What's more likely to cause water retention? Excess of sodium or excess of carbs?

Sammi_Nicole16
Sammi_Nicole16 Posts: 62 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
What's more likely to cause water retention and bloat? Excess of sodium or excess of carbs?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    They both cause it. Separately and together. I can't say that one is worse than the other.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited March 2015
    Both...

    Well actually, I'd say sodium because generally the water weight associated with carbohydrates is simply your glycogen stores which I don't really associate with feelings of being bloated...but it's definitely fluid retention.
  • agratzy
    agratzy Posts: 114 Member
    edited March 2015
    Water retention is the bane of my existence.
  • nursediva00
    nursediva00 Posts: 119
    Both!
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    Carbs do require water, so the more carbs, the more water (generally), but I find a super-salty meal, such as at a restaurant (why is everything so salty?), will have me showing more gain than eating more carbs than usual.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Hang on

    I always thought that, all things being equal, if you have a regular amount of carbs in your body so glycogen isn't depleted then eat more carbs will cause minimal additional water retention, it's only if you low carb then eat carbs that the water floods back. So I would have thought the answer was sodium

    I shall now prepare to be re-educated
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Hang on

    I always thought that, all things being equal, if you have a regular amount of carbs in your body so glycogen isn't depleted then eat more carbs will cause minimal additional water retention, it's only if you low carb then eat carbs that the water floods back. So I would have thought the answer was sodium

    I shall now prepare to be re-educated

    I see what you are saying. I should specify that I eat lower carb (not strictly low carb but lower than average) due to PCOS. So, for me, an excess of either generally means a bit of bloating. And if I do both at the same time, it's way worse than either individually.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited March 2015
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Hang on

    I always thought that, all things being equal, if you have a regular amount of carbs in your body so glycogen isn't depleted then eat more carbs will cause minimal additional water retention, it's only if you low carb then eat carbs that the water floods back. So I would have thought the answer was sodium

    I shall now prepare to be re-educated

    Well, if you're "refilling" with about the same amount of carbs each day, then things should remain more or less equal, I'd imagine. But I don't really know the science very deeply on this.

    If I eat significantly more carbs in a day, I may bump up a hair. But we're not talking 20 or 30 extra grams here. At that amount I haven't seen any "uppage" so far; it's only after a real carbfest (for me).

    And yes, when I was doing low-carb and then stopped, I bumped up, but there, you're talking about going from 20g/day to 125g+.

    I mean it's not as if every gram of carbs requires a pound of water to transport, KWIM? ;)
  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,123 Member
    agratzy wrote: »
    Water retention is the bane of my existence.
    Amen to that.

  • Bukawww
    Bukawww Posts: 159 Member
    I read that every gram of carb takes 4g of water with it...
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Bukawww wrote: »
    I read that every gram of carb takes 4g of water with it...

    When stored as glycogen in your muscles. That doesn't mean that every carb you eat is stored.
  • Foamroller
    Foamroller Posts: 1,041 Member
    3dogsrunning wrote: »
    Bukawww wrote: »
    I read that every gram of carb takes 4g of water with it...

    When stored as glycogen in your muscles. That doesn't mean that every carb you eat is stored.

    Well it depends how your physique, diet and training regimen is. The less muscle tissue, the less ability to absorb high carb intake per sitting. I've read glycogen (carbs as sugar stored in muscle) binds 3-4 g water per gram carb. That water weight is not real weight, but it isn't separated when doing dexa, so counting as lbm.

    Rest of intake goes to ca. 2 ts to keep glucose level in blood, stored as fat in liver and then fat in fat cells, because high glucose triggers spike in insulin and insulin tells the body to store excess glucose in adipose tissue (fat cells). What's excess intake is highly individual.

    Resistant starch and fibers go straight to gut and is consumed by microbiome, so they don't count.

    TL;DR carbs bring along water weight. It's a normal fluctuation eating carbs.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Hang on

    I always thought that, all things being equal, if you have a regular amount of carbs in your body so glycogen isn't depleted then eat more carbs will cause minimal additional water retention, it's only if you low carb then eat carbs that the water floods back. So I would have thought the answer was sodium

    I shall now prepare to be re-educated

    Well, if you're "refilling" with about the same amount of carbs each day, then things should remain more or less equal, I'd imagine. But I don't really know the science very deeply on this.

    If I eat significantly more carbs in a day, I may bump up a hair. But we're not talking 20 or 30 extra grams here. At that amount I haven't seen any "uppage" so far; it's only after a real carbfest (for me).

    And yes, when I was doing low-carb and then stopped, I bumped up, but there, you're talking about going from 20g/day to 125g+.

    I mean it's not as if every gram of carbs requires a pound of water to transport, KWIM? ;)

    Yeah, I eat 175-275g carbs a day so it doesn't really impact on me as my glycogen is fully waterlogged ;)

  • CathReese33
    CathReese33 Posts: 112 Member
    I was eating fairly low carb - less than 50g net carbs per day. Last 2 days cut down to ULC and less than 10G net carbs and lost 3lb in those 2 days - all water weight! Still been having a little bit of sodium too, but not much.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Do you feel that water weight is a weight loss though?

    Personally I don't ..I monitor fluctuations because I find them interesting but I try not to care unduly about water weight

    And I do like carbs :)
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