This is a story of how the waterfall diet not only got rid of water retention but cured a condition which had been diagnosed as psoriatic arthritis.

Some years ago I was consulted by a lady called Sally who had been told she had psoriatic arthritis. This is a combination of painful joints (in Sally’s case her fingers) and the skin disease  psoriasis. Since painful joints are often caused by water retention, I put Sally on the Waterfall Diet on a trial basis, and waited to see what would happen.

I was really expecting Sally’s condition to improve, but when she returned after two weeks, her joint pains were as bad as ever. Then I discovered that Sally had unknowingly been cheating on the diet. While she knew that for the first few weeks she was not allowed to eat salt, I had forgotten to tell her that smoked fish has a high salt content. Sally loved these and had been eating them every day.

Sally loved anything salty. She had always sprinkled her food liberally with salt even when the food was already salted. Unsalted food would get a double helping.

Sally spent a very unhappy few days eating food which she did not much enjoy at all, but she soon gained the tremendous benefit of pain-free fingers. She felt so much better that it became quite easy for her to stick to the diet.

Sally also lost 3 lbs in water weight very quickly. Salt plays a key role in your fluid balance because it dictates how your kidneys behave. The salt in Sally’s diet was interfering with her kidneys and the resulting water retention was making her fingers hurt.

Related posts:

1. Salt And Water Retention

Barbara had severe water retention and consulted me in 1992 when she was seven months pregnant. She was aged 23 and a vegetarian, and it was her first pregnancy.

Food was a problem for Barbara. Her appetite was so poor that she only ate foods for their taste, not from hunger. While the rest of the family had a complete meal, she would only pick at a piece of cheesecake. Yet in spite of this she was very overweight. Her legs and ankles were very swollen with water retention.

Barbara was also badly anaemic. Her haemoglobin levels had been progressively dropping since early pregnancy, despite increasing doses of iron prescribed by her GP and then by the hospital. By the time she consulted me, Barbara’s skin was extremely pale, and her blood pressure sky high due to the water retention. Both Barbara and the baby were at risk. Barbara agreed to see me because her doctor wanted to keep her in hospital in order to give her iron injections. She had refused this, and was desperately seeking alternatives.

Barbara had received counselling about iron-rich foods recently from a hospital dietician, but told me that she couldn’t follow the advice because she had no appetite.

In taking Barbara’s history, I found a lot of indications that her high blood pressure was due to water retention, which in turn was due to a number of nutritional deficiencies. By throwing her out of balance, the massive doses of iron that Barbara was getting from her doctor were making her worse.

I asked Barbara to obtain permission from her doctor to stop the iron supplements, and I gave her instructions for the Waterfall Diet and a more balanced supplement program.

To her doctor’s amazement, Barbara’s haemoglobin levels started to rise within days, and she went on to produce a healthy baby.

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Elaine had been on every kind of diet, and while the rest of her grew thin and lissom, her thighs remained fat and lumpy with cellulite that was loaded with water retention. No exercise ever made any difference to them either.

When she came to my consulting room, Elaine was sceptical that the Waterfall Diet could get rid of her water retention and cellulite, but I explained that she had to use the diet together with vigorous massage for eight minutes a day.

“Treat your thighs like bread dough” I told her. “Knead, pummel and squeeze them as much as you can to separate the fluid retention from the fat. Then the diet will help you get rid of both”.

Ten weeks later Elaine’s thighs had lost so much water retention that they measured two inches less in circumference and were getting into proportion with the rest of her body.

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Carolyn Burris from Laguna Beach, California is a real person, with real before and after pictures. Here is the story of how she lost almost 20 pounds of water retention in just two months.

“I began the Waterfall Diet program in earnest beginning of August, 2009.  It is towards the end of September now and I have literally peed out almost 20 pounds worth of water retention. I lost 10 pounds in the first 3 weeks. I hope to drop another 5-10 pounds. I am fairly sure all my excess weight was water retention as I have always been a decent eater. Now I am a healthy eater.  I eat plenty of foods and don’t get hungry.”

“I also joined a gym and a trainer helps with exercise. It has been 15 years since I have been in the gym. I love it but I know it is the Waterfall Diet that is making the difference.”

“When a gym trainer weighed me in before I started the Waterfall Diet, I was just short of 173 pounds. Today I weighed myself at 154. I have lost almost 4 inches of water retention from my belly. I couldn’t be happier. So many pieces of information in your book have fit for me. I feel for so many who try to lose weight and struggle and work out so darn hard. This way was easy and only took 2 months. Thank you so much Linda.”

16 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Alison in Ozark, Missouri

“Happy to report have now lost 16 lbs!…in 25 days! I only started the diet on 30th August. I’m again referencing your original book about the Waterfall diet with recipes and such, and this time around, have become more adventurous with food preparation. For lunch today for instance, I had mixed vegetable soup with an avocado whizzed into it, a sprinkling of hemp seeds and some sunflower and spicy tiny sprouts on the top, with a cup of herbal tea. Have downloaded your low carb and additional recipe suggestions.”

23 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Lucy in New Jersey

“Well, I bought the book on the Waterfall Diet and so far I have lost 23 pounds because I started out at 188 and now I am 165. I am still losing slowly but before it was impossible for me to lose weight.”

“I am very happy that I found this diet. It is not really starving yourself but eating foods that are right for you. Yesterday I was at the doctor’s office for a blood test which I have to take every three months. I found out that my blood pressure was 112/72, the nurse told me that reading is excellent, my normal reading use to be 120/80.  I am so happy now I know the reason for my water retention and why I was unable to lose weight.”

More Comments

“Thanks to your book I now understand what my problem is - water retention! After 60 tests I still couldnt get to the bottom of why my legs felt separate from the rest of my body (my upper half is quite sinewy!).”

“Dear Linda I have recently downloaded your 2 books, the Waterfall Diet and Treat Yourself with Nutritional Therapy. I’m very excited to have found the first one as I have had water retention most of my life and there hasn’t been one doctor who has pinpointed it like you did. I started the diet this past Monday and already feel better. Thank you very much for this positive information.”

“I’ve signed up for your newsletter. Looking 4ward to more info to learn from. Linda’s writing is so inspirational and practical!”

“Loved the book!”

“Your Nutritional Health Bible is one of my bibles”.

“I have had this weight problem for the last 3 years. The facts mentioned in your book about water retention exactly fits my problems. Hence I was confident that my weight issues was due to water retention. In one year I had put on 15 kgs.  I tried all sorts of exercise  diet programmes  but nothing changed my weight. In the first one week after I started the waterfall diet I lost about 5 kgs. ”

“I love you Linda. My feet were swollen for 10 years before I read your book. Thank you so much. God bless you.”

Download Low-Carb Dieting and the Waterfall Diet (E-guide). Includes full instructions for the Waterfall Diet.
Linda’s Flat Stomach Secrets. (Her latest book.) Includes help with both water retention, bloating and belly fat.

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Consuming too much salty food or drink may cause some water retention, but not necessarily a lot.

You may be eating more salt than you realise. Lots of convenience foods, and even common foods like bread, contain salt without even tasting salty.

The active ingredient in salt which causes water retention is sodium. Sodium is not just found in salt, it is also in baking powder (used to make cakes) and in flavour-enhancing additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG). It’s quite hard to avoid consuming excessive salt or excessive sodium if you regularly eat convenience foods.

If you have water retention and are really determined to reduce salt and sodium, then eating unprocessed foods and making as many of your own foods as possible will help. That way you know exactly how much salt is in your food, because you have to add it yourself.

Salt is one of the causes of water retention, but is not the only one. For most people the maximum amount of water retention which they could expect to lose by changing to a low salt / low sodium diet is probably about 2 lbs. However some people are more salt-sensitive than others and may notice that their water retention gets significantly worse if they eat salty food.

If you have any experience of this we’d like to hear from you - do leave us a comment.

Related posts:

1. Water Retention And Psoriatic Arthritis
2. How Does Sugar Cause Water Retention?

Setting aside the diseases which can cause really gross water retention (these are mostly diseases of the heart, kidneys and liver), it is quite common  to retain up to 10 lbs of water weight. (That means excessive or abnormal water retention, not the water that needs to be in your body to prevent dehydration.) Occasionally a few individuals can hold up to 20 lbs of water retention.

Related posts:

1. Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention?
2. Why Do I Lose A Lot Of Water Weight On A Low-carb Diet And Gain It Back Again Afterwards?
3. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?

Most experts agree that everyone needs to drink about 2 litres (that’s just over 4 pints, 2 quarts or 8 cups) of water a day.  In extremely hot weather, if you sweat a lot, or if you engage in a lot of sports, you may need to drink more than 2 litres of water a day. The general rule is

• 1 litre of water per 25 kg of body weight plus a further 1 litre per every hour of exercise

Drinks like tea, coffee and alcohol should not be included in this, as they are diuretics. This means that they make you excrete water quickly, so they could leave you dehydrated and needing even more water than if you had not drunk them.

Soft drinks such as sodas don’t count either. They are so loaded with sugar and other substances that they don’t do a good job of helping you excrete waste products (which is one important reason why you need to drink plenty of fluid).

Weak herbal teas and pure fruit juice (if the juice is diluted half and half with water) can be used to count towards your daily water consumption.

Related posts:

1. Whenever I Drink Beer My Arms And Thighs Feel Swollen And Puffy. Is This Water Retention?
2. How Does Sugar Cause Water Retention?
3. Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention?

Diuretics are the best medicines to treat water retention caused by heart, liver or kidney problems. They are not very effective for water retention caused by other types of water retention, including

• chronic venous insufficiency
• premenstrual water retention
• idiopathic edema

By causing dehydration they can actually make these problems worse.

Before buying diuretics (even natural herbal diuretics) get your doctor to check your heart, kidneys and liver. If these are ok then your water retention needs the Waterfall Diet (see the panel on the right-hand side). Taking diuretics for any other type of water retention can make it worse.

Some people become addicted to diuretics, and swell up as soon as they stop taking them. This swelling is caused by the addiction, it is not an indication that diuretics are necessary. In fact the opposite is true. You should gradually reduce your diuretics while you introduce the Waterfall Diet.

Related posts:

1. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?
2. Natural Diuretics
3. How Much Water Weight Can You Have In Your Body?

Any foods that you don’t digest very well can give you water retention. If these happen to be carbohydrate  foods then you will lose water weight soon after starting a low-carb diet. When you stop the diet the water weight will return because you have resumed eating the foods that were a problem for you.

The Waterfall Diet is different as it is a programme which helps you identify your problem foods. That means you can avoid regaining water weight without having to give up all carbohydrate foods.  The Waterfall Diet also includes many foods that help to prevent water retention.

Related posts:

1. How Much Water Weight Can You Have In Your Body?
2. Water Retention Diet | Lose Water Weight
3. The Waterfall Diet | Not Just For Weight Loss

It’s certainly possible that it’s water retention.  Lots of people find that certain foods make them retain water. Beer has more yeast in it than other kinds of alcoholic drink, so you may be reacting to the yeast. It’s likely that other foods containing yeast are also unsafe foods for you, though their effects may not be so noticeable.

Related posts:

1. How Much Water Do I Need To Drink Every Day To Prevent Water Retention?