Lyle Micheli, MD

Losing weight
As many as a quarter million young American males starve themselves every year to make weight in wrestling. Undernourishment, dehydration, anorexia (not eating), and bulimia (making yourself throw up after eating) are just a few of the unnecessary occupational hazards that can result, not only for wrestlers, but for gymnasts, figure skaters and dancers. In the short term, these practices may interfere with normal growth and development. In the long term, they may impair basic health with consequences such as reduced bone density, lowered heart rate, electrolyte imbalance, ulcers or pancreatitis.

For many serious young athletes, their wish to decrease body fat and increase lean body mass to improve their sports performance is justifiable, but safe and beneficial weight loss can be achieved by increasing energy expenditure and lowering calorie intake, thereby decreasing body fat while maintaining or increasing muscle mass. But this should be done gradually. A high school boy should lose no more than two pounds a week, and a girl no more than three. Crash diets hinder the normal growth process and lower muscle mass.

There is nothing wrong in principle with a young athlete wanting to safely increase his or her weight in order to be more competitive. Moderate increases in muscle may also help prevent injury. Young athletes can gain one to one-and-a-half pounds a week in muscle mass by adding a small extra meal to the daily diet and undertaking several hourly sessions of weight training a week. If the athlete starts gaining body fat at the expense of lean muscle, the program should be modified.

• Eat consistently. Every day, eat three hearty meals plus one to two additional snacks. Do not skip any meals.
• Eat larger portions than normal. Instead of having one sandwich for lunch, have two. Have a taller glass of milk, a bigger bowl of cereal, or a larger piece of fruit.
• Select higher calorie foods. Read food labels to determine which foods have more calories than an equally enjoyable counterpart. For example, 8 oz of cranapple juice has more calories (170) than 8 oz of orange juice (110); a cup of split pea soup has more calories (130) than a cup of vegetable soup (80).
• Drink plenty of juice and milk. Beverages are a simple way to increase calorie intake. Instead of drinking water, quench thirst with calorie-laden fluids. One high school soccer player gained 13 lbs over the summer simply by adding six glasses of cranapple juice (about 1,000 calories) to his daily diet.
• Do resistance exercises. Push-ups, free weights, and Nautilus-type machines stimulate muscle development, so the athlete bulks up, not fattens up. Athletes concerned that exercise will result in weight loss rather than gain should remember that vigorous exercise tends to stimulate appetite, so they will eat more and likely gain even more weight.