long-term weight loss in elite athletes: does it have an effect to the performance and body composition?

© Fotolia

Long-term losing of weight does not have a significant effect to the body composition and overall sports performance of elite athletes trying to achieve a gradual weight reduction, says a new study conducted at Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway and published in the August 2011 issue of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

There are times when athletes are recommended to undergo some gradual weight reduction to achieve an ideal cut-off weight for a particular event. To achieve this, a weight loss of 0.5 to 1 kilo per week is carried out through moderate restriction of energy intake. However, the long-term effect of these weight loss procedures has not yet been observed in previous studies. Thus, in this particular study, the researchers recruited and observed twenty-three elite athletes for a period of six to twelve months. They have tried comparing the body mass index, the fat mass, and the lean body mass of these athletes who underwent 0.7 percent weight loss and those who had 1.4 percent weight loss per week. And what did the researchers discovered? They have noted that body composition and performance of elite athletes do not suffer with gradual weight reduction. Therefore, losing weight can be executed without any danger to an elite athlete that needs to lose weight gradually.

Reference:

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism; Long-term effect of weight loss on body composition and performance in elite athletes; Garthe, I. et al.; August 2011