Effective Ways to Reduce Water Retention

Many people tend to turn to diet or exercise in hope to lose weight fast. We consciously developed a diet plan that was supposed to lose weight but it failed. These methods do help in reducing fats in your body, however, it will not affect the water weight that is being retained within your body and organs. In order to know how to lose weight fast and targeting the right solution to the problem, you can use the following test to find out if your body is retaining that excess water or not!

Find Out If You Are Experiencing Water Retention
Let’s do a simple self-test on whether you’re experiencing water retention:

Step 1 – Examine your hands, legs, ankles or feet to check for any swelling. This can be determined by wearing an accessory such as ring, watches or bracelets/anklets that would usually fit well. Or even a shoe that fits comfortably but feels small overnight.

Step 2 – Use your thumb to press down on the swollen area, and notice if the indentation remains on the area for a few seconds.

Step 3 – Weigh yourself and take note if your weight fluctuates significantly on a day-to-day basis.

Why It Happens
There are various reasons why water retention occurs, it could be medical and or lifestyle habits that contributes to this frustrating problem. It is often difficult to isolate one single cause for this issue as there are multiple contributing factors. For instance, majority of the people work in an office environment and resort to eating out about 80% of the time. The long hours of sitting behind a desk and dietary habits could both be a contributing factor. However, factors such as humidity affect your body as well. While we are unable to change the weather in Singapore, we are able to adjust our lifestyle and habits to improve or minimize the percentage of it.

The most common reason for water retention includes;

Tips to Water Retention
Contrary to common beliefs, reducing water intake does not improve the issue of water retention, instead it backfires causing the problem you are trying solve. When your body starts to dehydrate, it calls out the defence mechanism to retain more water in your body and organs. Instead of mindlessly following diet plans that doesn’t suit your body, you can use these tips to lose weight effectively.

The widely known fact of reducing salt intake helps in controlling water retention. Take in mind to avoid refined carbs as well, as the increase in insulin level and blood sugar would increase the retention of water in our body. Coffee, tea and alcohol dehydrates our body and causing it to retain any water as a protective measure. If necessary, drink in moderation and plenty of water to flush out the toxin and stay hydrated.

If it is difficult to avoid the elements that encourage water retention, you can try by increasing these food into your dietary plan.

To facilitate our body from purging out the excess water, increase the magnesium intake. Food that are rich in magnesium includes leafy greens, nuts, and dark chocolate (Yay! Reason to satisfy the chocolate craving). Banana and avocados contains high level of magnesium, as well as potassium, which is a great option to add into the list.

Aside to adjusting your food intake, increase physical activity level will improve the condition of your water retention as well.

Keep a food diary to track your intake and monitor what food and drinks will cause your body to react, this should provide a clearer view of what makes your body tick.

Create a note in your mobile or download a food tracker app to help in analysing what makes your body tick. It will be different for everyone, so understanding your body will be a great way to control and reduce the water retention.

It could be difficult to watch what you eat and adjust your dietary habits. One alternative to explore would be acupuncture points which aids in reducing water retention.

Sea of Energy
You can locate this point about two forefingers width below the belly button. Massage that point for 1 – 2 minutes while taking deep breaths should relive water retention, as well as, constipation and gas.

Three Yin Crossing
In the inner anklebone about a palm’s width above, you can find the inner shinbone (also known as the Three Yin Crossing), gently massage the point for easing water retention.

Bear in mind that these acupuncture points should be tried in moderation and ensure that your physical condition is suitable for such stimulations.