Nutritional expert in Food Behaviour and Founder of the Maïa Baudelaire® Method I Love My Diet Coach® looks at different ways to help you to detect the signs of water retention.
Do you feel bloated, lethargic and suffer from body temperature fluxes? This may be a sign that you are retaining too much water. Here are some tips to detect it.
What exactly is water retention?
Water retention is caused by an excess of water in the body (our body is made up of 60% of water) When it doesn’t circulate properly, it can stagnate and evolve into a state known as hypostases.
Your body can literally swell up, putting on weight rapidly (from 500g to 2 kilos in a day). If this happens, then you’re probably suffering from water retention.
Try to identify the reasons:
- Are you in the pre-menstrual cycle? If that’s the case, then it should disappear in a couple of days.
- Are you sitting most of the day? Water stagnates in cellular tissue. So move! Raise your legs and massage them regularly, shake your ankles around or roll a tennis ball under your feet to reactivate your circulation.
- Do you drink enough? Remember, you should drink at least 1.5-2 litres per day. And yes, just because we suffer from water retention that doesn’t actually mean we should stop drinking, on the contrary!
- Are you receiving medical treatment? Some medications tend to retain water in the tissues. Talk to your doctor.
Tips to help fight water retention
- Build up your muscles and while doing so, you’ll flush out residue water in the tissues.
- Are you often sat down? Use compression stockings to help venous disorders, improve blood circulation and help drain tissues.
- Prioritise water sports which, in addition to strengthening your muscles, have a natural draining effect and almost guarantee beautiful legs!
- Use and abuse diuretic vegetables: black radish, cucumber, artichoke, green tea and herbal teas: berries, birch, star anise …
- Massage regularly, always from the bottom up.