Water Retention and Weight Gain

Does your weight seem to fluctuate up and down all the time without any obvious reason? Can you suddenly ‘put on’ a couple of pounds when you don’t think you have been unhealthy? Do you get back off holiday and wonder how you could possibly have gained so much weight? If so you are probably retaining water. There are many reasons why this can happen and strategies to help prevent it. Here is the link between water retention and weight gain.

The Science

1 pound of fat is 3500 calories. So to actually put a pound of fat on from 1 day to the next you would have to eat 3500 calories more than your daily recommended intake. So a total of about 5500-6000. Not impossible to do if you eat/drink the wrong things, but highly unlikely for most people. More likely is you have eaten something that has made you retain water. You would have to retain a bit less than a pint of water to put on a pound of water weight, so not that much.

In fact some people can retain a lot more water than that, it varies from person to person. Some clients can come back off a holiday or after Christmas and be 7-10 pounds heavier. To gain 7 pounds of fat in a week you would have to be eating an average of 5500-6000 a day for the whole week. Which is highly unlikely for most people even if they are ‘letting themselves go’ somewhat.

What Foods Cause Water Retention?

1/ Carbohydrates

Carbs are converted to glucose in your bloodstream. Some of that glucose is converted into glycogen and stored in your muscles or liver ready to be used. When your body stores glycogen it does so by binding water molecules. It does this by a ratio of 1 gram of glycogen to 3 to 4 grams of water. So if you end up storing a fair bit of glycogen, which we are capable of doing, you will be storing 3 to 4 times the amount of water as a result. This can lead to quite a change on the scales.

2/ Salt

Salty foods make you retain more water. Why? Salty foods make you thirsty, so you drink more water. Which you would think is a good thing, right? The problem is that studies show despite the increase in water intake, urination levels remain the same. So basically you just retain the extra water due to the salt intake. Basically it’s your body’s way of balancing out the high salt levels.
Too much salt bad for you in a variety of other ways as well, for example it will increase your blood pressure. So reducing your intake is a good idea for most people anyway. And it’s not just about not adding too much salt to your food. Processed foods are usually very high in salt so if you eat a fair amount of them, your salt intake is highly likely to be too high.

What Can I Do To Stop It?

Obviously reducing your carbohydrate and sodium intake will help. But increasing your potassium intake will help too. This will help your kidneys flush out the excess sodium. Dark leafy greens, avocado and salmon are examples of food rich in potassium. Garlic, fennel, parsley and dandelion tea are also foods that have been shown to help reduce water retention.

How Long Does It Last?

In my experience it takes anywhere between a couple of days and a week for people to drop this excess water weight assuming they get back to a healthy regime. And whatever weight they gain, usually about half of it is water and half of it genuine weight gain. So if you come back off holiday and gain 7 pounds, you can assume you have only really gained about 3.5 of fat. But you will know for sure after a week of healthy eating where you are genuinely at either way.

Conclusion – Water Retention and Weight Gain

Knowing and understanding that is important. Seeing a large weight gain can be demotivating. So understanding your body and that not all the weight (if any) is fat is important to keep your positive mind-set and keep you moving forward towards your goals.