Water retention no matter what I do... bloated all over

#1

My reason for going low carb was to try and get to the bottom of my constant water retention.

I train hard and I have no issues being on a strict diet… but even when im living on meat and eggs I still continue to carry water weight infact I bloat less eating processed crappy food like mcdonalds and dominoes.

So far I’ve tried low carb below 50g per day and low sodium all this does is make me pee a lot but after the intitial drop of water from urinating within the hour I have bloated back up…

drinking lots more water/less… makes no difference.

even tried a day of fasting with only water and again all I did was pee a lot but continued to bloat back up after urinating within the hour.

stange thing is I took a week off from working out and was laying about in my bed… drinking coke zero and eating mcdonalds…dominoes full carby and salty foods and I never looked so lean in a long time… and it didn’t creep back up between toilet visits it stayed off.

So I think I’ve narrowed it down to 2 things…

Exercise or lack of sodium when going low carb.

I know Exercise can stress the body and cause cortisol issues… and with me not eating carbs im maybe not blunting it ?

or it may be the lack of sodium ? I know it isn’t too much as when im low carb im also low sodium and just to be on the safe side ill have a few bananas to see if it will help but makes no difference… but on the flip i dont crave salt i crave chocolate.

its really frustrating I can go from looking lean like I should with my hard work to looking like im on steroids… massive all over/ bloated face generally big and beefy looking and the horrible puffy nipples that point out through my t shirt.

any ideas ? apart from what I mentioned ?

The strangest thing about it all…

When I urinate I deflate as I like to call it… but within an hour I bloat back up as said, but this happens even if I don’t consume any water after the toilet… so where is this water coming from its like a secret store in my body… shrugs.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #2

It sounds to me, and anyone correct me if Im off here, but unless you have some heart condition or something major, you need to be having more salt. And not just any salt, himalayan pink salt. The trace minerals found in the pink salt assimilate into your tissue and help the body to regulate its water retension levels. Regular.table salt wont do this because its stripped.of its natural minerals.

If youre not using himalayan salt, I strongly suggest you do. I have always been one to retain water. Years ago I switched over to pink salt and its made a marked difference for me, especially in my lower body.

Are you using regular table salt or pink?

(Running from stupidity) #3
#4

I think I’ll start with recommending the book “Body by Science” by Little and McGruff. It has a lot of information regarding the importance of restitution. You could very well be having a cortisol problem.

People who generally use little salt usually need more on keto. Craving chocolate mean that you can eat some very dark chocolate, or add a teaspoon of cocoa powder to your coffee. It could also be that you lack some fat in your diet.

If you deflate only after urinating, it could be this is the only time when the kidneys manage to regulate water out of the blood stream again.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #5

I would urge you to have your kidney function checked by a doctor. But make sure low carb is includes good fat and protein.

(Carl Keller) #6

Possibly a sensitivity issue to something you are eating like vegetables, artficial sweeteners, dairy, nuts, eggs, MCT? I would take a good look at everything new that you are currently eating and consider an elimination experiment for a few days to see how your body responds. You might also consider eating more things that promote a good gut microbiome. Dr Jockers has a few suggestions that might help:

https://drjockers.com/10-ways-improve-gut-microbiome/

(Little Miss Scare-All) #7

I was interested in reading the article, always like to know more if I’m being bamboozled, but it was disappointingly just a long opinion with little to science at all. It sounds like it was just written from someone who develops an opinion on pure emotion because something about the subject annoys them, which I can relate to. But there was no substance, just price points and how people are dumb for using it. At least better explain why I’m dumb.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #8

I don’t lift weights but I feel like I’ve read on here that after lifting there’s more water in the surrounding muscle tissue caused by the repair process. And you mentioned it went down during rest (regardless of what you ate but you were maybe eating way more salt if you were eating McDonalds anyway).

Someone else posted about having gains/water retention after resistance training. Do a search on that?

#9

hey everyone sorry I haven’t got back to you all sooner because I was having the best sleep ever!

so basically after a two weeks of being on low carb and constantly getting hunger pains despite eating my 4k of calories a day which is around my maintenance, I gave in to my craving and ordered a dominoes pizza which I scoffed in about 10 mins… fell asleep and apart from a few toilet trips slept soundly.

when I woke my water retention problem was gone… now this isn’t a one off its something I’ve seen happen a lot of times when I come off low carb and have a carb up day.

So i’m not sure if its the high carbs or the ridiculous amount of salt in a large pizza but it works for me, now i’d obviously prefer to not be giving into this craving once a week to get back on balance so ill need to see if salting my food more often will help.

I have had pink hymalan salt in my cupboard for a long time but never salted any of my food just ate it as it was.

I eat a lot of mayo along with my meat and eggs for the fat content and there is some salt in it so thought that had it covered but must not be close enough.

to me it’s one of two things… the salt content in the pizza corrected my imbalance or the carb content in the pizza helped with any hormonal/cortisol issues from the strenuous lifting session a few days ago.

cortisol or salt deficiency would be my guess.

also that horrible sickening hunger feeling is gone, which I get when low carbing… hard to describe it but at times it is mildly painful that I need to stop what im doing and go eat… and its not like im in a deficit im eating 4k a day.

#10

forgot to mention I was at one time adrenal insufficient but im not functioning well however when I was adrenal insufficient there was two things I was told… that I don’t produce enough cortisol under stress and im a salt waster… whether or not I still have those two issue now my adrenals are in the normal range I don’t know… but its funny that the two things I think might be the issue are two things I was warned about 10 years ago.

how do people on low carb support adrenals when cortisol spikes ? do you keep those 30/40g of carbs for after working out to blunt the response ?

(Bunny) #11

I would take advantage of that formula and keep a carb up day once a week, maybe not pizza but if that works go for it?

In my deeper opinion It is really not going to matter because your not doing high carbs every day and your leptin signaling is telling you to eat, that’s what makes you order that pizza and I also think it is the carbs and fat in the pizza that is going turn off that leptin and ghrelin signaling and reduce that water retention to even out the metabolic dysregulation?

Your building up a health reserve that is resistant to the highly refined carbs in that pizza?

(Nancy ) #12

I read through all the posts and my thought is since you lost your bloat with the high carb high salt meal, try keeping it low carb/Keto and way increase your salt for a couple of days and see if that helps. Then you’ll know if it is carbs or salt that’s helping.

#13

yeah that’s my plan, im gonna begin salting all my meals I know its something ive never done for fear of water retention, but maybe too low a level can also cause issues.

How do you guys measure your salt intake when it’s adding pinches ? I weigh my food in Grams on a scale I don’t think a few pinches of salt would even register lol.

and if that doesn’t do it ill have a carb up day, I have oats in the cupboard which I enjoy might try using big bowls of it instead of dominoes etc.

I lifted 3 days ago, was leg day so was the heaviest day… after eating the pizza and waking up… every muscle in my body was aching… seems the recovery process was delayed until I ate that pizza as I hadn’t felt the aches the last few days.

#14

The things that jump out at me is “low carb” and 50g and not necessarily keto, which can make a big difference. In either case your salt needs to be way up when eating this way. Also, DEhydration leads to more bloat than drinking too much! Going off the wagon with both exercise and your diet completely screws with your metabolism and you can’t really take anything during that time at face value. Craving Chocolate in many cases is a magnesium deficiency, between that and your lower sodium intake it seems you have at least an electrolyte deficiency. When your electrolytes are low you can start flushing.

(Lynda Yates) #15

I got swelling in my feet and ankles and it turned out to be protein deficiency. I upped my protein intake and I was fine within a few days. So that could explain the leaner look when you ate MacDonalds.
When fasting I also take salt that has other additives - Himalayan pink salt ot as I live in Australia River Murray pink salt as these also have potassium, magnesium and other minerals in traces that could be useful as well as the salt.

#16

I think the electrolyte thing may be true and I believe im always lower in sodium then, as I take a banana or 2 a day as I thought it would help flush out some of the retaining water as I thought it was due to too much sodium but it made things worse which would point to a sodium/potassium balance issue I will drop the carbs again and just add more salt.

any tips to make sure I don’t get too much I will be adding in pinches but could weigh if need be.

#17

mines is the pink hymalayan salt I got it off of amazon a while back its just different shades of pink and needs to be grinded down to make finer. ill have to have a look to see if it has all those as that would make things easier just dropping a bit into a glass of water.

after my workout I decided to try having one of those bad electrolyte drinks just to see if it helped and I didn’t bloat up and wasn’t needing to urinate as often as I usually do when I stick to just water.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #18

Were you diagnosed with diabetes insipidus 10 years ago?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes-insipidus/symptoms-causes/syc-20351269

#19

You won’t add too much. The keto sweet spot for most is around 2-3x the “normal” RDA. Swap out that pinch for a punch and you’ll be good!

(Carl Keller) #20

If you like how pink salt flavors your food or its lickability right out of your palm, then buy it and use it. I like how it tastes natural and whether or not it is or isn’t healthier than any other natural salt isn’t the point. The point is we need salt and with the current state of our oceans, I’d rather mine come out of the ground.