That candy bar has too many calories, and so does that pizza and soda they want to consume.

The wrestlers at NIU stay on a strict, tiresome diet to maintain their weight, especially around weigh-ins.

Two hours before every meet, coach Dave Grant has his grapplers break a good sweat when they wrestle each other to ensure they will make weight.

Weigh-ins at official meets begin one hour before the first match starts, and each wrestler is allowed two tries to step on the scale and be at or below their designated weight.

According to 125-pound Marlon Felton, no one has tipped the scale too far in the wrong direction this year.

“We do the best we can, asking them questions and monitoring their nutrition,” said NIU strength and conditioning coach Matt Mangum. “Most of them stay well under and make sure they take in calories. Others who are close, we make sure they work as hard as they can while working out.”

Day in and day out, wrestlers pay as much attention to their weight as they do their wrestling techniques.

Stepping on a weight scale has become a daily ritual for wrestlers at the college and high school levels.

Holding an 18-8 record and being ranked No. 19 nationally in the 141-pound weight class by Amateur Wrestling News, freshman Josh Wooton has found many changes in his eating habits since high school.

Wooton wrestled at 125-pounds in high school and hails from Graham High School in St. Paris, Ohio, ranked No. 2 nationally.

“I used to drink a lot of pop and didn’t eat great,” Wooton said. “I was kind of a Pepsi-holic.”

Even NIU’s most notable wrestlers Scott Owen, ranked No. 2 nationally, and Ben Heizer, ranked No. 7, have to focus on maintaining their weight.

Grant said Owen and Heizer usually come in a couple pounds overweight in preparatory weigh-ins and really concentrate on training.

“You have to be sensible about how you eat,” Grant said. “It’s trouble on the weekend when you eat pizzas, and then the next week you come in five or six pounds overweight.”

As for the heavyweights, yes, they have the most leadway with their weight — they can stay between 198 and 275 pounds. But wrestling at their weight class is not just about weighing more than their opponent.

“The lighter heavyweights have done better in national competition,” Grant said. “Whatever they give up in weight, they make up in conditioning.”

Grant also stressed that a lean body mass is a key for wrestlers as well in order to compete at their level. Lean body mass refers to anything that isn’t fat mass including muscle, bone, minerals and water.

“A guy at 20 percent can’t compete with a five percent,” Grant said.

If the wrestlers eat four to five square meals a day, they stay a lot leaner, Mangum said.

In his short time here, Wooton has never seen any NIU wrestler try to cut weight by any means other than plain, old hard work.

“They will stay and ride the bike after practice for 20 minutes usually if they need to cut weight,” Wooton said.

A senior, Felton, who has piled together a 6-5 record with two pins, makes sure to put in extra time after practice in order to maintain his weight.

“I’ll work out at the Rec or stay and run for an hour after practice,” Felton said. “Keeping weight around a certain area the whole year round is tough.”