I wasn't much of a water drinker before I started my weight loss journey. Today is 31 days in. I started drinking a lot more water than usual and am drinking 120 oz a day. I have no problem drinking that much and have come to the point where I enjoy it and could drink even more. The problem I'm starting to have is my legs are swelling. Just slightly but I can push on my shin bone and the "dent" will stay for up to an hour. I'm also starting to get a lot of headaches and some muscle pain.

The "plan" I'm following is counting calories. I am between 1200 - 1500 calories a day but mostly stay closer to 1200.
Carbs I try to keep at 50% and pretty good at that.
Protein I try for 30% and can get 1/2 to 3/4 of that.
Fat I try for 20% but have a hard time getting even 1/2 of that.
I've started adding more extra virgin olive oil to my cooking just to try to up the fat I get. I use to cook with just the pam type sprays.

I know this is a lot of info but I wanted to include all I could think of for people.

I am happy with my weight loss so far and even feel satisfied most the time but I don't know what to do about this water retention and the problems it appears to be causing me. Anyone have any ideas on things I could do different? I really don't want to drink less water because 1) I like it and 2) I consume about 40g of fiber a day and think I need the water for that.

Thanks for any suggestions.

It's called edema (that's the medical term of the dent).

What's your sodium like? What's your exercise routine? Are you working a sedentary job? Are you taking a multivitamin or B1?

I don't know what my sodium is at this point but know it should be about 1500 a day for someone who is diabetic. I do know my sodium is much much lower than it was before I started this. I walk 2 miles a day 3x a week and I do sit while working. I do not take a multi vitamin or any type of vitamins. The only thing I can see here is if i need some sort of vitamins to help with the retention because I eat much much better than before the retention, walk more than I was and am doing the same job I have been.

Maybe I'm drinking too much water for my body but I didn't think that was possible unless you drank tremendous amounts in a very short period. This is very confusing to me.

I use sparks to track my sodium as well as the calories, you reall need not drink so much unless you are really exercising alot and if this is a concern as an athlete feel free to weigh yourself befor and after a hard work-out to determine water loss. for every lb you lose between you will need to drink 20 oz to replace. Maybe your getting fill on water and thats why you like, maybe instead you get your fill with fruit (with water/fiber) to help you feel fuller and you wont need as much water. It's really not good to retain so much fluids, it can't be comfortable for you. I try to keep my sodium definately under 2300 a day but try to go with the heart associations reccomendations of 1650 a day max. Good Luck.

is there a reason you landed on 120 oz of water??? that seems like a ton of water, especially when you're only 5'2, a lot of liquid in a little space. I only ever drank 6 to 8 glasses a day and was fine. Everyone's different of course, but twice the 'recommended amount' of H20 is bound to have consequences.

Have you tried dry body brushing? I have become totally hooked on it! Basically your lymph system has no pump and people theorize it can become backed up, the brushing helps to stimulate it and really helps with edema.

http://www.detoxdivas.com/Detoxdivas..._brushing.html

I knew it was recommended to drink 8 glasses of water a day so I started by doing that but found I ended up at 10. Then one day decided to see how big my glass actually was and it holds about 14 oz so I figure I get about 12 each glass. I just kind of ended up there. I eat quite a bit of fiber, in my opinion, so i figured that much water would help that as well. I do think I like that it makes me feel full so I'm not thinking about food so much too. I really didn't want to cut back my water but as someone else said it is not comfortable to hurt I've gotten use to doing it now so maybe I'll just cut it by a glass a day and if not feeling better cut another glass and go from there. I never would have thought drinking water would become a problem.

I have never heard of body brushing but will check out the link.

Thanks guys

Hi there,
This seems pretty serious to me. If you've never had edema before and now your dent stays for up to an hour, that's serious edema. Also you're starting to get neurologic signs (headaches). It is possible to OD on water and it sounds like that's what you're doing. You need to have lab work done and make sure your electrolytes are ok. See your doctor on Monday if possible. Until then, dont make any drastic changes but I think you should at least decrease by 2 glasses per day for this weekend.

I'm going to go ahead and cut the water by the 2 glasses starting today and see how that goes. Hopefully that will be all that is needed.

Again I just can't believe that drinking more water could make me feel so bad but that is the only thing that I've changed, other than food and that is for the better.

Thanks again everyone.