What methods are employed when trying to rid water retention?
What do u guys do? Apart from using diuretics?
Cutting out all salt in foods? What about the sodium in Sports drinks?
ANy other tips?
Thanks
No, do not cut out sodium. Both sodium and water should be on the high side. A decrease in sodium and/or water intake gives rise to the hormone aldosterone which acts to conserve sodium and fluid for bodily functions. Conversely, a high intake of both will blunt aldosterone release, causing the body to excrete excess fluid and sodium.
What are you doing this for? Is for something short term, like a contest or photo shoot? Or is this more long term? Like “I want to look ripped for the summer, and water retention is one of the issues I want to deal with.”
I’ll give you some recommendations once I know this.
Joel
well when I fight in a ring i fight without a top on and I notice that some days (especially after a cheat day of high carbs) i retain water. I wanna look cut as i can on fight night to be honest.
Just keep water through the roof and sodium high. Scott Abel recommends 2 grams of sodium for each liter of water you drink daily. I don’t think you need to be this anal, though. Just drink upwards of one gallon a day, eat foods high in sodium, and those that aren’t, add salt.
As far as the water retention w/ the cheat day, the only way to avoid this would be to carb up w/ no water. This works well for a bodybuilding competition, but obviously not someone who has to perform in the ring.
Joel
Based on what you’d like to be ‘dry’ for, I’d probably suggest that you neither use diuretics nor do you cut water. You’d probably find that to hamper your performance.
On the contrary, your water intake should be through the roof. However, while Joel is definitely correct on the hormonal reponses to decreased water and sodium, in your case you could benefit from cutting your sodium only the day before. You’re not going to experience any negatives from elevated aldosterone because it just doesn’t happen that fast.
However, this is conditional on the fact that your sodium level is very high leading up to this last day.
Great responses thanks
I love T-mag!
Thanks T-brothers and Sisters!
"Thanks T Brothers and Sisters? Since only Joel and I responded, which one were you calling brother, and which one sister?
I’ll assume you were calling me the brother and Joel the sister.
hahaha i meant in general. All the advice i’ve gotten on Tmag and forum over the past couple of months were the best. Following the T-Principles i can honestly say i’ve found something that works… it took me 5 years to find this… all the time i wasted
lol, Thunder, brother, I was great minds think alike, etc, etc in regards to how we posted right about the same time; however, I think I’ll hold off on that comment and go with “screw you.” 
I dont understand… You are a boxer… but are conserned with looking good?
Why not worry about winning???
yeah i know as long as I can kick arse that’s the most important thing but I wanna look shredded, It helps to head fuck your oponent believe it or not when they see a shredded person in front of them rather than a tub of goo
ahh okay gotya.
Are there any other ‘head fucking’ methods you use?
well if the fighter’s looking like he wants some disrespect u can give them a real good stare down and when I perform the pre ritual fight dance, the Ram Muay, it’s usually respectful but if the fighter trash talks or gets cocky you can return the disrespect in the fight dance
Does that mean you do Muay Thai (spelling???)?
What about keeping the water off long term. After leaning up and returning to a maintenance caloric level at 8.5% BF, I noticed my face has gotten fatter. I assume it’s water retention because my body fat level is the same, but I did gain about 5lbs which means I did gain some fat. I sweat a lot too when I work out (I don’t know if this means anything). I’ve always had big cheeks, but when I finally quit cutting up, my face was thin and angular. Now it’s fat and I look older.
Thanks for any help
If anything, you should look better after returning to an isocaloric uptake. Most people do.
It could mostly be water. I remember reading somewhere that for an average person, they can lose 5lb water, and 5lb muscle glycogen during the first week or two of dieting.
yes chris
Hi Joel,
I’d like to bump this post back up, because I’m mainly interested in looking lean and hard over a longer period of time. You stated earlier that you could give us a hand with that as well. Thanks.