I got into bodybuilding about 5-6 years ago and managed to bulk up pretty big. When I started cutting I developed great definition in my chest, arms and could even see my top 4 abs. However, I still had a slight pot belly and flabby love handles. I figured I'd try cutting even more strictly, but all this did was burn off muscle and my love handles still wouldn't shift.
I'd read about subcutaneous water retention before, but was always under the impression that it was never more than a bit of softness covering the muscle. I never thought it could cause a flabby belly.
I had noticed that this flab would get worse on some days and better on others, but couldn't understand why. But to cut a long story short, I decided to follow a water-shedding diet for a while and see how I got on.
For the following week I dropped most carbs after breakfast and tried to avoid sugar and salt as much as possible. I drank around 5 litres of water per day and started taking dandelion root (a natural diuretic).
In less than a week I started to notice the "fat" disappearing. I'd wake up each morning with more muscle definition than the day before, my stomach was flatter and firmer and my love handles were melting away. 2 weeks on and I can see my abs...all of them!
So I've been reviewing my diet, wondering what the hell could've caused me to retain so much water. The culprit is bread. A long time ago I switched from white bread to wholemeal, but I fell into that mental trap of thinking "it's healthy, I can eat as much as I like" and would eat upto 8 slices per day, almost every day. This was clearly too much and was causing me to retain a lot of water and bloat up.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone. If you find yourself carrying a flabby belly when the rest of your body is in good shape, then it might just be excess water retention.
I'd read about subcutaneous water retention before, but was always under the impression that it was never more than a bit of softness covering the muscle. I never thought it could cause a flabby belly.
I had noticed that this flab would get worse on some days and better on others, but couldn't understand why. But to cut a long story short, I decided to follow a water-shedding diet for a while and see how I got on.
For the following week I dropped most carbs after breakfast and tried to avoid sugar and salt as much as possible. I drank around 5 litres of water per day and started taking dandelion root (a natural diuretic).
In less than a week I started to notice the "fat" disappearing. I'd wake up each morning with more muscle definition than the day before, my stomach was flatter and firmer and my love handles were melting away. 2 weeks on and I can see my abs...all of them!
So I've been reviewing my diet, wondering what the hell could've caused me to retain so much water. The culprit is bread. A long time ago I switched from white bread to wholemeal, but I fell into that mental trap of thinking "it's healthy, I can eat as much as I like" and would eat upto 8 slices per day, almost every day. This was clearly too much and was causing me to retain a lot of water and bloat up.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone. If you find yourself carrying a flabby belly when the rest of your body is in good shape, then it might just be excess water retention.
