This paper presents a method for reducing the weights of parity-check operators in stabilizer codes, which are essential for quantum error correction. The goal is to improve the performance of quantum error-correcting codes by reducing the weight of the parity checks, which are measured to detect and correct errors. The method, called weight reduction, was originally proposed by Hastings and has been studied in the asymptotic regime. However, this paper focuses on small-to-medium size codes suitable for quantum computing hardware. The paper describes a fully explicit description of Hastings's weight reduction method and proposes a simplified method applicable to the class of quantum product codes. The simplified method allows for reducing the check weights of hypergraph and lifted product codes to at most six, while preserving the number of logical qubits and often increasing the code distance. The method increases the number of physical qubits by a constant factor but is more efficient than Hastings's method in this regard. The paper benchmarks the performance of the codes in a photonic quantum computing architecture based on GKP qubits and passive linear optics, finding that the weight reduction method substantially improves code performance. The paper also discusses the implications of the weight reduction method for iterative decoding and provides examples of weight-reduced codes and the results of numerical simulations. The paper is structured as follows: Section II reviews the relevant background in classical and quantum coding theory. Section III describes the steps of Hastings's weight reduction method, discusses optimizations to reduce its overhead, and comments on its implications for iterative decoding. Section IV presents an alternative weight reduction method for classical codes and shows how it can be applied to reduce the stabilizer weights of quantum product codes. Section V presents examples of weight-reduced codes and the results of numerical simulations. Section VI concludes the paper.This paper presents a method for reducing the weights of parity-check operators in stabilizer codes, which are essential for quantum error correction. The goal is to improve the performance of quantum error-correcting codes by reducing the weight of the parity checks, which are measured to detect and correct errors. The method, called weight reduction, was originally proposed by Hastings and has been studied in the asymptotic regime. However, this paper focuses on small-to-medium size codes suitable for quantum computing hardware. The paper describes a fully explicit description of Hastings's weight reduction method and proposes a simplified method applicable to the class of quantum product codes. The simplified method allows for reducing the check weights of hypergraph and lifted product codes to at most six, while preserving the number of logical qubits and often increasing the code distance. The method increases the number of physical qubits by a constant factor but is more efficient than Hastings's method in this regard. The paper benchmarks the performance of the codes in a photonic quantum computing architecture based on GKP qubits and passive linear optics, finding that the weight reduction method substantially improves code performance. The paper also discusses the implications of the weight reduction method for iterative decoding and provides examples of weight-reduced codes and the results of numerical simulations. The paper is structured as follows: Section II reviews the relevant background in classical and quantum coding theory. Section III describes the steps of Hastings's weight reduction method, discusses optimizations to reduce its overhead, and comments on its implications for iterative decoding. Section IV presents an alternative weight reduction method for classical codes and shows how it can be applied to reduce the stabilizer weights of quantum product codes. Section V presents examples of weight-reduced codes and the results of numerical simulations. Section VI concludes the paper.