is only a discussion and no one actually did any of these things.
Eating or drinking anything, obviously, was a no-no, because food and water are
heavy. Drinking hard liquor, however, was considered ok, becuase it dehydrates you, so the net urine/sweat out would be greater than the weight of the liquid in. If you HAD to drink something, the best thing was the rinse-and-spit method, but some think that's risky due to the possibility of "accidentally" swallowing some and absorbtion across the muccus membranes in the mouth.
Ejaculation, obviously, was considered a good way to shed a few ounces with the bonus of burning some calories all the while. (On the other hand, sexual activity of any kind, even masturbation, is traditionally considered a no-no in the lead-up to matches in any martial sport, as some think staying celibate keeps you hungry. Others think that's hocum. For me, as much as I love wrestling, I love some other things more, but then I was never really All-American-caliber, so YMMV.) Obviously hypothetically there's vommitting, but that was a touchy subject then as now. Urination and bowel moving were considered effective, though again the possibility of employing, uh, "medicinal encouragement" to that end remains contentious. Farting was something of a problematic subject: some said that the expulsion of gas would quite clearly imply a net loss in wieght, while others contend that the hot, expansive air the bowels ejected would merely be replaced by cooler, denser air -- or worse, solids. Spitting was obviously universally considered a good way to lose weight. Crying I guess would have worked similarly, but that's not a very attractive method to attempt in front of a bunch of wrestlers and was universally shunned as not worth the cost in shame the benefit of weight a few tears might buy you.
Anyway, though I wrestled a few girls in high school matches, we never had one on the team, so the question of menstruation never came up. I'd bet it'd be good for at least a few ounces, maybe even a quarter pound, right? How much liquid are we talking about here? Do you think really competitve female wrestlers try to time their period for right before a big match so as to optimize their weight? Is there a way to purposefully increase or decrease the duration or, um, "intensity" of menstruation for this purpose?
The burgening sport of women's wrestling (an
olympic sport!) awaits your answers. And please no "weight cutting is bad, you'd be better off being well hydrated at the next weight class up, you encourage bulemia you terrible person, people
have died doing what you advocate, etc. etc. etc." posts. First, I and every other wrestler (boxer, fighter, rower, sculler, sprint football player, etc.) have heard it all before a million times. Second, this is all
purely hypothetical.
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posted by delmoi at 2:05 PM on December 28, 2005