How can I Stop Water Retention?

Most of you have something that's called Hyponatremia. There are different forms of it so check to see if you have one of the symptoms.

I have read that with some people with a sensitivity, caffeine has the opposite effect and is not a diuretic, but can lead to water retention. An acquaintance visited an Eastern medicine practitioner and he was told to give up caffeine/ coffee, and to try it for three months, He did and discovered that without changing anything else in diet or adding exercise he lost 20 pounds. I decided to give up coffee and have been drinking herbal (caffeine free) herbal teas since New Year. Without anything else, I am down six pounds. I have noticed that my urination has increased. The jury's still out, but so far, the indication is that I was one of the minority where caffeine can lead to fluid retention.

I have been dealing with very swollen feet and legs as well as my hands for seven years now. When I first noticed the swelling, I saw my doctor and she immediately put me on a diuretic and it did help, at first anyway, and I was taking this medicine up until about three months ago. I simply got tired of taking it and still retaining massive amounts of fluid.

So, I have been simply dealing with the edema in my feet and legs and severe swelling in my hands, and water retention all over. My feet and legs would swell so bad, it felt like my legs weighed 100 pounds and I was barely able to make a fist. The edema was so bad it would pit when I pushed in on my feet and legs, all the way up to my knees. I noticed that exercise helped some, but it would come back.

I noticed lower calorie dieting helped the most, but the swelling/retention always remained to some degree. I pretty much gave up and just figured something was wrong with my heart or veins, and my doctor didn't seem too concerned about it, so I just figured I would live with it the best I could. Last week, my wife and I booked a cruise for the end of June, and I was so embarrassed by the terrible swelling/pitting in my legs and feet and just overall fluid retention, I made it my mission to figure it out without my doctor's help what was wrong with me.

So, since it seems that the fluid retention subsides the most when I don't eat much food, I decided to fast (go without eating) all day Friday and for the first 12 hours on Saturday. The swelling was 95 percent gone in my feet/legs and hands! Then I decided to eat a meal with my family consisting of pulled BBQ pork on wheat bread and Cheetos and a root beer. Lo, and behold, within one hour of eating just that small amount of food, my swelling came back with a vengeance! I mean, it got so bad that while I was at my cousin's graduation ceremony, I had to loosen my shoestrings because the swelling was hurting my feet so bad.

The next day on our grocery shopping trip, I decided to buy food that didn't contain gluten or wheat, just based on my fasting experiment. I just figured I would start with that. Well, after one day, one day – of eating normally, minus wheat and gluten (flour, etc.), my swelling tremendously went down after only 24 hours.

I was worried it was a fluke, so the next day I ate some Pringles, which have wheat starch in them, approximately 10 chips, and within one hour, my feet and legs swelled up quit a bit. So since then, I have avoided wheat/gluten like the plague and it has been four days now, and for the first time in seven years my heavy fluid retention and edema is completely gone, literally 100 percent gone. It is strange to look down and see my ankles and the veins in my feet and be able easily make a fist. The only problem is that now my shoes are too big for me.

It is still so hard to believe that it was such a simple solution. I would have never believed it if I hadn't tried it myself. I also feel like I have a lot more energy and my mood seems better. Even my family and co-workers have noticed a difference. I have lost seven pounds – obviously fluid weight – since Monday (today is Thursday). I am also now wearing my sandals and shorts in public because I am not embarrassed anymore.

I am by no means saying this will be the cure for you, but if you haven't tried it, I say give it a go and see what happens. If it works like it did with me, you will notice a big difference in less than 24 hours. I am just so happy to have finally figured this out, I felt the need to share my findings with others.

I never read anywhere on the internet about wheat/gluten being an issue with swelling, but now (after the fact) I have found a wealth of info on the internet regarding people with the same issue and wheat/gluten being the culprit.

So, like I said just give it a try if you haven't yet. Just pay very close attention as to what is listed in the ingredients on any food that you buy. You will be surprised with how many food products contain wheat of some sort, gluten, barley and rye. I am anxious to know if it works for you too, so please let me know if it does!

I also experience severe water retention problems, like being off balance, a headache and severe muscle pain in my upper back. I also have vision blackouts, dizziness with movement, and pills that cause water retention are to blame for some of this.

I have been off balance for 12 years. This is an SOS. I don't know what to do. Water retention is a side effect of 95 percent of all drugs out there, so I am suffering badly. Is there anyone who can help with this?

I get kidney stones quite easily and drink loads of water, as instructed by my kidney surgeon. As a result, I always want to wee, but rarely feel I have completely emptied my bladder.

When I mentioned to my GP that I retained water, and showed my swollen body to her, she advised me not to drink as much water! I am confused as to whose advice I should follow. Also, I am totally addicted to the drink Coke, the full fat one, not diet. Since Christmas, I have had two periods when I managed to stay off it completely, lost weight and stopped bloating up as much. But despite my pleasure in looking physically better and feeling better, I just can't help being drawn back to it. This is more than a lack of willpower. I absolutely crave the stuff and can't find an alternative.

I don't drink tea or coffee ever. They're disgusting. I also don't drink very much alcohol, just one glass of red wine on Saturday or Sunday evenings. I take meds for ulcerative colitis, depression, folic acid, Vitamin B12 jabs and on the list goes! I just want to lose some weight! Help!

Sounds like many of these posts indicate possible Celiac Disease. Get tested ASAP!

@post #61: It sounds like you may be suffering from nephrodic syndrome. Look it up to find out more about it and see a doctor right away.

I am 25 years old, have has my blood tests done three times with no problems, have eliminated all sugars and processed foods and extra salt out of my diet. I exercise five times a week and have tried taking antihistamines, but I am still getting unwanted water retention (noticeably around the eyes). Some days it moves from under the eyes to about the eye lids, but never goes away.

My weight will not go down. If anything, it keeps going up. How can I get rid of this water retention or what is the cause?

Well there is an obvious solution: drink more water and bear in mind that Gillian McKeith and Nigella Lawson are both the same age. I know whose advice on diet I'd rather follow.

That's really true and sugar is also to blame for weight gain. A lot of people really need to look at the sugar and salt content of everything they eat. If you drink more water, you will end up needing to go to the bathroom more often for a while. It might be a pain but it's worth it.

No one should ever stop eating salt; if anything, reduce it to the daily needs. Recently I have lost 12 pounds in the last three months. I have learned a lot about dieting. Healthy eating and exercise are the main things (don't diet).

Over the past three years I've gained about 60 pounds. Carbs make you retain a lot of water and weight gain and were all I used to eat. I've decided this year was the time to start eating healthy. I've ignored most packaged foods and did an uptake on fruits and vegetables (my favorite vegetables and fruit are broccoli and apples). Once and a while I reward myself a treat if it's something sweet or salty.

I drink about two liters of water a day and I don't deprive myself of food. A cup of coffee for a person once in a while is good because it cleans your intestinal tract and the same with broccoli and apples, or lemon. Any type of fruit or vegetable is really good too, if it's acidic. They're also full of antioxidants so it does more then one thing: it cuts fat, clears your complexion and so much more. Research what I'm saying if you don't believe me.

Green tea is my favorite drink for weight loss but don't go overboard on the sugar. I have a friend who is diabetic she has lost a lot of weight. She got these pills not sure what they are but they level out her blood sugar and anyone can use them.

What I have to say is that water helps speed up digestion. Fresh vegetables and unaltered fresh meats will flow through you very quickly with mass quantities of water. However, high sodium levels slow this effect. Keep drinking high amounts of water until you have to go no. 2. Then continue to drink water.

Also, get a juicer and buy fresh fruits with no pesticides. This will cleanse your bowels. You retain the weight in your bowels. High sodium levels flowing in the blood thickens the blood and stresses your heart. Eating a high sodium diet for your whole life won't do anything but kill you at an early age. Sodium is very bad. Take fiber supplements and eat healthy and drink 1.5 liters + of water. I'm talking about drinking three to five liters per day. Fiber loves water and will pass quickly. You will also begin to lose weight, if you want to lose weight.

Buy tons of green, fresh, pesticide-free vegetables and fruits. Get a juicer. Drink tons of fresh, pesticide-free juice. Take fiber supplements. Eat tons of hard boiled eggs, high protein meats like 97/3 beef or lean beef at the farmers market. Low quantities of beef. It's amazing for you in low quantities when compared to chicken.

Drink a huge amount of water daily. Like three to five liters or more. Fill your stomach and be completely full. Your no. 2's will be huge and you will start losing weight. You won't even believe it! Buy deep green vegetables, like different types of lettuce and leaves which are very dark green. They aid bowel movements and push all the crap out of your intestines and make you feel amazing and you will lose weight.

At first you may feel nauseated or sick, but it's because you're transforming your diet and your body is freaking out. You can eat milk, ice cream and soda only occasionally and in very small quantities. Like no more than one soda per day. I'm talking about one cup of milk or one 16oz can of coke three times out of your seven day week. Thank you! Good luck!

i work out three hours a day but i cannot lose my weight. i eat only vegetables, fruits and nuts. no milk, no cheese or meat. i gave up everything for my weight problem. i need to know how to pair up different foods to lose weight. Any suggestions?

@ #35: Seriously? Atkins is not an all protein diet it is about 60 percent fat, 30 percent protein and 10 percent carbs (good carbs). it does do most, if not all, the things that you described. but if you ate an all protein diet, you would have even more problems.

I have stopped drinking caffeine altogether for about three months now. For the past 3 days I've been wanting to drink coke. I'm not sure this is a good idea because I don't know if there are going to be any side effects. Since the cold weather has started I only drink about four or five glasses of water. Can anyone help me with an answer please?

To # 32: You may have fibroids, which are benign tumors of the uterus. I was very thin but had one the size of a softball, yet some women have 40-pound ones and never know it, working out obsessively and thinking they're fat when they're not. You should ask for an ultrasound.

On the other hand, my sister has IBS, and her stomach often looks distended like she's pregnant during weeks when she is severely constipated from the condition. Your situation may be medical rather than lifestyle-based.

I do vigorous workout during the week probably six time a week (and when I'm through I am soaking wet with sweat) and I eat a good, healthy diet. Protein and green vegetables usually with no salt, just Mrs. Dash. Sometimes one day on the weekend I will eat a salty meal and I gain anywhere from five to six pounds from it. Do you think I have some kind of health issue? Please help.

caffeine can cause fluid retention but swapping your coffee or tea for herbal teas is a great alternative. Herbal teas have no caffeine unlike green tea. I drink two litres of water religiously and i feel great, also I'm on a wheat free diet. I felt great for the first few days but after a month by stomach is bloated and in pain. I really don't know whats going on!

42- Stop eating the wheat. It causes severe bloating, blocking the absorption of all nutrients and even removing the vital villi from our intestines. Try gluten free flours- if you must have grains. (millet, etc.)

What stupid and dangerous advice uninformed people write like: substitute water for coffee, caffeinated beverages etc. Your body needs water to thrive. Water helps flush out your fat and all the people who think restricting water will help you lose weight are seriously misinformed.

Worried about a few pounds of extra weight? Why don't you take a body fat test. Stop blaming the water and start blaming the salty crap that you don't admit to.

Number 46, the master cleanse detox is meant to clear your body of toxins. The weight loss is only one possible side effect. If you weren't that heavy before doing the cleanse, it may not effect you in that way.

I would caution you after you are done with the cleanse not to go back to unhealthy foods, as during the cleanse your body is in "starvation mode" and will take any solid food and try to conserve it rather than use it. That cleanse permanently changed my metabolism, so watch out!

So I am currently doing a detox where I drink a liter of salt water per morning then a mixture of cayenne pepper, lemon juice, maple syrup and water six to eight times a day. There is no food consumed on this detox plan and I am to do it for 10 days.

I am a jazzercise instructor and teach 6-8 classes a week which consists of one hour of cardio/strength training. I am not seeing much weight loss on the scale and am wondering if it is because of the salt water solution I am using in the mornings? Any thoughts?

Number 43 - you wonder why you are gaining weight with the food you eat. You cannot be serious: pizza, reubens?

Drinking water does not solve all. Not sure why there are people here who say "Oh I drink water, but there's still retention". You need to modify your diet. Someone here says cheese helps you lose the water. Couldn't be more wrong. Every time I eat cheese, the water comes back. You need to find what works for you.

I have gained 50 lbs in the last 10 months. I am simply horrified at this weight gain. People around me are noticing and asking if I am stressed out?

I am not stressed, but eat a lot of salty foods, reubens, pizza, salty chips as I always have. But now, I am 44 years old and my body cannot get rid of it like it used to.

My stomach is bloated and I also use a CPap machine, which I blame for the weight gain. I drink 5-8 bottles of water each day. People are calling me oink oink now. This is bothering me.

I want to lose this weight, but do not know how. Help!

i eat weetabix for breakfast, a healthy lunch for about 1500 calories and fruit for dinner. i rarely drink water and my water intake is a glass of water. I am 77 kgs and still keep on gaining weight even though i have an active lifestyle. please advise what should i do.

I do think that in a cold climate people can lose more weight. Water retention in me started very bad when i developed a low thyroid and it slowed my metabolism. I am menopausal.

Cut out processed food, bread, cereals, pasta, rice and potatoes (Carbs which turn into sugar in the body). Cut down as much as possible any forms of sugar. Meals should be half meat and half vegetables (more raw the better),maybe an omelette for breakfast or a salad. Fish is good (especially oily fish), so are nuts, eggs and fruit (no fruit juice, high sugar). Milk and cheese are O.k.

Follow these rules, always eat till full and you will lose weight and be healthy. Note: animal fat does not make one fat and cholesterol hype is BS. It's the forms of sugar in modern diets = fat = bad health.

I went for a renal function test. I experience low sodium level in blood and at the same time, I notice I have water retention. How can water retention happen since my sodium is low? How to increase sodium level?- LY

I think a lot of people have retained water due to excessive intake of sodium. Many people are not aware of the high levels of sodium in uncooked processed meats.

If the label says "Retained Water' X percent" beware. The higher the percentage, the more the salt content. The salt hold the water in the meat tissues. More salt, more water. So much salt that the product no longer tastes like meat.

This water is free money to them, because it adds to the weight at little cost. I just took back lean chicken breasts from Raley-Belair-Nob Hill stores, because it contained 15 percent water. This is poison to us. The savings are not worth the health problems.

The lady who says she only eats salad and chicken should check that chicken source. She could be consuming great quantities of salt without even knowing it. Restaurants use these products because of slightly lower costs to them. and to heck with the health of the customers.

We recently stopped at a truck stop restaurant, and asked how much salt was in their meats. All they could tell us was the retained water was 19 percent. We left. Beware of retained water. It should be outlawed.

How long does it take for your body to realize it's getting enough water, and to stop retaining it? I've been drinking more water (the recommended 8-10 glasses) a day for about a week, but I've only gained a few more pounds. I need to know when it will start working.

After five years of rapid weight gain to the point that I was considering giving up my job as I was almost immobile (I'm only 37) and suffering a wide array of symptoms ranging from chronic, severe diarrhea, headaches, weakness, chronic fatigue, loss of mental clarity and the biggest problem of all, enormous amounts of fluid retention so severe I could not bend my knees or ankles, I had pretty much given up on life, and felt certain that my death was not far away.

In this hopeless state, I continued to beg doctors and specialists to help me get my life back, all to no avail. My blood tests were all normal (one doctor told me I was healthier than he was), so why on earth was I suffering so much? Well, I did internet and library research. Weeks of it. My symptoms all added up to one thing no-one had even mentioned to me - metabolic syndrome. Learning that this was caused by an intolerance to carbohydrates, I promptly went on the atkins diet to see what would happen. I know many people criticize this diet, but seriously, when you think you are headed for an early grave, you are unable to walk some days or are crippled with spiralling blood pressure and excruciating headaches, you'll try anything.

Within four days of eating protein only, I had lost 15 kgs of the fluid I had been dragging around on my body, which diuretic meds could not seem to shift. I had energy. I had no headache. I was able to put shoes on my previously swollen, football shaped feet. I felt alive for the first time in years. I could have danced down the streets with joy.

After feeling hopeless and doomed, I'd stumbled across something that had given me a little light at the end of the tunnel. Two months later, I've lost 18 kgs more, never have a hint of fluid retention, headaches or the awful diarrhea I suffered from daily. I jump out of bed in the mornings. I can go for a walk without pain and tears. I can concentrate. I can go to work every day. I am alive and it's such a joy I can't tell you.

If you suffer from a range of symptoms that no medical test seems to be able to diagnose or treat without adding more and more drugs to the list to treat the symptoms but not the cause, consider changing your diet.

Experiment with adding and subtracting different foods and see what happens. True, this may not be a healthy way to eat for the rest of your life, but if you are where I was, staring major health problems in the face with no obvious solutions, then it's a good place to start.

I am slowly adding more variety of foods one at a time and waiting for the impact before I move on to the next one. I eat a wide variety of vegetables and meat, but for now I'm still very much limiting the carbs, allowing only a small amount. I've never felt better - ever. I wish all those people out there who were like me could be told by their medical professionals that diet can, in some people, make an enormous difference, but it seems that if they can't prescribe a drug for it, they are useless.

anon39477: Switch doctors. If you are doing everything to say to a T and still gaining there is something wrong. At your weight when eating like thatm the pounds should be melting off. Also, lose the "low sugar" beverages and drink only water. Drinks with any amount of sugar won't help you with losing, but neither will drinking chemicals.

i drink water. but it feels like it's not going down. or it feels like. I'm not consuming any water at all. could this be a sign of super dehydration?

I am underweight, but look seven months pregnant. I think it's due to fluid retention, but I have frequent UTI's and am also being treated for overactive bladder and IBS.

I never use table salt and try to minimize processed food, and water is the only beverage I drink in addition to one cup of coffee and one cup of green tea daily.

My diet consists of high fiber fruits and vegetables in addition to fish and chicken and multigrain cereals. What then is causing this huge belly?

I'm 33 years old and was started on lasix 40 mg daily due to benign brain hypertension according to a neurologist due to my weight because i was having severe headaches.

When i stop the lasix for a few days the weight gain is tremendous. I recently stopped my meds for two days then had to take it because of the swelling. The next day i weighed 13 pounds less. also when i stop taking it i can't pee. can someone please help me?

Who ever thought you could be hooked on lasix. by the way the reason i was having severe headaches was due to low folic acid due to a clotting disorder i have.

Reply number 23 is a typical description of serious water retention. It is not to be dealt with flippantly, by drinking more water.

There are many causes of water retention: Bright's disease, heart disease and so on. However, in my case I was poisoned by a doctor. Beta blockers. You do not realize until you read the instructions that water retention from this medicine is extremely common (classified as one to nine out of ten patients).

When the doctor insists on continuing the "treatment", regardless, one knows that the poisoning is deliberate.

In my case, my limbs became heavier and heavier until I could not move. I was incontinent at the slightest movement. I got myself into a hospital, and my heart stopped twice. I was resuscitated twice.

Anybody who, as in reply 23, has typical symptoms should take the matter seriously, and use diuretics (water tablets). In the first instance, we are not looking for a cure but for life preservation. The vanity aspect ("look fat") is unimportant in this scenario.

There are four modes of action of the "water tablets". One family affects the "calcium channel", the second affects the kidneys directly, the third is an ace inhibitor and the fourth an aldosterone antagonist.

Avoid the last one. It should not be on the market. It is really a steroid antagonist. It wrecks the entire metabolism, instead of just affecting the sodium balance. One example is spironolactone.

Ace inhibitors are better. They reduce the level of angiotensin 2. So the tiny blood vessels relax, and the blood pressure drops. The shortage of angiotensin 2 causes a shortage of the steroid aldosterone, and so a shortage of sodium which causes a shortage of water.

It works, but must be used in moderation, or it causes blood acidity, which feels like rheumatism.

Lasix, mentioned in reply 9, is good. It works.

Elastic stockings should be worn, to avoid too much strain on the legs. If the legs become too bloated and then torn, infection may set in.

One should try to pass as much water as possible when on diuretics ("water tablets"). Sometimes one finds that drinking 20cc of water or similar (a tenth of a cupful) makes it possible a minute or so later to pass 200cc - a cupful. So there is some truth in the paradox that water consumption enables water loss. However, we are talking about sipping, not about drinking eight cupfuls per day.

Reply 22 says that drinking cupfuls would just be feeding it. Correct.

One should keep a record of one's weight, preferably in kilograms. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) is one liter. That is about 1.76 pints.

Upon waking, and going to the toilet, one should weight oneself. One wants to weigh one's body, not the food and drink in the system. So it is after waking and going to the toilet that one weighs one's least.

The use of diuretics should not cause a loss of more than one kilo per day. If so, too many "electrolytes" like potassium and calcium will be lost. However, I lost five kilos in seven days in hospital - which is a good result.

When the water was gone, a vast array of symptoms also vanished. So one need not imagine one has all kinds of illnesses. Water is one problem that causes many symptoms.

A long-term solution is still beyond my grasp, but I feel that Nature will restore the balance if one helps it along with diuretics and elastic stockings. -CW

my mother in law's legs swell up the size of tree trunks. she is 84 and bruises very easily. she's on two inhalers for asthma. she takes fluid tablets, but this only seems to move the problem to the next day. can anybody help? --PRON

yuk

Well, my wife was diagnosed of Ascites last year with a huge water/fluid retention case in the abdomen (3-4kg).

Unlike the common experience I've read from most of the comments that seem to elaborate weight gain, my wife is experiencing drastic weight loss and we are so concerned about it as she dropped from 65kg to 47kg (a loss of 18kg in three months). Her tummy is gorged with water but her bones are sticking out s Skinny. We are worried Please help.

Celery seed acts as a natural diuretic and is known in herbal medicine to treat water retention.

nivohaya, if you are tracking your weight watcher points, take your tracker into your next meeting and let the leader take a look at what you are doing. There is a reason for your not losing anything in three weeks and it may be simpler than you think.

i picked up 10kg in one month after i met my new boyfriend. i used to be thin, but this seems like water retention in my legs. from my knees down i can lit feel them swelling.

Sometimes my toes go blue when i sit and them my legs swell as well. i had my colon removed few years ago and stayed nice and thin. when my tummy runs, i lose most of my weight and my legs go nice and thin, but the min it stops, my legs start to swell and i can feel it.

i drink water and sometimes i don't urinate and my legs will swell within a matter of an hour or two. my legs become shiny and hard and big! is it my diet?

is it my kidneys or liver, is it my age? i don't know any more. please help someone! I'm so frustrated!

Water retention is extremely frustrating as women are pushed to wear snug clothing to begin with and three to five pounds of extra water for 10 days makes us very cranky.

Eliminating salt definitely helps (don't eat any packaged food) although the 'drink more water' suggestion is bunk. If you drink more, you're just feeding it.

Substitute coffee, tea or diet caffeinated soda for water during these times and do everything you can to sweat.

For people with more than five pounds of water gain, see your doctor. That isn't normal and indicates you have a problem. Your life may depend on it.

recently i have made many searches for my problem. i hold as my doctor says at least 20 kgs of fluid. i take fluid tablets to release it, and in four hours i can drop at least 4-6 kgs., but it's back there the next day. why? i saw a nutrition person, who said i do hold fluid but with no reason as to why. i lack in protein, have little if no metabolism, but exercise daily, don't eat takeaway foods, pies, pastries, red meat or bread/ wheat products. i live on chicken and salads. i weigh 161kgs and keep getting bigger. the last weigh in i put on 6kgs in 1 week. I am desperate, confused and want to help myself. i also take magnesium, liver detox and enzyme tablets to help clean what ever the hell is wrong. but can you help me please?

Hi anon39477, I'm rather concerned about your situation. You have to consume lower than what your body needs if you want to lose weight. You really need to review every single thing that you swallow everyday. Low sugared drinks are not good enough. No sugar at all if possible. You can't eat the same amount as normal people do. You have to eat much lesser, eat fat free foods, lower carbohydrates and swim 4 to 5 times a week swim if you can. If you have the determination to do that you will see changes in your body within three months. And you must be able to control your cravings. All the best! you can do it=). Staying healthy is a long term battle. Don't give up.

i use to drink lot of water. still i am having water retention. i took lasix aftr all. there is sweeling over my feet and under eyes is fluffiness. i am a type 2 diabetic. my BP is normal. i am worried becuse my husband is on dialysis. what to do? my urination is low -- only three or four times a day. please help me.

how can i help my dad with water retention? The doctor says he cannot drink anything? He has water even in his lungs. i think he has a liver problem. please help me.

i don't eat anything containing salt. i gave up soft drinks. i drink low sugar drinks. i eat healthy meals 3 times a day. i eat my 5 fruit and vegetables. i have the occasional coffee no more than 3 or 4 a day, alongside my usual 3 litres of water a day! i'm 28 years old. i weigh aprox 28 stone (which is mega obese). i have PCOS, diabetes type 2 and no hope of having more children as i've not had a period in 3 years! i can't walk 100 yards without being out of breath. i can't wear shoes because my feet and ankles are so big. i can barely put trousers on! i go swimming twice a week and still my Doctor tells me to go away and go on a diet! Can you tell me where i'm going wrong?

I am experiencing the same problem as Georgia15. I have been drinking 8-10 glasses of water daily (some times more) and have started to notice weight gain. None of my other lifestyle habits have changed. Any ideas?

There's a diet book written for how to lose water retention. Google the waterfall diet by linda lazarides. It's got good reviews on amazon.

Dear: anon25517

Get off the shot. I only received two injections, I 60LBS I thought it was just water I didn't think that it was weight until one day I went to put on a pair of pants that I had worn the week before and I couldn't do them up. I was horrified. It has now been two years and because it is a intramuscular shot its design is to stay in your system so now that I've been off for two years, my system can't kick it out on its own. My energy is off and now I found out that I have Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome! Which affects everything. I am not ovulating at all anymore I am 22 years old and I can't have children. Please look into this, they will have to do a saliva panel test. Get off of it right away. I asked my Dr. if I would gain weight and what the other side effects are. He said that I might gain a couple pounds but that is it.

I think one of the most sodium rich beverages are soda drinks which will cause water retention and bloating.

I have recently added water to my every-day routine. Before my beverages consisted of diet coke and that's about it. I have gained 10 pounds in 9 days. Shall I assume this is "water weight"? And if so, how long will it take to equalize?

my water retention stopped when i eliminated msg in my diet

This seems to be a slightly different question to the others...I am 20 and went on the contraceptive injection 6 months ago and weight has just been piling on ever since I have gained over 1 stone and researching has lead me to believe that the injection can encourage water retention. I don't really want to come off it so would drinking more water help? If I came off it would I lose the weight?

Thanks for all the comments here. In regard to the issue of water limitations, I do know for a fact that some people with severe edema/ water retention, especially with heart complaints are placed on reduced fluid diets. It's especially awful for older babies and little kids recovering from heart surgeries that get pleural effusions (extra fluid in their lungs). I would think it likely that many people with congestive heart failure might be asked to reduce fluid intake. But you should definitely ask your doctor whether you ought to do this, instead of just doing it on your own. Tricia E-C

I am wondering the same thing as anon14465...I was wondering if I should be careful about drinking water because of my water retention and high blood pressure. My 85 year old mom was recently in the hospital for extremely high blood pressure and the instruction sheets she received stressed drinking very little, as well as reducing sodium intake.

I think that the the article that was written was true. Because i myself retain water but when i drink the proper amounts of water every day this helps me release water and start to feel a little bit better.

I have type 2 diabetes, too. I gained 80 pounds without even trying. I went on a desperate search to find out what was wrong with me and studied medical research! The answer turned out to be very simple: I used 6 grams of vitamin c, 1,500 mg. of vitamin b3 (niacinamide, not niacin), 400 mg. of b-100 vitamins, ate a low-carb diet and lost ALL of the weight I gained. It was mostly water, and I practically urinated the weight off. Not only that, but I got my energy and complexion back.

I have high blood pressure and take medication with a water pill. Recently my doctor told me to drink less water since I tend to retain water. I have never heard of this. Has anyone else?

i have type 2 diabetes and trying to lose weight, i have joined weight watchers for 3 weeks now and doing some activity too but i do not seem to lose any weight. Could water retention be the reason and if so what can i do to get rid of it? Also how long does it take to get rid of the water retention?

I think diet soft drinks cause extra water retention, so reducing the amount of carbonated beverages you drink should help reduce water retention.