If you're tired of struggling with a bloated belly every day and feel like you've tried everything, then you should read this article.
That damn bloated belly. It just doesn't make any sense. You've been going all out in the gym lately. Your diet has been absolutely clean. You're broke because you've been maxing out your supplement stash.
So why is your belly bloated all the time? Why do you have to carry a baby bump around all day and why does your skin feel like a waterlogged sponge?
You can consult Dr. Google, of course, but that won't get you very far. Skim the first few pages and you'll discover that there are about a million and one causes of a bloated belly and just as many "quick fixes" and "weird tricks" that are claimed to solve this problem forever.
You're skeptical, and you should be. You may want to believe that a pill or powder can give you a flat, defined stomach, but deep down you know that this is just wishful thinking.
And that's why it's good that you're here. In this article you will learn the real reasons why you are constantly bloated and I will show you 6 simple science-based strategies that can help you finally calm down and flatten your belly.
You're probably bloated for one of the following 5 reasons
In most cases, that unsightly buff around your midsection will be caused by one of 5 things.
1. too much body fat
What many people think is a chronically bloated midsection is actually just too much body fat.
First of all, bloat can come overnight, while body fat levels move up or down much more slowly.
For example, if you ever woke up looking like a true well-toned Adonis, but by the end of the day you looked more like a construction worker with a beer belly, that was bulking up. Body fat doesn't accumulate that quickly - even if you're binge eating.
The easiest way to tell if you are dealing with too much body fat or not is simply to measure your waist circumference at the level of your belly button every morning and every evening. If bloat is the culprit, then your readings will fluctuate wildly. On the other hand, if it is body fat, then the values will be fairly consistent.
You should also know that your midsection will look and feel like it's bloated if you have a body fat percentage over 15% as a man or over 25% as a woman.
The flat, defined stomach you'd like to have requires a body fat percentage of about 10% for men and 20% for women.
2. a lactose intolerance
Dairy products are packed with a type of sugar called lactose. In order for your body to use lactose, it must be broken down by enzymes. The enzyme needed to break down lactose is called lactase.
The problem is that about 70% of the world's population cannot produce enough lactase, which means that they are unable to fully and properly digest lactose in dairy products.
When these undigested and partially digested sugars enter the colon, bacteria eat them and produce gases as a byproduct. When these gases accumulate in the intestine, it swells and voila - you're bloated.
3. irritable bowel syndrome or symptoms similar to irritable bowel syndrome.
Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder of the bowel that causes pain and discomfort in the abdomen - and one of the symptoms is bloating.
There is a long list of physical and mental health issues known to contribute to IBS, but I will focus on one in particular here:
A type of carbohydrate known as FODMAP, which stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides.
FODMAPs are found in grains such as wheat, rye and barley, beans, dairy products and many fruits and vegetables. They can cause bloating in a similar way to lactose: they are difficult to digest and some people cannot digest them properly, resulting in undigested food entering the colon where it becomes food for gas-producing bacteria.
4. a sodium-potassium imbalance
Increasing your sodium intake above the norm will cause your body to store more water (1). A good portion of this stored fluid will be under your skin, making it appear thicker and softer.
This is one of the reasons you're likely to be significantly more bloated after an epic day of eating.
This is probably not news to you, but you may not realize how easy it is to consume too much sodium and become bloated. A measly teaspoon of salt contains about 2.3 grams of sodium, and it only takes a few additional teaspoons over your normal intake to cause a noticeable shift in the amount of water stored.
This is the reason that many cases of chronic bloating can be "cured" simply by bringing sodium and potassium intake under control.
5. hormones
Hormones are often the bogeyman when it comes to fitness. You know, belly fat, fat loss and muscle gain plateaus, irresistible cravings, slow metabolism, etc. - blame it on those pesky hormones that conspire to keep you fat, weak and unhappy.
Well, that's simply not true. People - including some self-proclaimed gurus - love to pick on the endocrine system (the system that produces hormones) because it's a good scapegoat.
This system is so large and complex that a little pseudoscientific talk is all that is necessary to get the layman to reach for his wallet.
The reality, however, is this:
Hormones affect pretty much every physiological mechanism in your body, but when it comes to things like stagnant weight loss, slow muscle gain, and unsightly belly fat, they rarely pose the problem.
The actual problem is usually just a misapplication of the fundamental basics of weight loss and muscle building.
However, when it comes to bloat, hormonal imbalances can be an important piece of the puzzle. The best demonstration of this is an experiment conducted during World War 2 that would never pass ethics committees today.
The purpose of this experiment, conducted under the direction of Dr. Ancel Keys and known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, was to study the physical and psychological effects of starvation and to develop an effective program to help starving prisoners of war return to a normal dietary pattern and metabolic function.
The experiment was conducted with 36 volunteers (conscientious objectors who preferred this experiment to serving on the front lines) and began with 12 weeks of hard work and a maintenance calorie intake of about 3,200 kcal per day.
Next came the 6-month starvation phase of the experiment, which consisted of reducing caloric intake to about 1,500 kcal while maintaining physical work. The scientists adjusted the subjects' diets individually with the aim of achieving a weight loss of about 25% at the end of the 6-month phase.
This starvation phase was followed by 20 weeks of metabolic rehabilitation, which consisted of limited and unlimited increases in caloric intake.
This study revealed a lot of fascinating facts, but I want to focus on one particular observation here.
At the start of the experiment, subjects generally lost weight in a predictable and linear fashion, with weight loss of about 2 pounds per week.
After some time, however, the weight loss became strangely non-linear. Sometimes the scale didn't move for weeks, and then there was a significant weight loss virtually overnight. As the researchers found, these were the effects of dramatic increases and reductions in water retention, not body fat.
This meant that these men lost fat even during the weeks when weight did not change, but this was offset in terms of weight by corresponding water retention.
You may now wonder what caused these spurts of water excretion, which are also known in bodybuilding circles. Well, some came about by accident for no apparent reason, but most followed an acute increase in caloric intake.
For example, halfway through the study period, a 2,300 kcal meal was served to celebrate. The researchers noticed that many of the men woke up several times the following night to urinate, and the next morning the men were several pounds lighter.
This raised the following question: What caused these men's bodies to retain large amounts of water and why did eating large amounts of food reverse this effect?
Well, the primary suspect was the hormone cortisol and subsequent studies have proven this hypothesis. Studies show that prolonged caloric deficit dramatically increases cortisol levels (2), which causes a whole host of adverse effects in the body, including increased water retention (3).
Basically, an increase in cortisol levels will also result in an increase in the amount of water your body stores, which will make you look bloated. And that's exactly what happened in the subjects of the Minnesota experiment. Feasting lowered cortisol levels (carbohydrates, by the way, are particularly good at reducing cortisol levels (4)), which in turn caused rapid water excretion.
The bottom line is this: If you want to minimize potential bloat, make sure your cortisol levels aren't too high.
6 science based ways to get rid of a bloated belly
Now that we know what the most common reasons for a bloated belly are, it's time to talk about what you can do about it. Figuring out what's causing your individual bloat may take some trial and error, but for most people, the solution lies in one of the 6 tips below.
1. keep your chair moving
Before you start messing with your diet, make sure you are not constipated as this will make a bloated belly worse (5).
Constipation can have a number of causes, but the cause most have heard of - inadequate fiber intake - is rarely the reason (6). Ironically, increasing fiber intake in response to constipation may actually make it worse (7), and studies have shown that reducing fiber intake can help relieve constipation (8).
The point here is that you should just make sure that you are eating enough fiber and if this can help you with your toilet trips, that's great of course.
Of course, laxatives can help you go to the bathroom more regularly, but exercising (9) and supplementing with magnesium are also two reliable ways to keep your stool moving.
2. avoid soft drinks and other carbonated beverages
The math is simple. Bloat is exacerbated by two things: water retention and excessive amounts of gases in your digestive tract - and your soft drinks, in addition to sugar syrup, are made of water that has had carbon dioxide gas added to it to make them fizzy. Carbonated drinks + your stomach = bloat
3. keep your sodium and potassium levels in balance
If your belly is bloated and you're not constipated or drinking carbonated beverages, you need to dig a little deeper to find relief for your bloated belly. And controlling your sodium and potassium intake is a good start.
Remember that a large increase in sodium intake can cause water retention and bloating. But you should also know that insufficient potassium intake can do the same thing (11).
The key here is maintaining a stable and adequate intake of both sodium and potassium. Official recommendations are 1.5 to 2.3 grams of sodium and 4.7 grams of potassium per day. (These amounts increase if you sweat a lot, as is the case with athletes. Personally, I consume about 3 to 4 grams of sodium and about 5 to 6 grams of potassium).
If you take a closer look at the sodium and potassium content of your diet, you will probably find that you are eating too much sodium and too little potassium.
Here are some simple ways to get on the right intake of these two minerals:
- Avoid processed foods, breakfast meats and other types of processed meats such as sausage and frankfurters.
- Reduce the use of salt in cooking.
- Look at the labels of sauces and salad dressings and choose lower salt options.
- Include more potassium-rich foods in your diet, such as beans, dark green-leafy vegetables, bananas, potatoes, squash, salmon and mushrooms.
4. lower your cortisol levels
Your body responds to physical and mental stress by increasing cortisol production. This is necessary and healthy, and is an integral part of the fight or flight response that has helped us survive since time immemorial.
However, this becomes a problem if cortisol levels remain chronically elevated. If you've been in a calorie deficit for too long, if you exercise too much, or if you're dealing with abnormally high levels of physical or mental stress, chances are your cortisol levels have been too high for too long. And that means your body is storing more water than it should.
Fortunately, there are some quick and easy ways to lower your cortisol levels and keep them in a healthy range:
- Do not starve yourself to death
- Avoid overtraining
- Develop a daily relaxation routine
- Forget low carbohydrate diets
- Have occasional refeed days during a diet
- Conduct a discharge week at the gym
- Make sure to get enough sleep
5. avoid foods that are known to cause digestive problems.
So far, we've looked at some pretty simple strategies to combat a bloated belly. Well, this one is a little more challenging. But the good news is that I'm not telling you that you have to swear off all foods that aren't considered part of a clean diet. This is just about some specific foods that we've talked about before: Dairy and FODMAPs.
As you know, these foods can cause bloating in many people and the first step to finding out if they are the cause of your problems is to eliminate them from your diet.
Here is a list of foods you should avoid to see how your body reacts to this:
- Cereals such as wheat, barley and rye
- Beans
- Dairy products
- Onions and garlic
- Artichokes
- Asparagus
- Vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and other cabbage varieties
- Chocolate
- Fruits like apples, apricots, blueberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, watermelon
- Mushrooms
- Avocados
- Sugar alcohols such as xylitol, sorbitol and mannitol
I know this is a long, frustrating list but remember that this is only temporary - and even if it works it doesn't mean you have to give up these foods forever.
Instead, you can use the approach used in food intolerance testing and add these foods back into your diet one at a time while keeping a food diary. You'll find that only a handful of these foods will cause bloating.
6. do not waste your time with natural diuretics
If this isn't the first article you've read on this topic, you've probably come across claims that certain foods and supplements can prevent a bloated belly and help you get that sexy flat bach you've always wanted.
Examples include asparagus, nettle, celery, green leafy vegetables, hawthorn, bananas, olive oil, horsetail, green tea, parsley and many, many more.
Unfortunately, I have yet to find any scientific evidence that any food or supplement can reliably reduce bloat. Sure, potassium-rich foods like bananas, beans and vegetables can help if low potassium intake is the cause of your problems, but in this case it's not the food per se that helps, it's the potassium.
Alcohol is known to have a diuretic effect (12), but becoming a drinker is not really a viable strategy against a bloated belly. Caffeine also has mild diuretic effects, but scientific research shows that the fluid consumed with caffeine more than replaces any water excreted (13).
The bottom line is that no food or natural supplement will lead to a noticeable reduction in water retention. You're going to have to work a little harder for it.
The conclusion on the subject of bloated belly
I can well understand if you are extremely frustrated due to your bloated belly. Fortunately, there are some simple solutions. As long as your problems are not caused by a medical problem, all you have to do is the following:
- Find out if it is just fat or actually a bloated belly.
- Eat enough fiber, exercise regularly, and make sure you get enough magnesium in your diet.
- Reduce carbonated beverages.
- Make sure your sodium and potassium intake is balanced.
- Avoid excessive physical or mental stress.
- Reduce your FODMAP intake (if nothing else helps).
This will significantly reduce or eliminate your symptoms.
References
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19173770
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19837921
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11082166
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16320174
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19491831/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15479674/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/
- http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00365520510011641
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11380313
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9428447
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7573805
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19774754
Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/bloated-stomach/
By Michael Matthews
