102. Water Retention 101: 10 Ways to Beat Bloat and Feel Better Fast

Ever look in the mirror after a trip or a salty meal and think, “Why do I look so puffy?” You’re not alone—and it’s not always fat. It might just be water weight.

In today’s episode, Tiffany Wickes, certified nutrition and fitness coach (and mom of 7), breaks down the real reasons behind bloating and water retention—and what you can do about it naturally and safely. 

We’ll talk about:

• What causes water retention (hint: it’s not just salt)
  
  
• Why under-eating and dehydration can actually make you retain more water
  
  
• The surprising connection between stress, blood sugar, and bloating
  
  
• My personal story of gaining 4 pounds of water weight on vacation—and how I dropped it in 2 days
  
  
• Why sleep and hormones play a huge role in how your body looks and feels
  
  
• Tips to reduce puffiness, including foods that help flush water out
  
  
• How movement (even just walking) impacts digestion and water balance
  
  
• What to look out for if your bloating might be something more serious
  
  

You’ll also learn about:

• Potassium-rich foods that help regulate hydration
  
  
• Estrogen dominance and how fiber helps you eliminate excess hormones
  
  
• Why canned and processed foods sneak in more sodium than you think
  
  
• A few tough-love thoughts on “not having time to cook”
  
  

This episode is packed with education, tough truths, and real-life mom moments (including recording with a kid in the background). If you’ve been feeling bloated, tired, or frustrated with your body—this one’s for you.

Links & Mentions:

• Brewer’s Diet for Pregnancy (for listeners who are pregnant)
  
  
• My personal tips for batch cooking and keeping whole food prep simple
  
  
• Previous episode on blood sugar, stress, and continuous glucose monitoring
  
  

Want more 1:1 support or have questions?
 Send me a message or hop over to our Strong Mama community and let’s chat.

If this episode helped you feel seen or gave you an action step you’re excited to try, please leave a review and share it with another woman who needs this encouragement.

Stay strong, mamas—and don’t forget to drink your water.

Thank you for supporting my small business. Here are some brands I trust and use myself with a discount for you:

Cozy Earth - WICKESSHOME for 20% off through April 1st.

Equip Protein - 15% off with code WICKES

Masa Chips - 25% off code STRONG $50 or more

Oliveda Skincare & Makeup 

LMNT Electrolyte Supplement - Get a free Sample Pack when you purchase through this link.

Join the FasterWay and Get Coached by Tiffany

Let’s Connect! I share tons of fitness tips and more behind the scenes on my social accounts.

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

YouTube

Transcript

Hello friends, welcome back. We are back from the Grand Tetons. We had such an awesome time. Hiking, biking, paddle boarding. I just love being outside. However, when we came back from the Tetons, I noticed my body composition, like I just looked puffier, like way puffier than normal. And I thought, well, I've been super active. I wasn't tracking my nutrition, but I knew that I was.

Undereating because I know about how much I need because I've tracked for so long So I knew that I was under-eating I knew that I was likely very dehydrated, but I did come back with four pounds of Added water retention. So let me just be clear That was 100 % not added body fat because within two days of dialing in my nutrition and my hydration That fell off and I was actually 149 on the scale, which is the lowest I've been in a minute. So

was excited to see that. So today I'm gonna tell you about 10 ways to lose water weight safely and effectively, okay? If you're experiencing a little bit of bloating and you're not sure why. I knew why. So I'm gonna tell you something. first off, water as we know is essential to your overall health. But if you retain too much of it, it can cause bloating and puffiness, which can be uncomfortable but also unsightly, right?

So water weight's common and it's not usually a cause for concern per se unless it's like diagnosed edema, like huge swelling of one appendage or something. If you're just feeling a little puffy, here are some reasons why that might be happening and how to reverse that. So first off, water weight typically occurs because your body is trying to balance out its hydration level. So if you're trying to reduce water retention, it's important to do it safely. So that means avoiding risky things like diuretics.

All right, that drug causes you to pee frequently and then you shed, yes, you do shed fluids, but it also dries out your kidneys and can damage them and it can cause you to be electrolyte imbalanced. But still, here are some reasons why. So first off, sodium, which is salt. Water retention can occur as a result of having too much sodium in the body, but it can also occur if you don't have enough sodium in the body.

Tiffany Wickes (02:49.07)

So if you're eating too much sodium, it pushes water out of the blood vessels and into the tissues. So the intravascular volume, which is the blood volume inside the vessel, is depleted and your kidneys...

sense that there's a lack of fluid. So therefore it will retain more of it. I mean, it's all in a sense of self preservation. Your brain senses excess salt in the body and then it sends a signal to the kidneys to retain the water until it's balanced. between water, before the water and the sodium is, know, balance is established, that can cause some extra puffiness and bloat. Medications can also cause bloating, more specifically birth control, which I am not.

fan of. If you're in PMS, like period bloating, that's typically just due to changes in estrogen and progesterone. It lasts a day or two. You can retain more water in the days leading up to your period. But like I said, once your period starts, it pretty much goes away. So there's not much you can do about that per se, but you can do something about the hydration. Obviously, if you're pregnant,

you hold on to more fluid, like your whole blood volume increases by about 50%. So listen, if you experience like swelling, that could be a sign of preeclampsia. When I taught natural childbirth, there was a nutrition component in it, which is why I loved that program. And I taught our moms that you needed to have bare minimum 100 grams of protein per day. Like just to survive, you need 100 grams.

Well, the diet was called the Brewer's Diet of Pregnancy, and it really stressed high protein whole foods nutrition, and women did not get preeclampsia when they had enough protein. So really, think preeclampsia is a cause of protein deficiency in pregnancy. However, just be aware of that if you were a pregnant person listening to this. If you're starting to retain fluid and you're getting abnormally puffy, you know, like...

Tiffany Wickes (04:54.06)

Women, obviously, if your blood volume increases by 50%, you're going to look more rounded, but it's different when you have preeclampsia starting to set in. So focus on your nutrition. Your nutrition should shift when you're pregnant. All right, so the next thing is getting rid of the water retention is to move, move your body. Even a short cardio session like...

even going on a walk or doing a stair step or jumping. did an episode on rebounding, which is just jumping on a trampoline. That gives your lymphatic system a reason to start moving. And it also helps with your digestion. So let me tell you something cool. I've been wearing a continuous glucose monitor, I think today's day three. And although I have known just academically that your blood sugar will respond to movement. So when you eat a meal, I've given this advice a bunch of times. If we eat a meal, go out and walk for like 10 minutes.

and your muscles are like a glucose sponge. It'll just suck up the circulating glucose and then your blood sugar will go down. Well, I know that academically, but I have not ever seen it in real time until I started wearing a continuous glucose monitor because I'm still trying to figure out what's triggering my blood glucose to be so high aside from genetics. I've talked about that in previous episode too. Had a genetic test. I have like four different genes that all hold higher blood sugars.

So I don't know if I'm gonna be able to outsmart the genetics on this or if this is just what it is. But nonetheless, I can see it in real time. My blood sugar, like I will eat, there will be a very natural spike. That's normal. Your blood sugar should go up when you eat. I shouldn't say spike. I should say gradual increase because a spike is like, whoa, a little bit too much sugar for your body to handle at once. It can handle it as long as you obviously don't have a pre-diagnosed condition.

it slowly starts to rise, I can see the relationship between movement and then it's starting to go down. Also, I'm sort of off, well, I guess it's kind of on the same topic because this can help you with water retention as well as relieving stress. So I saw this the other night. I don't know what was going on. It's always something in our house, right? We have nine people, we're trying to do dinner and it's like the witching hour. So people are always kind of like, someone's screaming. And my blood sugar like shot up.

Tiffany Wickes (07:14.574)

And was like, what is going on right here? And then my app was like, hey, if it's not due to some type of super sugary food, then maybe try some de-stressing techniques. I'm like, well, dinnertime with seven kids, that can be stressful. Sure. So I did the box breathing, which is you breathe in for a count of four, hold it for a count of four, breathe out for a count of four, and then hold it again for a count of four. So I did five rounds of that. No kidding. Within 10 minutes, my blood sugar dropped almost 40 points. I was like,

what in the world. So there is absolutely a stress component to a higher blood sugar. So I am working on that. so far my blood sugar like dysregulation does not appear to be food related because I eat so, so, so, so well. I thought it to be unlikely, but my nutritionist has already said like, hey, I think this is like stress and sleep. So I'm really working on that to be more stress adaptive and not necessarily.

remove stress because I can't. I can't often kid and be like, there you go, one less stressor. Like you just, you just can't do that. That's illegal and immoral. And I wouldn't want to do it anyway. Okay. Let me just put that out there. So there we go. Number one, or it's not even number one, but I was talking about reducing sodium or possibly increasing sodium, but also potassium is kind of the gateway that lets sodium and that binds to water out of your body. So if you are potassium deficient, that's going to hurt you too.

All right, so move your body, do a cardio session, relieve stress. You can do that by walking. Don't grab salty snacks, guys. That's not gonna help you. Walking, jumping, or even breathing. So we talked about drinking more and then potassium. So the recommended daily allowance is like 2,500 to 2,900 milligrams. Most, excuse me, most people are not getting that amount.

But here are some common foods that have it. So bananas, oranges, celery, spinach, potatoes, peaches, winter squash. whole foods, guys, whole foods. Also, if you have an electrolyte mix that has it in there too. When I'm talking about electrolyte mixes, they do have sodium in it, but it's different because it works with the potassium and the magnesium. Okay. So just avoid.

Tiffany Wickes (09:35.774)

snacky, like processed foods. Also, alcohol, avoid or eliminate that if you tend to feel puffy after drinking, it's because it causes dehydration and dehydration can contribute to the water retention. And it also messes with your sleep. So if your sleep's all jacked up, then your incidence of retaining water increases too, because if you have a lack of sleep, it increases cortisol and increased cortisol will also

Cause you to hold on to a little bit of water So make sure you're drinking plenty of water and either cut back or eliminate on alcohol. So we talked about processed foods So Listen, I'm hearing a lot of people online like I don't have time to cook well. I mean like that's complete garbage Yes, you do you do you're just not planning ahead So listen everyone has at least a day or a couple of hours that are relatively free and even if you didn't

They make already cooked foods at the grocery store that you could pick up. And I'm not talking about freezer meals that have a bunch of pastas and sauces and stuff combined. I'm just talking about chicken, vegetables, potatoes, or make a huge thing of rice in the beginning of the week. Pick your starches, your carbs, get your vegetables, you've got frozen vegetables, which are super easy. All you do is heat those dad gum things up.

and then grill a bunch of meat and then you can combine proteins, vegetables and starches throughout the week. You absolutely can. Speaking of canned, if you do eat canned foods, canned, know, like just last night I made a corn, quinoa, black bean, red bell pepper, like salad mix. I used a canned black beans because they're simpler, but you need to rinse those because oftentimes cans will add sodium to it.

for preservation, so make sure you're rinsing those off before you use them. So I did talk about walking after meals, even a 10 to 20 minute walk after a meal is going to help with your blood sugar. It's going to help with cortisol. It's going to help you feel less puffy because it gets your digestion moving. So beautiful stuff. Also, caffeine is a diuretic. So if you are a highly caffeinated person, you're going to have to increase your water.

Tiffany Wickes (11:56.766)

even more. So the time it takes to lose this extra water weight really depends on the reason you're retaining water to begin with. So if you had a long night out, you drank a lot, then it takes, you know, roughly a day or so for your puffiness to go away. But if your water weight is due to some other reason, it could take longer. For me, it took about two days to drop that water weight from being dehydrated while camping, under eating, not sleeping enough. And

Yeah, I mean, those are the main reasons why, which probably, like I said, increased my cortisol. So like your heart, your vessels, your hormones, your kidneys, they're all working in this nonstop balance to try to keep your water and salt levels like equatable to what you need. So with that being said, there are dangerous ways to do this. Don't do that. Just get back onto a whole foods diet, maintain a low sodium diet for the most part, meaning

salt your food to taste. Like most people are not going to over salt their food, right? But you will absolutely eat over salted processed foods. So eat plenty of fresh produce, avoid packaged stuff as much as possible, exercise regularly, prioritize sleep to reduce the amount of inflammation in your body. And for heaven's sake, drink your water, okay? Drink your water. But if you notice that you're having rapid shifts of fluid,

Make sure you check with a healthcare provider because that's not necessarily normal and you may need to get a workup on that. Okay? Okay, water retention. What do you guys think? I came home and was like, damn, I look fat. But it was not fat. It was water retention. And you never know. You might be, and estrogen, I think I did talk about hormones.

estrogen and excess of estrogen and you will only know that if you're tested for it. But women in our age range, like 35 years on up, we ought to be tested regularly for our hormones to see what the heck they're doing because y'all they go crazy in this timeframe and we need to keep keep an eye on that. So being estrogen dominant can also

Tiffany Wickes (14:02.126)

cause you to hold on to some water weight. So there's a lot of women out there that's like, my gosh, I'm so puffy. And it's like, well, you could just not be clearing estrogen effectively. And there are natural ways to clear estrogen. You don't have to use estrogen blockers per se. If you just eat enough fiber, that will clear out extra estrogen. What is enough fiber? Enough fiber would be considered 25 grams at a minimum. Look, beans, beans, beans. I think I've said it like.

billion times, but you need eat more beans in your diet. That is such a fantastic functional fiber that will help clear out extra hormones. So make sure you get beans, if not a couple of times a week, maybe a couple of tablespoons every single day. Like you don't need a ton of beans to get the job done, but it is absolutely a fantastic fiber. So there you go. If you have any questions and I would love to hear it as always, thank you for being here. Stay strong, mamas. We'll catch you next week. Bye.