Fluid retention - where else can the body hide it?

  • I've been prone to fluid retention for many years but the good thing about this WOE is that it's greatly minimized, although not perfect. I still get swollen ankles some days but only comparatively, they're not bad.

    This last few days my ankles have been up a bit but my weight is going down, albeit virtually a gram at a time! It seemed logical to me that once the ankles went down, I'd see a bit of true loss that had been masked by the fluid.

    This morning, as every morning, the first thing I did when I woke up was look at my ankles. Bony! Positively bony! So after the usual routine of p1-breakfast-p2, I got on the scales confident I'd see a loss. In fact, I'm the same weight as yesterday.

    Now, I'm not complaining about the weight, I've lost 2.5lbs in 7 days and 26.6lbs 82 days. I'm just curious: my rings are loose; I can wrap my fingers round my wrist; my ankles are bony. They're all the usual suspect places. I haven't over eaten, and I haven't over-exercised.

    So - where did the fluid go? I'm never able to say about belly bloat, my belly is permanently big. Otherwise, where could it be lurking?

    Just part of my drive to understand my body.

    Ta.
  • There are many factors that go into the rate of loss, and losses aren't always linear. It's even possible to see daily gains that aren't really gains (aside from water rentention).

    It's possible that your body has released the water, but is holding on to something else. In addition to water weight (which you can often see in the places you mentioned), there are a couple other non-fat sources of weight fluctuation. One very common source is the weight of undigested food and waste that hasn't yet left the intestines yet. I'm not necessarily talking about constipation just variations in the speed of digestion. Say you ate a half pound of very low-calorie veggies in a salad at lunch. If you step on the scale (to be blunt) before you poo, it's going to look like you gained a half pound. The weight of your food and the weight of your beverages both will look like gains until you use the bathroom.

    Another is the possibility of gaining muscle while losing fat (but whether this is possible or likely is the subject debate).

    Weighing daily is fine (I swear by it) but you have to remember that you're not always going to see a loss every single day - and it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong, or that you're not losing. Everything you eat and drink is going to look like a gain (by the amount the food weighs) until it's completely digested and removed from the body (not just by way of urine and feces, but also sweat, tears, and moisture you expel wehn you breathe out).
  • As somebody who also retains fluid also, I`d say it`s hiding in the belly.

    One time I was at a resort who cooked so heavily with salt that even my eyelids were swollen. It was obscene!
  • I'm right there with you about the foot check. Morning & evening, I'm pressing on my ankles with my thumbs to see what kind of dent it makes.

    In my experience, some goes into the boobs. My bra band sometimes feels slightly tighter or slightly more slack.

    Also the stomach, as others have said. Now that my stomach is shaping up a little, its delineation gets blurry when I'm retaining fluid & the different parts come into sharper focus when I'm not.
  • Thanks, guys. It's probably just swelling the apple then! Interesting.