Local MMA league would leg me compete at 42yrs old, but I can't make my ideal weight. Any Help?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I should have fought professionally when I was 20 years old, but whatever.

The owners of Bayou Fighting Championship league based in New Orleans were going to let me fight, but I am Type 2 diabetic and can't seem to get my weight down to fight in the weight class I want to fight in.

When I was 20 years old, I trained like this:

1 hour Advanced Cardio kickboxing five days per week. This is attacking a heavy water bag with expert (3rd degree black belt) supervision.

2 hours traditional Karate and Japanese Jiujitsu five days per week with 4th degree black belt instructor. Not counting seminars with 6th and 7th degree black belt instructors. Sparring with other brown and black belts, which I usually won the fights.

2 additional sets of 50 push-ups per day every day

30 minutes to one hour of spinning a ~15 pound metal pipe to work on grip and forearm strength, especially when I was in high school but also up to age 20. I was on JROTC armed exhibition rifle team in High School, so I worked out about 8 hours per week doing that.

Back then, on weekends I worked with my Father as a Residential Carpenter contractor, and usually did about half of all the heavy lifting on the crew.

I want to cut weight back to below 190lbs and I'd be satisfied, whether or not Mr. Ancona lets me fight in his league. He was going to do it, if I could just cut weight. Medical charts say I'm supposed to be 165lbs, but more than one Gracie Jiujitsu instructor has told me I should be more like 190lbs. Even my doctor admitted 190lbs is probably good for me.

I am type 2 diabetic, and it is very hard to lose weight off the belly. I am currently heavy enough to fight in Heavyweight division, but I would be dumb to try that, as a "fit" heavyweight can legally be up to 265lbs and would be hard for me to win without breaking bones (or other rules).

Any suggestions?

Updates

9 mo

By the way, supposing I could make weight, Kickboxing or Muay Thai might better suit my skillset than MMA. I am not as good at ground-based grappling as I am at striking and clinch skills. I am A+ at striking and clinch, but pretty crappy on the ground-based grappling.

Updates

9 mo

I have tested the force of my punches on a force meter, and my veritical fist right Cross is still above professional average for my range of 165 to even 190 pound professional fighters, so I am not concerned about whatever power I've lost since I last trained heavily. A five punch test averaged over 600 pounds on my right cross. I did not test my thrust kick or roundhouse kick.

[rigmarole]

How far are you off? If we didn't make weight we use to just run covered in trash bags in the heat often up stair cases in parking garages to drop water for the scale until we hit our goal, then re-hydrate and eat a good meal after that night to fight the next day. If you're off by a significant amount then you need to cut calories and do a ton of running/walking over an extended amount of time. Cut out most of the carbs and go keto eating protein and healthy fats with enough fiber rich veggies to get your vitamins. It should also help with your blood sugar levels.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I was doing that a couple years ago, but for some reason the zero carbs diet plateaued and stopped helping me. Now I seem to be gaining weight again instead of losing. It's like insulin resistance has set in.

I am going to start training harder than ever even if it kills me. I should do Pyramids of all exercises every day or every second day, and that should burn the calories faster than just settling for whatever happens.

Realistically I COULD win fights in the Heavyweight division, but I'd probably need to injure my opponents pretty badly to do so. I'm not out to kill someone, so I only want to fight in my ideal weight class. I seem to have gained weight for no real reason in the past month or two, and i'm still 30 pounds over 190, so it's annoying as all hell. I thought i was on track to cut to 190, and instead I gained like 10 pounds.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Mr. Ancona said that if I could make weight, he really would let me fight even at my age. I passed both the physical and eye examination, and the eye doctor told me to just fight with my contact lenses in, since they are soft contacts. I can fight "blind" but if i get to fight with contacts in I'd kick ass.

[rigmarole]

That tends to happen with diabetics. Often they experience edema in their legs an feet and can pack on 5-10 pound of water weight out of the blue. Press your pointer finder into your legs and check for pitting.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I'm losing weight now. I'm training 16 hours per day and eating just 1200 to 1400 calories per day. I ate about 110g protein today and only 1400 total calories, so I did good.

Breakfast:
3 fried eggs (no butter)
half cup cottage cheese
1 cup 1% skim milk

Lunch
1 chicken breast (roasted)
quarter cup peas
half cup potatoes (I know bad)

Dinner
1 cup cottage cheese. (This is the most protein dense natural food I can find)

I'm doing 3 sets of every exercise I know all day long, and My goal is to also run at least 80 flights of stairs every day by fight day, which is October 7.

I will also be doing resistance training with strap-on weights on my hands and feet to offset the unnatural weight of 16oz muay thai gloves, since in my target weight class I'm required to wear 16ox gloves.

Thanks for your input.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I'm already up to 40 flights of stairs for the day. I caught my second wind and I'm going to train twice as hard as yesterday and the two days before combined.

Every 8 flights of stairs burns 58 Calories for a 10 foot stair, so if I run 80 flights per day I'd burn 580 Calories from that exercise alone.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Update:
I'm at 61 flights of stairs for the day with resistance weights at an open run. I might not make it to 80 today, but 70 seems reasonable. Maybe I can make 100 flights per day by Oxtober 7 fight day. lol.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Hey check this out. Mr. Ancona wants me to fight an "Amateur" fight at 200lbs on August 12. I have 28 more days to lose 19 pounds. I can do it if I make extreme enough cuts to my diet and do enough flights of stairs. Today I am taking it easy. The other day I did 96 flights of stairs in one day with resistance weights.