Gaining weight WITHOUT water retention, is it possible?

silverstormborn

Hey guys.. I haven't formally introduced myself on the forums before, but I have been lurking & using MFP daily for the past couple months now & I'm really grateful to have discovered this place. Not only because it's the first time in 12 years I'm actually seeing any different in my weight, but I've also read a lot of great tips from MFP users... So thank you.

I've been struggling with Anorexia for a good majority of my youth. I've been in & out of hospitals, seen many therapists, doctors, dietitians over the years & nothing's worked out for me. After many years of failing to find the right treatment for me, I gave up & spent 2 years in denial. When my depression & anxiety really kicked in again, I decided to seek professional help from my GP again & now I've been referred to yet another ED unit. The therapy is bad, & the dietitian hasn't been near as helpful as I've found MFP.

Last month I left the dietitians office disappointed & decided to take things into my own hands... Somehow I managed to gain half a stone in 2-3 weeks. I was eating anything high in calories, regardless of nutritional value {pizzas, burgers, sugary snacks}, low in fruit, vegetables & fiber. By the end of those 2-3 weeks, I became bloated, extremely uncomfortable, & I felt like I was carrying weight my frame couldn't handle. I felt overweight, whilst looking exactly the same.

After weeks of feeling heavy & tight around the waist, I decided to stop eating a surplus & lost everything I gained in just 4 days. My body began to feel better, but my face felt gaunt & deflated.

I went back to this dietitian today & she's told me that what I thought I gained was simply water retention. She said that this was natural when gaining weight & there's nothing I can do about it. That now I know what is causing this temporary water retention, I can 'relax' & only once I have stopped gaining weight will the water retention subside...

For some reason I find this a little too hard to believe. Must I really suffer this feeling of water retention until I gain a healthy weight or is there anything I can do to prevent this god awful feeling?

When I told her I've been adding more fruit, vegetables & fiber, cut out sugar, caffeine, alcohol & processed foods... she said my experience with gaining weight would have happened regardless of whether or not I eat healthily.

I'm fluctuating between 84lbs & 91lbs... my goal weight is 98lbs.

If I can't handle half my goal weight, how will I be able to double that without feeling so heavy & tight I can't even move?

AliceDark

I don't think you can avoid it, but it will resolve itself if you give it enough time. You will stop feeling bloated and you won't feel as uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that won't happen if you yo-yo back and forth between eating at a surplus and not; you have to stick to the program and give your body time to process the change. Your dietician is right -- it doesn't have anything to do with the kind of foods you're choosing. It's a temporary side effect of the beginning stage of the process. (Also keep in mind that some of it is just the weight of the food as it moves through your system. Your body isn't used to digesting a normal amount of food, but it will adjust.)

Just give it time, and buy some soft, stretchy clothes to wear for the first few weeks. Yoga pants, sweat pants, knit skirts; nothing with a waist band.

m1hinkle

AliceDark wrote: »

I don't think you can avoid it, but it will resolve itself if you give it enough time. You will stop feeling bloated and you won't feel as uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that won't happen if you yo-yo back and forth between eating at a surplus and not; you have to stick to the program and give your body time to process the change. Your dietician is right -- it doesn't have anything to do with the kind of foods you're choosing. It's a temporary side effect of the beginning stage of the process. (Also keep in mind that some of it is just the weight of the food as it moves through your system. Your body isn't used to digesting a normal amount of food, but it will adjust.)

Just give it time, and buy some soft, stretchy clothes to wear for the first few weeks. Yoga pants, sweat pants, knit skirts; nothing with a waist band.

I'm 24 and weigh 110lb, and is 6ft 0in tall
I'm aiming for 160lb
This is m1hinkle

moto450

I started bulking a few months ago. For the first 3 weeks or so I gained weight fairly quickly. I cut my calories back be a few hundred but Kept my calories higher than maintenance. Over time my body has kept gaining, but slowly like I wanted. Recently over the past few weeks I stopped gaining weight. Now I'm raising my calories back up by a few hundred. Ill watch to make sure I start to gain again, but once I stall again I'll raise it further slowly.

I guess the thought I'm trying to convey is that your body will always gain quickly when you first go into a calorie surplus when you have been in a defecit for a long time. Be patient. Don't overreact and yoyo back and forth. Your body will level over time add it realizes it is no longer going to be shorted on calories. your metabolism will increase to meet the amount of food you are eating (within reason of course).

be patient with the process, listen to your doctor, and everything will work out well.

good luck with your journey!

tiffanyaiv

Would love the answer too!

stevencloser

If you want to absolutely avoid water retention (not that water retention is bad or anything), I guess low carb would be your best shot at trying it. When you do low carb, much of the water retained in your body leaves because glycogen, the stuff that binds the water inside your body, gets used as a replacement for the missing carbs in your diet.
On the flipside, doing low carb might make it harder for you to get in enough calories.

ndj1979

I am going to say no because you are going to replenish glycogen and 2-5 pounds of that will be water weight…

Honestly, I don't know why this is even a question/concern….

CoffeeNBooze

if it's making you feel uncomfortable, I'd say maybe it's too much food in one sitting? Perhaps try breaking the meals into smaller chunks throughout the day. Though I don't actually know how much you're eating in one sitting. Water weight gain is just part of weight gain at the end of the day.

ForecasterJason

If you were going from maintenance to a surplus as opposed to below deficit/chronic intake below appropriate levels to surplus the amount of water weight gain may be lower, as glycogen levels would not have been depleted.

psuLemon

In general, eating foods low in sodium and foods high in magnesium and potassium can help with some water retention. Also, aiming to get more natural sources of foods rather than ultra processed foods will help too. But water retention is natural thing, especially if you are working out. We all have some water variations, no different than the ocean has low and high tides, but women will definitely have more than men due to their cycles.