If you are trying to lose some weight, probably someone has told you that 5 or 6 pounds of that weight is actually water. So, what is that excess water in the body, and is it healthy to lose it?
The excess water or the water weight is the reason behind the excessive weight gain, especially if you wake up 3 pounds heavier from the previous day.
For the healthy individuals, this is considered normal. It is natural for the level of bodily fluids to fluctuate and change, depending on how often you have been eating the day before, or the hormonal changes that happen in your body.
Causes of Water Weight
The body doesn’t usually flush out the excess water when:
- We eat too much salt. Our body uses water to dissolve some of the Sodium that we consume. This means that the body will keep the water to balance the intake of Sodium. As a result, we feel bloated the next day.
- We eat a lot of processed carbohydrates. In addition, the processed carbohydrates, like the pasta, can increase the level of insulin in the body. As a result, this causes an imbalance of the level of Sodium and causes the excess water to stay in the body.
- Our hormone levels change. The ability to flush out the excess fluids in the body decreases when the level of hormones suffers from a major change. This especially applies to the menstrual cycles that women have to go through every month.
- Some medical conditions can cause water weight. For example, the accumulation of fluids might happen due to a heart condition, kidney problems, liver issues, or problems with the thyroid.
Nevertheless, these are all serious conditions that require medical aid. If you are constantly swelling and you have too many excess fluids without any fluctuation, you should seek medical aid. Luckily, these problems are easy to detect.
9 Ways to Safely Flush Out Excess Fluids
Here are a few safe ways you can try to remove all the excess fluid in your body.
1. Limit the intake of salt.
2. Eat more bananas because they contain a lot of potassium. Also, they can help flush out some of the excess fluids.
3. Use a cold compress to decrease some of the levels of excess fluids in the limbs.
4. Use a natural home remedy, like the cranberry for example.
5. Drink more water, so that your body will understand it doesn’t need to keep all that excess water.
6. Consume more vitamin C and A because they can help flush out some of the excess fluids.
7. Don’t sit with one leg over the other, since it can block circulation and damage the veins in the legs.
8. Avoid wearing too small clothing, since it can block the normal circulation of fluids in the body.
9. Excercise regularly to maintain a healthy circulatory system. In addition, you can flush out some of the excess fluids in the body.
Key Notes
Sauna? What about the sauna? Avoid it. Even though you can lose some weight in the sauna because you are sweating too much, in the end, it can cause dehydration and force the body to keep some of the excess fluids.
Finally, even some of the simplest changes can affect your body, like the intake of salt. Therefore, take a good care of your body and react quickly to every major change. This way you can get rid of the water weight in only a day.