Treatment for Water Retention?

T

The Long Run

New Member
It seems since my very late 20s I've had water retention around my waist, what I have always thought was fat. It just dawned on my one night when I drank a lot of wine (not a usual thing) that I peed A LOT that night and the next morning was CUT like crazy around my waist. I mean I must have dropped 3"!

So I have now done a lot of reading on water retention and sure nuff wine is a diuretic that can effect water retention.
Because of this I've considered drinking like a glass of wine every evening.

I have also currently upped my water intake which has also had a very positive, consistent effect...but it only goes so far.

I'm also getting into apple cider vinegar as I've read that can help.

I do PLENTY of sweating during my workouts so I loose a lot of sodium through that I'm sure but that doesn't seem to help a lot.

What else....oh yea I drink a cup of coffee (hence caffeine) every morning but have upped that to 2 cups a day.

Now even though I'm doing all these natural things to help keep off water retention I thought I'd post a thread and ask some of the "experts" on here.....is there any one REALLY effective thing to take off the water retention?
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Try cutting your sodium consumption to 1 gram per day.

It is not easy to do that, since virtually every food on the market is laden with it. Yet it can be done, with striking results in terms of water retention!
 
I Timothy 5:3 "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy often infirmities"...for those who need it, but,
Ephesians 5:18 "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."
Now I hafta wonder if Peter had some bloating problem there...but of course they had a lot of parasites in that day to worry about too.
As an on-and-off coffeeholic I'd say that coffee doesn't make a lot of difference, at least anecdotally. The green tea thing I did for a half year didn't give any results I could see or feel either.
One thing I've read was that drinking water and lots of it stops water retention. Go figger.
 
Take my sodium down to 1 gram a day? Wouldn't that kill me? lol

OK I'll skip the coffee and tea thing since anymore coffee than in the morning and it throws me off anyway...makes me kinda jittery and such.

I'm gonna keep drinking the water like I have been. I've taken some off that way and the water doesn't hurt. In fact I get a good feeling drinking lots of it.
 
If you throw out the saltshaker, buy low sodium foods, avoid anything in cans, instant meal boxes (hamburger helper type stuff), and don't even lick your sweat, you will still get all the salt you need to live from the veggies you eat, other foods you buy...it's like everywhere.
This from a guy on a pacemaker. And you get used to doing without it. Eggs were the hardest, back about 20 years ago.
 
You could also get the low sodium salt instead. I don't know how the taste compares to regular salt, and it costs more, but... might be worth a shot.
 
<div>
(Totentanz @ Feb. 21 2008,22:20)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">You could also get the low sodium salt instead. I don't know how the taste compares to regular salt, and it costs more, but... might be worth a shot.</div>
Yup, it's potassium choride. The taste is ju-u-u-u-ust a bit sharper than regular salt (sodium chloride).
 
I rarely use table salt anyway. I'm not one of these who is fond of something if its too salty anyway so stuff like hamburger helper and even stuff from some restaurants is barely edible to me.

Having been aware lately (reading labels, etc) of all my sodium intake on a daily basis I'm not taking in that much as it turns out.

It seems that won't be the productive thing to focus on with me. I guess I'll just have to keep drinking lots of water and see what happens.

I'm taking creatine at the moment and my body could be holding onto water as its easy to get dehydrated with this stuff. At least it is to me.

Sometimes I'll drink half a gallon of water in a day and only pee a couple times. Then my muscles blow up a 1/4&quot;! haha

Makes me scared I'm gonna loose not only size around my waist once I figure this out, but also in my muscles once I SD.

Maybe I should stop taking the creatine now, but I'm starting my 3's tomorrow (don't do the negatives) and don't wanna screw anything up as far as strength.
 
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(The Long Run @ Feb. 24 2008,19:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'm taking creatine at the moment and my body could be holding onto water as its easy to get dehydrated with this stuff. At least it is to me.</div>
I think you may have found the problem. How much creatine are you taking?
 
You could try drinking one oz. of water for each lb. of bodyweight. This is pretty safe to do with normal sodium intake. Just don't overdo it as it can lead to hyponatremia (low sodium). You need to watch it even more if you sweat a lot and / or do lots of exercises.

If you're taking creatine, the ideal dose is 0.03 g of creatine / Kg bodyweight because creatine is used up at this speed. Higher intake is pretty useless and only bad for your kidneys because excess creatine becomes creatinine and goes through your kidneys and out with your pee. Besides, it can cause dehydration even without exercise and I think that 1/2 a gallon of water per day is too little even without taking creatine.
 
OK, so by your estimation and since I'm a solid 180 lbs I should drop it to 1/2 tsp of creatine per day as this is approximately 2.5 g and that is what I come up with when I multiply .03 g by my bodyweight in kg.

Also 1 oz of water per lb of bodyweight comes out to just about 1 1/2 gallons of water.

Cutting down the creatine (which I'll now do) won't be a problem but 1 1/2 gallons of water a day?? Ugh!

That could be a problem.

But...that's from my perspective right now. I'll shoot for 1 gallon a day to start with and see how it goes. I actually reached almost 1 gallon a day on my last cycle using creatine a little more than a year ago, and I didn't have as much problem with this water weight.

Thanks for all of your info I will put this into action today!
 
<div>
(The Long Run @ Feb. 25 2008,16:28)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Also 1 oz of water per lb of bodyweight comes out to just about 1 1/2 gallons of water.

Cutting down the creatine (which I'll now do) won't be a problem but 1 1/2 gallons of water a day?? Ugh!

That could be a problem.</div>
I weight about 130 (pounds not kilograms!). Thus I need to drink about a gallon of water a day.

Try mixing some Crystal Lite with your water. Studies have shown that athletes tend to drink more fluids when they are tasty.
 
I've heard of Crystal Lite, does it have Aspartame or effect it being &quot;pure&quot; water? I mean it still counts as &quot;water&quot; right?

These might be stupid questions I'm asking but now that I'm getting older I'm just now for the first time having to watch what I'm doing. Being younger it wasn't so critical, which is an understatement.
 
<div>
(The Long Run @ Feb. 25 2008,19:45)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I've heard of Crystal Lite, does it have Aspartame or effect it being &quot;pure&quot; water? I mean it still counts as &quot;water&quot; right?

These might be stupid questions I'm asking but now that I'm getting older I'm just now for the first time having to watch what I'm doing. Being younger it wasn't so critical, which is an understatement.</div>
Yes, there is Aspartame in Crystal Lite.
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Crystal Lite comes in little &quot;tubs&quot; of about 16 grams. One tub is supposed to be mixed with 64 ounces of water. That's if you're making the stuff for nine-year-olds -- way too strong for my taste.

Instead I only use a teaspoon or so (maybe 5 grams max) of Crystal Lite per one gallon of water. I doubt there's gonna be enough Aspartame in that to do you any harm.

Of course, you'll have to sweeten the concoction to your taste, using whatever method your prefer. I add a teaspoon of &quot;Sweet Servings&quot;. That amounts to about a half gram of maltodextrin and Aspartame.

I suppose it would take one of the labcoats to determine if that still counts as water, but I haven't dropped dead yet...
 
A good trick that works for me is keeping a water bottle at hand - always. I drink much more that way. What you can do is squeeze a lime or lemon into the water or even an orange if you like that better. I also reduce water intake drastically about 3 hours before going to bed because otherwise ...
 
Yeah, my wife puts a little bit of the &quot;pink packets&quot; (maltodex &amp; dextrose) into my water with a little shot of fruit juice so I'll drink it. I also find that I don't like it cold. I won't drink as much.
 
I used to squeeze a little lime into my water when I was drinking up to a gallon a day. Maybe that's what did the trick back then. Had never thought about orange though. This is getting interesting. hehe

I'm gonna have to invest in one of those faucet filters...I'm not hauling all that water home from the store when I've got well water to drink and live out in the country.

Regarding the Crystal Light yea I looked at that at the store last night as well as every other &quot;low cal&quot; mix on the shelf and all had aspartame. I'm not a big fan of it, not as much because it has a bad reputation, but the aftertaste kills me!! Ugh!

I also drink water at room temp. I don't drink as much if its cold either. I thought I was the only weird one on here!! haha
 
Just wanted to point out also don't know if I mentioned it but I was getting headaches at any random time but frequently. I didn't think about &quot;dehydration&quot; because I thought I knew myself well enough to know when I'm &quot;that&quot; dehydrated but I guess I was wrong.

Since reducing my creatine intake and upping the water, I've already gotten immediate relief of all the little random headaches and pains in my head.

Thanks for all of the input on here it helps me out a great deal!
 
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