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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1568284
This article is part of the Research Topic Combat Sports and Wellbeing: Advancing Health and Inclusion in Athletes and Practitioners View all 4 articles
Physiological and psychological effects of weight loss-induced stress before a competition in senior wrestlers
Provisionally accepted
Bilal Okudan 1
Ozkan Isik 2*
Zeynep Akyürek 2
Omur Fatih Karakullukcu 3
Laurentiu-Gabriel Talaghir 4*
Liliana Nanu 4- 1 Free Reseacher, Ankara, Türkiye
- 2 Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Türkiye
- 3 Ministry of National Education, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
- 4 Dunarea de Jos University, Galați, Romania
Background: It is known that stress occurring through/against a phenomenon will have physiological and psychological effects on the human organism. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the physiological and psychological effects of weight loss-induced stress before a competition in senior wrestlers.Method: This cross-sectional study used a purposeful sampling method to select participants. 243 wrestlers participated in the study voluntarily. The perceived stress scale and athlete weight loss methodology and effects scale were used to determine the physiological and psychological effects of weight loss-induced stress. Independent samples t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis were used to analyze normally distributed data.Results: There was no statistical difference in the wrestlers' body weight loss percentages, stress levels, and weight loss methods and effects sub-dimensions according to their gender and wrestling styles (p> 0.05). Despite this, there was a statistical difference in wrestlers' stress levels, ergogenic aids subdimension from weight loss methods, and psychological effect levels according to body weight loss percentages (p< 0.05). Additionally, there was a positive relationship between the body weight loss percentages of wrestlers with their stress levels (r: 0.461) and psychological effects (r: 0.240). Furthermore, there was a positive relationship between the stress levels of wrestlers with the average physiological (r: 0.298) and psychological (r: 0.508) effects. According to these results, it was determined that as the body weight loss percentages of wrestlers increased, their stress levels and the psychological effects they were exposed to would increase. It was also determined that as the stress level of wrestlers increased, the physiological and psychological effects they were exposed to would increase the weight loss-induced stress levels of wrestlers positively predicted their exposure to physiological and psychological effects at 8.5% (Adj. R 2 = 0.085) and 25.8% (Adj. R 2 = 0.258), respectively. Conclusion:It was determined that as the percentage of body weight loss increases in wrestlers, the stress level will also increase and the stress level increases, the physiological and psychological effects will also increase. It is thought that weight loss-induced stress has both physiological and psychological effects on wrestlers and may reduce their athletic performance.
Keywords: Dehydration, food and fluid restriction, stress, Rapid weight loss, Wrestling
Received: 29 Jan 2025; Accepted: 17 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Okudan, Isik, Akyürek, Karakullukcu, Talaghir and Nanu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ozkan Isik, Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Türkiye
Laurentiu-Gabriel Talaghir, Dunarea de Jos University, Galați, 800008, Romania
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