How Does Sugar Cause Water Retention?

Sugar itself doesn’t cause water retention, but an over-indulgence in sugar can make your body over-produce the hormone insulin. It’s this insulin which causes water retention.

Insulin helps your body turn sugar into energy or into fat (if you have eaten so much sugar that you cannot use it all). Consuming too many sugary foods or drinks on a regular basis could lead to very high levels of insulin in your blood. Insulin makes you retain sodium, a mineral that’s found in salt. Whenever you retain sodium, you also retain water. The only way to get rid of this water is to avoid sugar. This is not easy, as it’s added to so many foods and drinks.

Low-carb diets are of course sugar-free, which is one reason why they can appear to make you lose a lot of weight very quickly. This weight is often not fat but water, which comes back as soon as you stop the diet.

The Waterfall Diet also requires avoiding sugar, but unlike low-carb diets it works on several other causes of water retention.