What Is Water Weight And Why Do We Hold Onto It?
Written by: Jules Francis, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
One of the things I often hear clients ask is ‘I’m eating really healthily so why am I still bloated?’
Which brings me onto the subject of water weight, and whether it is really a thing?
What we do know is this – an adult human body is about 60% water. A child’s body is about 75% water which means that we dry up as we age! So, drinking water is imperative to having a healthy body.
Our bodies are incredible at doing just what they need to survive so we also carry around extra water in case it feels the need for protection or when it’s fighting off certain organisms, bacteria, viruses, or diseases. We often describe this extra weight as bloating or swelling; however, it is also important to know that this extra water brings protection and cushioning.
Emotions can cause us to retain more water. When our emotional metabolism gets stagnated such as when we hold onto anger, fear, stress, resentment or anxiety, the body doesn’t digest those emotions properly and it’s easy for that to show up as bloating.
It’s important to recognise that this is part of the body’s survival mechanism. It puffs us up to make us look bigger during a time of threat or survival. With that in mind therefore, when we feel emotionally tense or scared, we hang onto the water. Water is emotion. It’s going to puff us up and make us look bigger.
Bloating and swelling is also a message from your incredible body alerting you to the bigger picture. That it might not be belly fat that you’re carrying – instead it could be water weight.
So why could that be?
Here are four of the most common reasons why we could be carrying around water weight around the midsection.
Food allergies – common ones, dairy, wheat, soy, corn
Food sensitivities – different to allergies – the body will still be triggered
Imbalances in the gut – disturbances in the digestive tract due to poor diet, antibiotics, not enough probiotic-rich foods for example
Stress can make our midsection swell up
So what do we do to improve these things?
A good place to start is to eliminate some of those most common culprits for a couple of weeks and see if things improve. Things like caffeine, alcohol, wheat, sugar, dairy are good places to start.
The next most important thing would be to clean up your inner world – this is the area I pay particular attention to when working with my clients as it’s often the area that is most overlooked or misunderstood.
When did you last check-in with how you process what goes on in your inner world? What are you hanging onto that you’re not talking about, that you’re not releasing, that needs to be communicated? Where are you holding back your authenticity?
Holding back our authenticity mean we are holding back the flow of truth and seeing as water is a flow, it will get bottled up inside our gut if it is not flowing properly. A bloated belly will be your body’s way of saying you need to pay attention to something.
You could then look at this symptom and ask yourself “What does this mean? What is it telling me? This gives an opportunity to reflect deeper at your life, your diet and your inner world and see where changes need to be made.
How perfect is that bloating in teaching us to wake up and pay attention?
When you start to improve your food metabolism and get better at your emotional metabolism, the body naturally cleans itself out and will be able to find its natural weight.
If this has piqued your interest and you’d like more articles or tips on wellbeing, lifestyle choices and improving your relationship with food, eating and your body, you are welcome to join my monthly newsletter.
And if there are areas of your life that need re-setting and transforming book a free discovery call with me here.
To your health.
Jules Francis, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jules Francis is the go-to-expert for career-driven women who are looking to transform their relationship with food.
She has helped hundreds of people from all walks of life to help them understand the underlying causes of why they have unhealthy eating behaviours.
With three decades of experience, Jules has the insight and experience to see what truly underpins low confidence and how people often choose compensating behaviours to deal with it.
Jules is a multi-award-winning health coach, co-author of 2 best-selling books and creator of 2 online courses, The Food Breakthrough Academy and The Reset Button.
