Water Retention Makes You Look Old and Ugly

[Part-Time Chad]

I'm on a cutting diet. I'm also weight training, walking, and jogging several times a week. Every morning when I step on the scale, my body fat percentage is down a little more than the day before, but my water percentage is also up a little more every day! WTF is going on, and where is this water being stored, in my fat or my muscle??

When I started cutting, my water retention was about 46%. Now, it's almost at 51%. This shit not only makes you look ugly, but also old. Everyone calls me "sir" now. They never called me that when I looked more dry. I feel disgusting, and people (especially girls) treat me like a contagious disease most of the time.

I also feel like shit, bloated and lethargic, as if my body is a water bed, with fluid squishing around inside.

How the fuck do I get rid of this stubborn shit? Water pills DO NOT work! I also consume bananas and sweet potatoes several times a week. They contain potassium, which is supposed to act as a diuretic. They don't do anything. My sodium intake is also fairly moderate. Definitely not high, so it's not that causing the issue.

Nothing fucking works. It seems as if water retention just happens whenever you reduce calories below maintenance. It's probably the body's way of preserving its mass and compensating by holding on to water. It's frustrating af.

 

[Part-Time Chad]

BUMP

 

[Part-Time Chad]

Never mind, faggots. Chat GPT addressed my question better than you could:

What you’re seeing on the scale is probably not actual “water retention” in the way you think it is — and the body-fat/water percentages from home scales are notoriously noisy and misleading during a cut.


Those scales use bioelectrical impedance. Hydration level, glycogen, sodium, food in your gut, inflammation from lifting, stress hormones, and even skin temperature can swing the readings dramatically from day to day. The “body fat % down / water % up” pattern is extremely common during fat loss.


A few important things are happening physiologically:

• Fat tissue contains relatively little water
• Muscle tissue contains a lot of water
• As you lose fat and preserve muscle, your relative body-water percentage often rises
• Exercise — especially weight training and jogging — causes localized inflammation and muscle repair, which temporarily pulls water into muscle tissue
• Cortisol from calorie restriction, hard training, poor sleep, or stress can also increase fluid retention

So paradoxically:

• you can be leaner
• while simultaneously carrying more transient water

That does not necessarily mean you’re getting “fatter,” softer, or unhealthy.


The fact that your “water percentage” went from 46% to 51% is actually not automatically alarming. For many adult males, roughly 50–65% total body water is within normal physiological range depending on body composition and age.


Where is the water stored?
Mostly:

• inside muscle cells (intracellular water)
• between tissues after training/inflammation
• alongside glycogen storage
• sometimes subcutaneously if stress/cortisol is high

Not “inside fat” in the way people imagine.


A few other things that can make people feel “watery” during a cut:

1. Hard training + calorie deficit
   
   • Your body becomes stressed
   • Cortisol rises
   • Recovery worsens
   • You retain more water transiently
2. Too aggressive a calorie deficit
   
   • Bigger deficits often increase fatigue, bloating, sleep problems, and fluid shifts
3. Poor sleep
   
   • One of the biggest causes of looking puffy and older
4. Chronic dehydration
   
   • Ironically, underhydration can make the body hold onto water
5. High cardio volume
   
   • Especially jogging/running, which can create inflammation and edema in some people
6. Constipation / GI bulk
   
   • Can feel like “water retention”
7. Low-carb fluctuations
   
   • Glycogen depletion and refilling move huge amounts of water around

About potassium and “water pills”:

• Potassium is not a magic cosmetic drying agent
• Diuretics often fail when the issue is stress hormones/inflammation rather than excess sodium
• Overusing diuretics can actually worsen how you feel and look

The feeling of being “squishy,” lethargic, and inflamed is more suggestive of:

• recovery stress
• overreaching
• sleep issues
• aggressive dieting
• or inaccurate body perception amplified by focusing on the scale every day

Also: people calling you “sir” is very unlikely to be because your body-water percentage rose 5 points. That’s not how strangers perceive appearance. During cuts, people often become:

• more tired-looking
• flatter in the face
• less expressive
• more irritable
• more gaunt around the eyes

That can read as “older” even while body fat is dropping.


What usually helps most:

• smaller calorie deficit
• more sleep
• slightly reducing training fatigue
• staying consistently hydrated
• keeping sodium consistent rather than ultra-low
• avoiding constant body checking
• giving the cut more time

And importantly: don’t treat the impedance scale’s water % as literal truth. Those readings can swing wildly from hydration alone.

 

[iceturtles]

If you aren’t fucking w hormones to cause bloating you can try diuretics, Iirc dandelion root is a good otc

 

[milkshake_addict]

living for this DNR

 

[svarddre]

Your body is in starvation mode because you’re losing weight rapidly. Slow the rate of weight loss and drink a ton of water everyday

 

[Public Enemy]

Eplerenone