Whether it's due to it being your TOM, or just because you ate a carb-heavy or sodium-heavy meal, we all have to deal with water weight. I'm learning (slowly) not to let it drive me completely insane.

But, what is the best way to get rid of the excess water? Do you lose it quicker by drinking EXTRA water? By exercising? By getting more sleep?

I freely admit that I do not understand how water weight works, so when I feel myself starting to get a little bloated, or if the scale stalls out on me, I tend to do the (seemingly) logical thing: I stop drinking water. Literally, on my WI days, I refuse to drink anything (because I don't want it showing up on the scale that night!). Obviously, this isn't wise and I know it can't be the real solution. Any help?

There was a good thread about this back in OCt/Nov:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...ighlight=adema

Drinking more water can help flush out bloat, for me anyway.

Drink more water! Tea always helps me too.

Drink more water
. . . with a little lemon juice added
Keep the sodium low
. . . too much salt can be terrible for retaining water
Cut back on the high GI carbs
. . . one of my worst 'bloaters' is Pizza (excess salt and excess starch)

The more you stop drinking water, the more your body goes "oh no ... I have to store it up". So by not drinking water, you're actually making the problem worse because your body works to keep you from becoming dehydrated by holding on to every bit of water it can.

Drink more when you start retaining. Watch your salt intake. Get enough sleep (this is the hard one for me). All of those things will help you to not retain water. But sometimes it's just inevitable - hormones or weather or whatever will cause it to happen.

.

As others said before me....


DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK WATER!

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I have upped my water intake for the day (I've already had 32 oz and I plan to hit 100oz by the end of the day), so hopefully it'll shed right off. I've had some exercise today already, but I'll try to get some more.

I think the water weight gain this time is due to a number of things: 1) TOM coming up soon, 2) I made a lovely baked ziti dish a few nights ago, and had plenty of leftovers to supply me for the weekend (this was within my WW points, but probably was a bad choice for water gain, in retrospect), and 3) I haven't been getting as much sleep and/or exercise as I should.

Thanks for the tips, though! I'll let you know how it goes (if I ever get to leave the restroom again ).