Water Retention

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Some types of water retention occur when water and protein leak from your blood into your tissues. The protein may stay in the tissues, where it becomes a focus for attracting water retention.
If you take diuretics, your kidneys will work harder, and will extract more water from your blood. Some water may leave your tissues, [...]

Some individuals with water retention get a swollen, bloated tummy, others get swollen legs and ankles, and some people don’t get any particular symptoms. They just find it very hard to lose weight even if they eat very little and exercise a lot.
If you are one of these people, try weighing yourself a couple of [...]

A water diet means that you eat nothing and drink only water. That might temporarily get rid of water retention in some people but it would not have a lasting effect.
It is true that if you become dehydrated because you don’t drink enough water, your body could learn to hold on to water.  This can [...]