I eat something...and my stomach BALLOONS!

If it's not psychological, then I'd go with the food sensitivity comments and the suggestion to see a doctor. Not everyone tests positive for full-blown Celiac, but a sensitivity to a particular grain or grain protein, like wheat or gluten, can certainly cause bloating and distention, to the point of looking (and feeling) like your pregnant. Dairy's another one that can cause bloating.

Wheat does a great job hiding in foods if you don't know where to look for it. White flour, enriched flour, unspecified whole grain flour... Heck, it's even in soy sauce! If it IS a wheat sensitivity, whole wheat (which is often the first thing a lot of people often reach for, thinking that it's "healthier" if you do have a sensitivity) is the absolute worst.

So yeah, seeing a doctor (gastroenterologist perhaps) and possibly an elimination diet with serious label reading, might be the best route.

Honestly, I think it's probably a psychological issue.

I was thinking this as well.

I would suggest initially that you measure your abdomen upon waking up and after using the restroom. Go eat, and measure it again.

......was my first thought too, and what great advice!

If it's not psychological, then I'd go with the food sensitivity comments and the suggestion to see a doctor. Not everyone tests positive for full-blown Celiac, but a sensitivity to a particular grain or grain protein, like wheat or gluten, can certainly cause bloating and distention, to the point of looking (and feeling) like your pregnant. Dairy's another one that can cause bloating.

Wheat does a great job hiding in foods if you don't know where to look for it. White flour, enriched flour, unspecified whole grain flour... Heck, it's even in soy sauce! If it IS a wheat sensitivity, whole wheat (which is often the first thing a lot of people often reach for, thinking that it's "healthier" if you do have a sensitivity) is the absolute worst.

So yeah, seeing a doctor (gastroenterologist perhaps) and possibly an elimination diet with serious label reading, might be the best route.

good advice too!

hey!

I've lost30lbs so far (yay me!) and I wake up in the morning feeling nice and small and slim.
Then I eat something and look like a whale!! My stomach just balloons.

I've tried to change my foods! I've cut out bread and pasta and fizzy drinks. But I honestly dnt know what else i can do

Someone help me!! Xx

It's not psychological, it's actually quite common to feel bloated after eating a bunch of carbs. It doesn't mean you are getting fat. It's a long process to explain it, but if you do some google searching, Lyle McDonald explains why this happens.

She said she cut out carbs, and it still happens, so I don't see how saying it's carbs will help.

I thought she said she cut out bread and pasta.

I guess that must be the only carbs in the world. /shrug

I've struggled with the exact same problem for years - even chewing gum would make my stomach upset. I'd wake up slim and normal, then bloat up after 15 minutes. I went to my doctor and she really couldn't figure out what was going on. I got tested for gluten and lactose intolerance and came back negative for gluten and half-positive for lactose.

I was still having probelms, so she recommended trying a no-FODMAP diet - a diet designed to treat people that suffer from ibs. I tried it for a while last year and it was a HUGE adjustment. No gluten, no dairy products, no alcohol, no processed foods - and apparently onions are the worst thing you can eat, even down to seasonings with onion powder.

Fodmaps are a small group of carbohydrates that poorly absorbed in the small intestine. These carbohydrates are unlike others in that they are not absorbed in the mouth, stomach or large bowl. So when they reach the small bowl it feeds the bacteria residing there, which leads to symptoms such as bloating, abdominal cramping, diarrhea and/or constipation.
Here is a link to a site with more info: http://shepherdworks.com.au/disease-information/low-fodmap-diet
I wasn't able to keep this up. My doctor ended up just telling me that I just "react violently to food".

You should go to your doctor and get a food allergy test done first. If those are all negative, you just have to start cutting certain foods out and seeing how your body reacts. Over the last 30 days, I've maybe had 3 or 4 bad days instead of all 30 being horrible (when it comes to my stomach). All this is because of just testing out certain foods. I started out with a diet where I had no problems for over a week, then started adding in foods, one at a time, to figure out what my stomach can't tolerate. So far I've learned that I can't have sugar alcohols, onion (especially red onion), lentils and gum.

My diet now consists mainly of oats, chicken, tuna, salmon, spinach, iceberg, cucumber, tomato, banana, rice cakes, apples, sweet potatoes and protein powder, and I only drink water and tea. I'll occasionally add in cottage cheese and some protein granola bars. It sounds pretty boring, but it is so worth it to not deal with the stomach problems everyday - to just feel clean and refreshed. Plus I've lost 21lbs since I started - so something is going right.

I too have this , I was told by a naturpath that it could be candida albacance , but when I asked my doctor he just said stay away from processed foods , addatives, artifical colors and preservatives,, even butter contains a substance which is used to preserve dead bodies to stop it going rancid sounds gross,
I am trying to just get back natural untampered with food, But these days its so hard because so many things are processed to some degree , I havent been able to eat totally all natural but where possible i do

Maybe it was your description, but when someone says to me, "As soon as I eat anything, I look like a whale," to me that says there are body image issues, and maybe food relationship issues. You didn't say anything about a medical issue, you said you look like a whale.

It's not being rude, it's making an honest observation. If it's wrong, disregard it, but it's also something to think about. Many people losing weight have body image issues and some also have food relationship issues without realizing it, and spend all their energy trying to find a physical solution to a mental problem.

I've lost 54 pounds, I look in the mirror, my gut looks exactly the same as it did last year to me. When I compare measurements, or look at pictures of me 54 pounds ago compared to today, I can see a huge difference in comparison to it being smaller, but when I look in the mirror it looks the same to me. My eyes haven't caught up to my brain.

I too have this , I was told by a naturpath that it could be candida albacance , but when I asked my doctor he just said stay away from processed foods , addatives, artifical colors and preservatives,, even butter contains a substance which is used to preserve dead bodies to stop it going rancid sounds gross,
I am trying to just get back natural untampered with food, But these days its so hard because so many things are processed to some degree , I havent been able to eat totally all natural but where possible i do

Heh... It's not surprising that the nutritionist would say candida albacans and the doctor would think otherwise. They may both be right, but neither be willing to see validity in the other's argument. A lot of the processed foods have so much garbage in them. If you've GOT a candida issue (or if your system just naturally has a higher level of flora, which is natural for some women and something your GYN should be able to check for) then all of the added sugars that are added to the processed foods to make them taste better are going to make the candida more active, which in turn angers your immune system, which throws everything else out of whack.

Acidophilus and sticking to more natural / less processed foods isn't a bad way to go. I'm not saying grow your own food, but there's a huge difference between roasting a chicken and boiling your own potatoes to make mashed potatoes versus peeling back a plastic film and heating a tv dinner because you're probably not adding a whole bunch of mystery ingredients brewed up in a lab...

Mine does the same thing! Right after I eat a big meal I look preggo...it goes down a while later though. No biggie. I think it happens to everyone, but it's more noticeable on thin people.

It happens to me too--and it's not psychological. I don't know what it causes it though.