[banananutmuffin]

I know the usual "drink more water" advice. Anything else?

I'm about 5 days away from TOM, and have a wedding to attend in 7 days. I so wanted to look good at this wedding for a variety of reasons! But I am already getting PMS bloat. My diet has been good--better than usual, in fact--so I know it's not fat. It's just... hormonal bloat.

I realize this is something all of us gals have to live with to a certain degree, but does anyone have a trick or tip that might help me whoosh away some of that water before the week is over?

The bummer of it is that I tend to carry my weight around my midsection, so any water weight just makes me look even worse.

[novangel]

Diurex I think it's called. You can buy it over the counter, it's for water bloat.

[Arctic Mama]

I don't use diuretics in the OTC form, but the cleaner I eat, in terms of no sugar or starch, the less dramatic my bloating is. I even had a restaurant meal last night and am only up half a pound this morning, because I kept the carbohydrates very low. Those will exacerbate water retention more than almost anything else, for me!

Although counterintuitive, exercise also helps me. It may make the scale go up with water retention in my muscle fiber, but it makes my whole lymphatic system work so much better and really hustles the bloat downstream, as it were. So even if I weigh more the next day, my abdomen is more flat and my face less puffy. Different kinds of water retention have different causes/solutions, and exercise related retention is no problem for me, where food or hormonal retention is uncomfortable and bothersome aesthetically, too.

[kaplods]

Low-carb also helps me. Usually I don't stress TOM water weight, unless it becomes uncomfortable. I do try extra hard to resist the incredible cravings for carbs (which is difficult because this is the time when I have most of my carb cravings)

This is one of the reasons I won't give up artificial sweeteners, because they make it possible to "fake out" the carb cravings. I only crave chocolates and very sweet foods during PMS/TOM, so I'll make chocolate "pudding" by adding cocoa powder, and a blend of artificial sweeteners.

I use a blend of sweeteners, because most sweeteners have a synergistic relationship with other sweeteners, meaning the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Where you might find three Splenda packets or three Nutrasweet packets to sweeten a large glass of tea, you might find that you only need two packets if you use one of each.

Something about combining them "boosts" the sweetening power. It's not only nice to be able to use less, it saves money too (and I'm all about saving the money while eating healthfully).


If I find the carb cravings really bad, or if I''m bloated enough that it's making my normal cramping worse, I will work extra hard to cut carbs to the minimum. This is most helpful in relieving the pain of cramps. If the cramps are mild, I just follow my normal eating plan (Reduced but not low-carb by most low-carbers definitions of low-carb). Eating minimal carbs (20 to 40 per day) seems to help both the water weight and the severity of menstrual cramps.

Reducing TOM weight gain isn't ordinarily that important to me on it's own, becaue the weight disappears if I do absolutely nothing except stay on plan. However, when I have severe cramping, I'd be willing to do just about anything to prevent or get rid of them. Low-carb is a lot better of an alternative than begging my doctor for narcotics (which there was a time in my life in which they WERE that bad. Birth control pills thankfully helped in that regard).

[twinieten]

I go no carb, or extremely low carb to control water weight. I also asked my doctor for a prescription for a diuretic for those times my body is just insisting on holding a lot of water, and it's uncomfortable. I use the prescription infrequently.

A slow acting and natural alternative diuretic is Dandelion Root. You're a week ahead, so it might help if you start now.

[Brandis]

Asparagus and celery have diuretic tendencies, too. If nothing else, cinch up the puffy gut in some heavily supportive underwear.

[dorrie]

For me nothing helps during that TOM. I just let my body do its thing and I have a size too big pair of worthingtons I wear during this time. I know that I'm going to be up 3-5 lbs and thats just what my body does...

[gagalu]

low carb, low sodium, lots of water, and looots of coffee! that does it for me, though i do still bloat up to 1-2 lbs. TOM is madness!

[banananutmuffin]

Well, my diet is already very low carb (Paleo). I am trying to up my water and reduce the salt, so we'll see if that works!

[angieand2girls]

Originally Posted by Brandis

Asparagus and celery have diuretic tendencies, too. If nothing else, cinch up the puffy gut in some heavily supportive underwear.

Yes! Asparagus! Man, that stuff makes me gooooooo! lol

[banananutmuffin]

Turns out it wasn't TOM bloat.

Turned out to be "early pregnancy" bloat.

Guess there's not much I can do to hide that.

[angieand2girls]

Wow! Congratulations!!

[krampus]

WOAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

[LockItUp]

Oh WOW! Congratulations! Lots of pregnant chicks around here lately! WOOHOO!

[JossFit]

Congratulations!!

Holy cow... I'm going to think twice before I blame my dinner again... hahaha