It's not the weigh in the encourages extreme weight loss, it's the 12 hour time between weighing in and competition.
Exactly...A 152lb wrestler can weight 162-165 on Monday morning. He pulls down to 152 for weigh ins at 6:00 am and makes weight. By the time he wrestles at 7:00 pm that night he will be weighing 162-165 lbs. His body has had time to take in the nutrients and water to be fully ready to wrestle. If this wrestler was to weigh in 1 hour before he wrestles the most he would weigh is 157, but he would be bloated and weak as the nutrients would not have had time to be digested. Giving wrestlers 12 hours to pack on the pounds does encourage unsafe weight pulling. I would love to hear an arguement against this thought process. I cant think of one that would hold water.
