What Is Water Weight?
Lacey 
What is Water Weight?
Water weight is usually blamed a lot for weight troubles, whether you just started working out and lost a lot of weight quickly or when you feel really bloated and see you’ve gained a few pounds. Water weight can cause both of those, it can even make your weight fluctuate by 2-4 pounds. All it is though is water that’s been collected in your tissues, usually if water hasn’t been peed out it will be stored in between your organs and skin. It’s not a permanent storage, so don’t worry about that.
What Causes you to Gain Water Weight?
There are a plethora of causes of water weight, but many of them rely on hormones. Although the biggest cause of water weight is actually salt and carb intake.
Salt is really good at making the body retain water, as it binds itself to water, so this can make the water stay in the body way longer than it should have. Carbs aren’t as binding as salt, mostly carbs affect water retention after a period without them, as the body has to work extra hard and use a lot of water to store it as extra energy.
Hormonal changes can also greatly affect water weight, ladies especially need to look out. Menstruation, pregnancy, even some birth control can affect how your body processes water. Otherwise a stress hormone called cortisol can affect your water weight too, as it in general messes around with your metabolism.
Why Should I Lose it?
Sometimes you might feel bloated and uncomfortable for no apparent reason, it’s likely because of water weight. Again you can have an increase of weight by 2-4 pounds because of water weight and all of it is being stored between your organs and skin, it makes sense that it would be uncomfortable. Besides being able to avoid those kinds of situations again, it’ll also make you feel more healthy, which will overall make you feel better.
How do I Lose it?
Judging from the causes of water weight you might have a few key ideas on how to lose it. You’d be right to say that avoiding salty foods is one of those key ideas! Generally you’d also want to avoid eating processed foods too, as they are jam packed with salts to preserve it for longer.
Now here’s a twist, you’ll also want to drink more water! It may sound counter intuitive but really, when you feel thirsty your body will try to hold onto whatever water it can get, so by drinking more water you’ll be flushing out the water already in you.
It might also be a good idea to eat hydrating foods, like watermelon, spinach, strawberries, cantaloupe, and other fruits and veggies. It pretty much does the same as drinking more water, but you’ll also be getting nutrients and fiber!