Bloating and hard stomach after eating

chloerebeccaxx125
chloerebeccaxx125 Posts: 40 Member
edited August 2019 in Health and Weight Loss
When I stay to my diet plan which is now eating what ever I want as long as it is calorie controlled I stay looking skinny and my stomach if soft but as soon as I have a cheat day and eat a few extra calories my stomach triples in size and goes rock hard and is very uncomfortable and I can gain anywhere up to 6 pounds in a few days. I’m not sure if it’s related but I also have excessive burping when I have chest days where I can’t stop burping all day. My stomach will stay huge for like 3 days. What could be the cause of this?

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,127 Member
    When people have a cheat day they typically eat more sodium, carbs and calories than they are used to, which can cause water retention (that's where the extra pounds come from).

    As for the excessive gas/uncomfortable stomach, it could be that you've developed an intolerance to something. I get acid reflux from certain foods containing yeast and some dairy products. If you've logged your "cheat days" perhaps look over them and see if there is something that you've had that you wouldn't normally that keeps cropping up when you have these issues.

    If you're not logging them try logging them and noting if there's a change in your reactions if you cut it out.
  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    Sounds like a good intolerance
  • Crafty_camper123
    Crafty_camper123 Posts: 1,440 Member
    Sounds like an intolerance to me as well. Yeast does this to me, where if I eat bread my stomach is large and round for days as well as other symptoms. Start keeping a food symptoms journal so you can see if a pattern begins to emerge. I downloaded one called MySymptoms, that is kind of handy. After it gets enough data it will tell you what foods seem to cause the most problems after they are consumed. The app is a little wierd to get figured out though. But since using it for a couple of months it is telling me what foods appear to be contributing to my symptoms because avoiding yeast hasn't eliminated all of them for me. So now I have a few data points to get started on. Maybe it will be helpful for you too?
  • csoderstrom
    csoderstrom Posts: 25 Member
    your body isn't tolerating something you're eating on those days. Dairy? Eggs? Bread? Do an elimination (treat but no bread a few times, no dairy the next 'treat day' -- i prefer treat because it's more positive ;)
  • Emmapatterson1729
    Emmapatterson1729 Posts: 1,296 Member
    This sounds like what I was going through. Found out I have a sensitivity to breads and pastas.

    Agree with above... Figure out intolerances through process of elimination.

    I'm still figuring out new intolerances... Recently discovered sriracha blows me up, which kills me.. It's a love of mine.

    Good luck.
  • grinning_chick
    grinning_chick Posts: 765 Member
    edited August 2019
    Sounds like normal gastric expansion if the OP is eating more volume and/or more aerophagic than what is "normal" for. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was some indigestion and/or reflux going on, too.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    edited August 2019
    Yep, food intolerance or allergy. Time for some elimination dieting on your cheat days. Next time, eliminate dairy. Time after that, wheat. If that doesn't give you an answer, you can try eliminating other stuff on round 3, and if nothing works, stop by the doctor's office for a food allergy evaluation. But dairy and wheat are common culprits and eliminating them may quickly get you to an answer. As @Cahgetsfit noted above, if you're sensitive to one of those things, when you eliminate it or most of it due to dieting, it can affect your more once reintroduced in quantity on a cheat day, even if it was below the threshold of noticing it before.

    I'm dairy sensitive and it took years to get to that knowledge. My wife is dairy and gluten/wheat allergic and she too went through a long process before it was all figured out. These food allergies can sneak up on you, but dieting with cheat meals can really shine a spotlight on something you barely if at all noticed previously. You can easily use your cheat meals to nail down what's going on.
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    grinning_chick wrote: »
    Sounds like normal gastric expansion if the OP is eating more volume and/or more aerophagic than what is "normal" for. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was some indigestion and/or reflux going on, too.

    This was my thoughts too, although it could well be a sensitivity as others have said. I know that it happens to me to a degree if I’ve been eating relatively small volume amounts of food for a while (probably including an actual carb side (rice/pasta/pitta etc) plus my usual veg and salad then I have a meal that doesn’t have the carb side and instead is a much higher volume of vegetables and salad alone, then my stomach and intestines can feel uncomfortable and distended for some time even though the actual calorie count is very similar. And the digestion noises due to the unaccustomed volume! 😳

    As an example I did this last night - small piece of baked hake, cauliflower couscous and a fairly big mixed salad. Much more volume than usual and felt bloated after and as you might expect, 1lb gain this morning because that volume is still in there! It’ll go through the course of the day, I hope!
  • SoCalBeachWifeMom
    SoCalBeachWifeMom Posts: 48 Member
    Take it easy with the portions. I have been dealing with acid reflux for a month and I think the amount of food I ate may have caused it.
  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    I always know if something I eat has hidden lactose. I once had someone think I was vegan and lie to me about milk in my coffee being almond when it was dairy. 9hrs later I was still in agony and throwing up. They felt pretty bad about being jerks.

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