And that is part about managing your weight that I think many HS kids and their parents don't get or at least aren't willing to fully buy into. Some kids can eat 3 decent meals regularly, have occasional cheat meals, and even get stronger as the season progresses all while maintaining or even losing weight. But that's because they and their parents have made the effort to ensure they are eating better and continue to work hard during practice. But, that's the off-the-mat dedication and mental game that some kids and parents have made the choice to buy into.
We all hear about kids who say they can't make the weight though, but in some cases, I don't see that as a cutting issue, its poor off-the-mat decisions and lack of a buy-in to themselves, their team, and the sport. We all have some kids who are choosing to routinely make poor food choice decisions, sometimes overindulge, and then trying to over-exercise and starve a day or two before weigh-ins. We then often hear that same kid or parents say as the season progresses that they can't make the weight cut with most pointing out they are barely eating the last couple of days. To me, that is not a cutting weight issue it is a poor weight management issue. We often have to concede this routine isn't going to change and tell the kid and parent they will need to move up a weight class. But then low and behold most of those kids will balloon up close to the top of that new weight too and are still sluggish on the mat due to more bad eating habits.
You can throw all sorts of nutrition talks and guides at them to help show that making better eating choices will improve their performance on the mat and make maintaining their weight all season possible. You can even point out that this isn't about eating small portions or only choosing to eat "twigs and leaves" every meal, but about pre-planning food decisions to ensure you have good options available on a routine basis. However, until the kids and parents (since they do provide some of those food choices to their kids have a better buy-in on the value of nutritious eating we will still hear some kids and parents talking about cutting too much weight and/or eating little days before the meet. I also believe there are some effective ways to promote healthy eating habits and removing some of the extreme cutting, but part of that also comes from developing a culture where the other teammates and family understand what supporting each other really means.