When the scale shows a different number after just a day or two, that doesn’t mean you’ve gained or lost a significant amount of fat or muscle overnight. What happens is you’ve gained or lost water weight.
Water retention is one of the biggest problems and challenges when you are trying to lose weight. Just by losing water weight, you can reduce the number showing up on the scale. So, how to lose water weight?
Well, here are four steps you should follow if you want to see a different number on the scale.
Step 1: Reduce sodium consumption
There is a right way and a wrong way for how to lose water weight. One of the first things you need to do is reduce the amount of sodium you consume. Sodium is one of the main causes of water retention. Consuming too much sodium usually results in you carrying excess water.
How can you reduce sodium intake? For starters, cut down on processed foods found in bags and boxes. Fast food is another category you should avoid.
The average amount of sodium you should consume daily is 1500mg, which translates to 3.75g of salt per day. To put that into perspective, it is ¾ of a teaspoon.
The maximum limit is 1 teaspoon per day or 6g of salt. Nowadays, people consume much more than that.
If you want to keep your sodium levels down, and still sprinkle some salt on your dishes, stick to sea salt and Himalayan pink salt. They are considered healthy because they are natural salts, not processed as table salt.
Step 2: Consume more water
It might sound counterintuitive, but drinking water helps. You might ask how? Well, one way for how to lose water weight is by hydration. When you are dehydrated, or you do not drink enough water, your body stores water for insurance.
Drinking water will provide your body with the proper hydration. That results in regular urination and flushing out toxins and excess water.
Most health experts recommended drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water per day. But that doesn’t work for everyone.
The best way to determine how much water you need to drink is to measure your body weight, and then drink half of that amount in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you need to drink 100 ounces of water per day.
Staying hydrated will reduce the chance of your body, storing excess water: less sodium, more water, and sweating results in less water weight.
Step 3: Try some natural diuretics
Diuretics improve the volume and frequency of your urination. You might not associate urinating with losing weight, but when you urinate, you cleanse your system of excess water and toxins.
Natural diuretics are a much better and safer option than regular over the counter diuretics.
Some natural diuretics you can try include cucumbers, watermelon, celery, dandelion tea, hibiscus tea, green tea, ginger, lemons, asparagus, parsley, and other fruits and vegetables made mostly out of water.
In most cases, for how to lose water weight, diuretics are not needed. But if you like to take things to the next level, natural diuretics will help you lose water weight faster.
Step 4: Get some exercise
Sweating water weight off is a surefire recipe for success. Now, that doesn’t mean you should go to a sauna or similar and sweat it off in a day or two.
As we said before, there is a right and a wrong way for how to lose water weight. The right way to sweat it off is to do it in a continued effort.
Use the power of accumulated days to do the trick. Make your priority to get some exercise and sweat daily. Sweating also helps you get rid of the excess sodium in your body, which means less water weight.
What is water weight?
The easiest way to determine what is water weight, and what is your regular weight is to keep track of body fat percentage with a body fat monitor.
Compare your current percentage from a month ago. If the new measurement is greater than before, you’ve gained fat.
But if you have the same amount of fat, or even lower, and your weight is still up, it means you have gained water weight.
Are your hands, feet, and ankles puffy? If that is the case, it is usually related to excess water. When your body is retaining water, you will also notice imprints in your skin left by your socks.
Your wedding ring, if you have one, will be tighter than usual. Here are some of the main reasons you are gaining water weight:
- Consuming too much sugar, resulting in raised insulin levels
- Consuming too much table salt, resulting in excess sodium, forcing your body to retain water
- Alcohol, leaving your body dehydrated and making your body to hold on to fluids
- The monthly menstrual cycle in women can cause weight gain of up to five pounds. Exercise regularly throughout the monthly cycle to reduce bloating
- Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day and sticking to other fasting diets can cause your body to retain water to overcome for the restriction in calories