This is one of the why I dislike youth football. Unless you are told by a doctor that your child is overweight there is no reason for your child to lose weight. Any quick loss scheme could damage a growing body.

Good answer, Al. And the bottom line is, there is no magic pill. Losing weight quickly is unhealthy and the weight will probably not stay off, either. Eat right, exercise often, and drink plenty of water is the only way to lose weight correctly. By eating right, I mean lean meat, fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, and LOTS of water (minimum 8 glasses per day, and probably more if you are exercising). And stay away from sodas, energy drinks, and any other snack with processed refined sugars.
Remember, if you are exercising (which you obviously are if you are in football) you gotta eat. If you don't eat, your body won't have the energy necessary and you are putting yourself at risk.

cut out sugars and anything made of bleached flour (white bread pancakes) stick with whole grains vegetables fruits and lean meat and fish, drink at least 1 gallon of water spread throughout the day

Sorry I disagree with Al. Youth Football is one of the few program that actually encourage overweight kids to get in shape. Granted there are some kids that are naturally big, but they are the exception. Most of the 120lb kids that come through our program easily could lose 10 -15lbs and be way better off for it. We have accepted our kids getting fatter and fatter every year - and now we have people saying it is healthy when they are kids - BS! I have 3 kids on my team right now that had 5 - 10 lbs to lose over a month - when they stopped the sodas, chips, cookies, candy bars, etc and drank water, ate clean whole foods and excercised daily they dropped the weight no problem - they look better, feel better and are healthier for it.

But to answer the peson's question - the easiest way to drop water weight - is to stop as much salt intake as possible, drink lots of water until the night before the weigh-in - then no water before the weigh-in. A typical 100lb kids can drop 2 lbs over night that way. What ever you do, don't do the stupid old wrestling tricks with the trash bags and running , the spitting is dumb, and starving will only make them sick. Remember after the weigh-in hydrate and eat something with a little suger (peanut butter and jelly sandwich) to get the insulin spiked and blood suger back in order.

First, I agree with your commentary on the trend in modern society to get fatter and fatter. A very large percentage of the population, youth included, need to get off their hind ends and get active. Any program that encourages overweight kids to get in shape is a good idea. But it must be tempered with common sense and good science to back it up. And let's be frank, Frank. I mean Steve. Losing "water" weight isn't really losing weight at all, because as soon as you actually eat and drink again, you'll gain it all back again. In the question asked, to which we are responding, what stupid logic tells a kid that is 145 lbs that he must get to 140 lbs in TWO DAYS or else?! Or else what? It's not like football positions are detemined by weight class, as is wrestling. In your response, you sighted 3 kids on your team that had 5-10 lbs to lose over a month. That is reasonbale. REASONABLE weight loss goals are around 2-3 lbs per WEEK. Playing games that require blood sugar spikes after the weigh-in are just plain dumb AND potentially dangerous.

While I would certainly NEVER recommend anyone start 2 days out to lose the 5 lbs - especially since they probably knew a month ago they needed to drop the weight. That is irresponsible. That said, a 145 lb kid can flex his weight 5 lb for a weigh-in safely, by a few simple techniques and a 12 hour fast. Yes the fast will drop the blood sugar and yes you do need to bring it back up after the weigh-in and before the game and it can be done safely. Heck we are only talking about 3% of his body weight - most 200lb men swing 6+ lbs pretty regularly (step on the scale after a good dinner and compare to what you weighed first thing in the AM). One of my sons at 85lb in the AM will be over 90 at night after dinner. I took out to fast food for dinner one night (nice salty burger and fries) and the morning he was 89lbs. Most people have no idea what effect their eating habits have on their body weight. Do yourself a test and weight yourself 2 -3 times a day (AM 1st thing, 2:00PM, and after Dinner and dessert) and see how much your weight swings in a typical day. Then cut the salt, suger, carbs - for 1 day and try again - tell me you didn't swing your weight 3%.

Let's be clear - I don't endorse this technique - I would always rather see the player lose the body fat slowly over time and come into the weigh-in fully hydrated and ready to play. But the fact of the matter is there are plenty of good kids that want to play football that work hard to get ready and are still carrying too much body fat for the first couple of weigh-ins. Simply cutting the salt and fasting for a few hours is not going to hurt them - in fact they might even be healthier for it (do some research on the benefits of fasting) - as long as they aren't exercising in a fasted state - they will be fine. And feeding 30 mins before a game is not dangerous.

Thanks for the correction, Al. I didn't know that youth divisions were determined by age AND weight. I guess that makes sense, though. You don't want some 60 lbs kid getting tackled by a 150 lbs kid. I was a wrestler, not a football player, so my knowledge of youth football divisions was obviously flawed. So on the one hand, splitting divisions by age AND weight makes sense. But on the other hand, how do you avoid the obvious temptation for those on the borderline to go to the extreme that I have seen my fellow wrestlers go to in order to complete in the lower weight class?
Steve, you said that "there are plenty of good kids that want to play football that work hard to get ready and are still carrying too much body fat for the first couple of weigh-ins." What happens to those kids if they don't make the weigh-ins? Do you they bet bumped up to the next higher weight division, or do they just not get to play at all? I'm asking because I don't know. My contention would be that if they merely get bumped up to the next higher weight division, that's what they should do rather than playing games with their weight in order to have the obvious advantage of being one of the heaviest kids in their weight class as opposed to being one of the lightest kids in their weight class. And if they don't lose weight the right way, they're just going to gain it right back again, so essentially they are cheating the system. Yes, I do very strongly agree with the benefits (both physical and spiritual) of fasting. However, there are those who cannot do this (diabetics and hypoglycemics, to name a couple). And playing games with your hydration and blood sugar levels is potentially dangerous for anyone. Just because I jumped off of my second-story roof and landed without getting hurt, doesn't mean that I should do it regularly or encourage other kids in my neighborhood to do the same. Of course, I never did this but was using it as an analogy.

So it depends when the player doesn't make weight (at least in PW) if it is during certification - yes he can be pushed up to the next division, if it is durung the season he will sit the game. The hard part about bumping the kid up, is often (not always) the kid is on the border because of excess body fat not because of muscle and bone and if I push him up to the next level now he playing against kids that are muscle and bone heavier (by 10-20lbs) - whereas if the excess body fat is removed he would be playing in the appropriate weight class.

To your point wrestling has always had a reputation of being very extreme in weight management with weight classes just a few pounds apart and the difference between the classes being very large. I NEVER encourage that type of behaviour and in fact have been very hesitant to put my kids in wrestling for that very reason.

Finally - we play games with hydration and blood sugar levels every day. Why do you think you get tired every afternoon about 2:00? or you wake up in the AM aching and go drink caffeine (dehydrant). The night before you drank alcohol (dehydrant), ate some salty peanuts or popcorn - the list goes on. To stick to your analogy - we as a culture jump off 2nd story buildings everyday with no consideration for the effects or ramifications. Would it be better for a kid to eat a bag of chips and drink 2 liters of soda before the game - No of course not - and at the same time - yes taking dehydration and fasting to an extreme can absolutely be dangerous. So we have to use moderation and be smart. But a 1 - 3% swing in body weight for a few hours can be done safely in most cases (again leaving out the diabetics, hypoglycemics and a host of other conditions).

I go back the same test - weight yourself in the AM, then after every meal, then do the Atkins thing for a day or 2 and weight yourself again. Many people will 1 - 2% shift on any given day anyway, will see 10%+ after a few days on the Atkins thing - and never needed to dehydrate. Of course most people run around already dehydrated anyway. At least with the player we managing the rehydration prior to the game, whereas the kid that doesn't need to make weight , no one is managing his hydration.

Frankly, coaches and parents take a bigger risk with the kids that don't have to make weight (in my experience). They are the ones eating junk food, drinking soda, not paying attention at all to their diet - while the kids that have to make weight eat a much better diet - so which is better? Obviously a kid that doesn't have to make wieght and still watches his diet but that is not the case here.

So you are correct - it can be dangerous if taken to an extreme, but no more dangerous than the player that eats whatever he wants if taken to an extreme. The fact is it is safer to at least manage and watch the diet and water intake than it is to not. A quart of water can do more good for a player with a healthy diet than a gallon of water for a kid on a candy/junk food diet and I would rather have a kid play a little hungry than have him eat a bag of doritos right before the game (I have seen them do it) or better yet eaten coco puffs a few hours before and nothing since.