Water weight happens when the body holds onto excess water for a variety of reasons, including insufficient hydration, kidney disease, too much salt, improper dietary choice, and certain cancers.
Excess water can be found all over the body between the blood vessels and within some types of tissues. At times the excess water can accumulate in the toes, feet, and fingers.
While most of society would think drinking eight glasses of water a day would cause more water weight, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The body has processes in place when any homeostatic balance is thrown off to try and correct the balance.
Ways to Get Rid of Water Weight
One of these is when the body reacts to a sodium and water ratio imbalance by essentially holding extra fluids hostage that show up on the number on the scale. Learn how to get rid of water weight now.
1. Exercise on a Regular Basis
When an individual engages in exercise activities, the natural process of sweating allows the body to rid itself of excess water. Depending on elements like clothing and heat level, one hour of vigorous exercise yields a fluid loss of between half a liter and two liters.
This water is lost through sweating that occurs when the body is attempting to lower its internal temperature.
The body will excrete a mixture of water and sodium through the skin, and when the water evaporates into the air, it takes the heat with it.
In addition, the muscles will absorb a significant amount of water away from the tissues that make the skin appear bloated or puffy. Exercise on a regular basis will also promote a healthy intake of water on a daily basis, which can balance the sodium and fluid ratio in the body.
The result of this balance is the body will stop holding water an individual did drink hostage to maintain homeostasis.
2. Consume More Water
At first glance, suggesting an individual should consume more water seems counter-intuitive to the process of losing excess water weight. However, it actually is the opposite.
Dehydration occurs when more fluid is being lost then what is being consumed. When an individual is dehydrated to any degree, the body knows it needs to keep water reserves around to inhibit the water levels from dropping too low.
When a proper water balance in the body is achieved on a regular basis, the body does not have to have that process in place to compensate anymore. The body will stop retaining extra water because the proper water intake keeps the sodium to water ratio already balanced.
It is important to note, however, drinking too much water can cause a problem as well. The best way to assess the fluid sodium ratio balance in the body is to observe the color of the urine.
If the urine is clear, the individual may be drinking an excessive amount of water. If the urine appears to be fairly yellow or dark yellow, the individual is dehydrated. A proper fluid balance in the body will always yield almost clear to light yellow urine output.
3. Short-Term Use of Water Pills
Water pills or diuretics can help for the short term riddance of excess water weight. The water pills force the kidneys to expel increased levels of sodium into the urine, which results in an imbalance of fluids and sodium in the blood.
In order to fix the imbalance, the body will react by absorbing water from the blood to expel in the urine. As a short term solution to drop a few pounds, water pills are a viable option.
The downfall to short-term use of water pills is they can cause an individual to get dehydrated, and when the use of water pills is stopped, the individual will go back to store more water than usual because of the dehydration.
Even if the individual taking water pills is not dehydrated when they cease using them, the body still reverts back to the normal absorption of water and sodium, which means it will store the same amount of water as it did before the diuretic use.
Additionally, it is best to obtain water pills for short term use from a physician rather than the local drugstore. Over-the-counter water pills are not regulated, so they could contain substances that are harmful to the body.
4. Reduce Sodium Intake
The human body has a fascinating mechanism for maintaining the balance of electrolytes and fluids. Sodium is an electrolyte that needs to stay in proportion to the ratio of fluids to sodium in the body.
When this balance gets thrown off, the kidneys compensate for it and balance the ratio. If there is more fluid in the blood and body than sodium, the kidneys absorb fluids from the blood and expel them as urine to balance it out.
When there is an excess of sodium in the blood in relation to fluids, the kidneys will actually absorb water from the urine to put back into the bloodstream and tissues to correct the sodium-favored imbalance.
Most individuals consume more sodium than what the healthy daily intake is and therefore, their bodies are holding onto more water than they would be otherwise. Because of the excess sodium, the kidneys will steal water from the urine and put it back into tissues that will hold it to maintain the balance.
If an individual were to reduce their sodium intake, it would result in lower sodium levels overall throughout the body, which would encourage the kidneys to keep the water moving out of the body with minimal retention.
5. Reduce Intake of Carbohydrates
Milk products, fruits, vegetables, and grains are all rich sources of carbohydrates, or fibers, sugars, and starches. When broken down chemically, carbohydrates consist of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
Carbohydrates are one of the body’s three key sources of energy it cannot produce on its own. When more carbohydrates are consumed than are being burned off, the body will store them in the liver and muscles as a compound called glycogen.
Glycogen has a tendency to drag water with it when it is being stored, more specifically at a rate of four grams of water per gram of glycogen. Reducing the intake of carbohydrates will stop the body from storing extra glycogen, and as a result, it will also store less water.
In addition, carbohydrates cause insulin levels to rise, which results in the retention of sodium. Sodium retention causes the kidneys to reabsorb water that would have otherwise been expelled as urine.
When an individual reduces their intake of carbohydrates, they are discouraging the retention of water that comes with the retention of glycogen.
Via: MedicalNewsToday | VeryWellFit
