How to lose water weight quickly and naturally

If you are retaining fluid, your clothes may feel tighter, you may feel bloated or weighed down, and you may even look swollen or puffy.  There are many reasons why you might be retaining fluid, but what is the quickest and most natural way to get rid of it?

What causes water weight?

Water weight happens when your body retains fluid.  It happens when there is a buildup of fluid in the circulatory system or body tissues.  There are many ways that it can be caused including:

– When there is a change in pressure inside the capillaries or the capillary walls are too leaky, the water will remain in the tissues, and cause swelling.

– If there is too much fluid in the lymphatic system, the excess fluid will remain in the tissues, which causes swelling in the legs, ankles, feet, or any other parts of the body.

– When the heart fails, in congestive heart failure, the heart has to work harder. This changes the pressure and causes water retention in the legs, feet, ankles and lungs.

– Severe protein deficiency.

– Insufficient B-vitamins.

– During kidney failure

– During pregnancy or menstruation

– Lack of exercise

– Certain medications such as hormone replacement therapy, birth control pills, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and beta blockers.

– Eating a lot of high sodium foods

– Eating excess sugar.

How do you naturally get rid of water weight?

As you can see, there are many causes of water retention, but depending on what is causing your body retain water, will determine how you should get rid of it.  Obviously, if you have a medical condition, such as heart disease or kidney disease, you should see your doctor and they will likely prescribe diuretics for you and may even put you on a fluid restriction.

There are many foods or diuretic aids that may act as natural diuretics and will help produce urine, which helps to remove the fluids from your body.

– Apple cider vinegar – helps maintain potassium levels and is a natural diuretic

– Artichoke

– Asparagus – contains asparagines, which helps flush the kidneys

– Beets – helps get rid of fatty deposits

– Brussels sprouts

– Cabbage – help break up fatty deposits

– Carrots – speed up the metabolism and help remove fat and waste from the body

– Cranberry juice

– Cucumbers

– Fennel

– Horseradish – also speeds up the metabolism

– Lettuce – helps flush toxins

– Oats

– Tomatoes

– Watermelon

– Dandelion and Dandelion Leaf

– Green tea

– Parsley

Before trying any of these to help with your water retention, you may want to talk to your doctor to find out what is actually causing your body to retain water.  It is also important to treat what is causing you to retain the water, and not to rely on the natural diuretics.

If you are consuming too much sodium or sugar, you should cut back (See also: simple ways to reduce sodium intake).  If you aren’t eating enough protein or B-vitamins, you should find out how much you need and include adequate amounts in your diet (see also: How to eat more protein).  You should also make sure that you are getting plenty of exercise and following a healthy diet.

The Waterfall Diet

While most diet books are aimed to help people lose excess fat, The Waterfall Diet focuses on getting rid of fluid retention and removing water weight.  It is written by Linda Lazarides, a nutritional therapist.

The book states that it might be fluid that is making you overweight, and not fat.  The diet is divided into 3 phases.  The first phase lasts 2 months, and is meant to help you lose any extra fluid from your body as quickly as possible.  This phase focuses on cleaning your body of anything that may be causing you to retain fluid, and may also indicate a possible food allergy.  There are very few foods that you can eat, and a long list of foods that you can’t eat.

The second phase allows you to reintroduce foods one at a time to see if any of them were causing you to retain fluid.

The third phase should be followed long term, and allows more foods to be eaten, but still recommends that 90% of your diet should consist of the foods that you ate during the first phase.

The diet claims that you can lose up to 14 pounds in 7 days, but states that if your fluid retention is not caused by an allergy, that you may lose weight more slowly.

What’s my recommendation

So, if you are retaining fluid, the first step would, of course, be to see your doctor to see what is causing you to retain fluid to make sure that you don’t have an underlying condition.

If you don’t have a medical condition that requires diuretics, you can choose to try adding some natural diuretics to your diet and make sure that you are following a healthy diet and doing some type of activity every day.  You can also read: Does water make you lose weight. Or, you may want to try The Waterfall Diet to find out if there is an allergy causing you to retain fluid, which should help you lose water weight quickly.

References used in this article