Let’s say that you have e been eating healthy and you are exercising frequently. You may even use supplements to enhance your gut health. You do everything right so why is your stomach bloated all the time? What is causing all the gas and distress?

This is exactly what we are going to talk about in this article. You’re going to discover some of the most frequent reasons for bloating, and five uncomplicated approaches you can use to get rid of it for good:

1. Conclude if it’s bloat or fat.

Here’s something many people don’t fancy accepting. What they believe to be bloating is simply belly fat. And they don’t require to do anything to solve the problem other than decreasing their body fat percentage.

Well, it’s rather simple to tell the difference between genuine bloating and body fatness. The most important clue is this: if you can grasp soft skin around your belly by the handful, you are not bloated. You have fat.

When you’re bloated, you might be capable to hold a bit more skin than normal, but if you have notable amounts of flesh to grab around your midsection, you’re looking at too much fat, not bloating.

Another method to apprehend what you’re up against is to measure your waist at the center every morning.

If the versions vary often, then bloating is at least partly to blame, and if they stay about the same, it’s very possible to be belly fat.

The logic for this simple: gassiness and water retention can alternate quite a bit and belly fat levels don’t.

2. Take time to de-stress.

Working out a lot, undersleeping,  calorie and carbs restrictions, daily life problems. All of these are just a few reasons that cause stress and release the hormone called cortisol.

This isn’t necessarily bad, but when cortisol levels stay too high for too long, it can generate diverse negative results in the body.

One of them is the high levels of water holding, which is why being over-stressed contributes to being bloated.

The answer isn’t to cease doing everything that produces stress, because this will be impossible, but to do stuff that helps balance it.

Here are a few easy but important means to decrease stress and cortisol levels:

  • Design and obey a daily relaxation system.
  • Don’t eat a low-carb diet.
  • If you’re cutting, have a refeed day every 5 to 10 days.
  • Deload in the gym every so often.
  • Get plenty of sleep.

3. Even your sodium, potassium, and water intake.

Sodium aids your cells to remain hydrated by taking water into them. So, when you drastically boost your sodium consumption, your cells briefly pull in large volumes of water, which can result in rapid bloating and weight gain. That’s why an unusually salty dinner can make you wake up looking waterlogged and weighing several pounds more than normal.

Potassium, on the other hand, aids to pump water outside of cells, which is why consuming too little boosts water retention levels and therefore contributes to bloating.

This is why a big role of holding bloating to a minimum is keeping your sodium and potassium absorptions pondered.

And sadly, most people don’t even come close. They consume too much sodium and too little potassium. This is bad for many reasons, bloating being the least of them.

The Institute of Medicine’s recommendations to consume these nutrients as follows:

  • About 1.5 to 2.3 grams of sodium per day.
  • About 4.7 grams of potassium per day.
  •  

If you exude extensively several times per week, you should enhance your consumption of both by up to 100%, depending on how much you’re sweating.

Now, the last point we have to consider here is water absorption. If you don’t give your body sufficient water from food and drinking, it takes actions to take the water it is getting.

This involves releasing hormones like aldosterone and vasopressin that enhance water retention through various mechanisms.

Basically, if you drink too little water every day, you’re always going bloated.

4. Don’t use natural diuretics.

If you’re were to listen to every “specialist” out there, you will believe that you can overcome bloating by simply eating the correct foods or by taking the appropriate supplements. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.

Sadly, foods and natural substances advertised as diuretics either have too small of an effect to matter or no impact at all.

For instance, caffeine has slight diuretic outcomes, but the water consumed with it more than compensates whatever water it helps you cast. Alcohol is a recognized diuretic, too, but drinking frequently to hold a bit less water is not a good idea.

So, there are no foods or herbal supplements that will reduce bloating.in a way that it makes a difference.

5. Decrease your FODMAP and dairy consumption

Regrettably, some people just don’t do well with some particular foods.

And when we’re discussing bloating, the two that tend to be most problematic are FODMAPs and dairy.

FODMAPs are a variety of carbohydrate that is difficult to digest, and, therefore, that can generate gassiness, cramping, and bloating.

Foods that are rich in FODMAPs are

  • Beans
  • Watermelon
  • Dairy
  • Chocolate
  •  
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Artichoke
  • Cauliflower
  • Asparagus
  • Broccoli
  • Mushroom
  • Cabbage
  • Grains like wheat, barley, and rye
  • Apple
  • Blackberry
  • Brussels sprout
  • Nectarine
  • Peach
  • Pear
  • Cherry
  • Apricot
  • Plum
  • Prune
  • Avocado
  • Sugar alcohols like xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol

FODMAP can be found in a lot of foods that all of us usually like to eat.

So, if you remark that you encounter any gastrointestinal distress after eating a good plate of any of those foods, you may have a FODMAP intolerance.

The solution is easy: exclude them from your menu and observe how your body reacts.

If you do really have an intolerance, then going low-FODMAP will significantly enhance your situation.

Now, regarding dairy.

Dairy products comprise a sugar called lactose, which is badly digested by most people because their intestines fail to provide sufficient of an enzyme called lactase, which is required for the job.

Therefore, undigested lactose moves through the small intestine unabsorbed and when it arrives in the large intestine, bacteria consume it and provide gas as a byproduct. This makes the large intestine to increase, providing you a puffed, bloated belly. Also, diarrhea is common as well.

If you endure any of that in reply to a dairy-rich food, then you can presumably profit from decreasing your dairy consumption or excluding it from your diet completely.

Conclusion

We’re all dealing with bloating from time to time, and to one level or another.

Obey these five easy steps and odds are you’ll be able to get rid of that bloated stomach.