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On Health with Houston Methodist
Water Weight: Is It Bloating? Weight Gain? Something Else?
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When the numbers on the scale suddenly jump, it's easy to blame "water weight." But how can you tell whether you're retaining fluid, gaining body fat or dealing with something else entirely? In this episode, we cover what water weight is, the lifestyle habits that contribute to fluid retention and how to spot the difference between normal fluctuations and warning signs of excess fluid buildup.
Expert: Dr. Laura Choi, weight loss surgeon
Notable topics covered:
- Yes, it's real — and why the term can be misleading
- Why your weight naturally fluctuates throughout the day
- The best way to weigh yourself for tracking long-term trends
- How bloating, puffiness and swelling differ from true weight gain
- Common causes of water retention, including hormones, inactivity and diet
- The surprising connection between dehydration and water retention
- Medical conditions that can cause excess fluid buildup
- Why rapid weight loss on low-carb diets is often just water weight
- The role protein plays in maintaining healthy fluid balance
- Practical habits that support healthy fluid balance
If you enjoy these kinds of conversations, be sure to subscribe. And for more topics like this, visit our blog at houstonmethodist.org/blog.
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ZACH MOORE:Welcome to On Health with Houston Methodist. I'm Zach Moore. I'm a photographer and editor here, and I'm also a long-time podcaster.
KATIE MCCALLUM:I'm Katie McCallum, former researcher turned health writer, mostly writing for our blogs.
ZACH:And Katie, when you hear the term "water weight," what do you think of?
KATIE:I think of the times that I step on the scale and the number is a little higher than I want it to be, even though I feel like maybe I haven't gone too off the rails lately. And I'm like,"Surely it's water weight."
ZACH:That's what I like to tell myself."Well, I drank a lot of water yesterday, so..."
KATIE:Exactly. And I think that's the piece of this that I'm curious to kind of hear about today from someone who knows what they're talking about, because I will stand there and ask that question when, like, I probably know the answer, but I always wanna fall back on,"Oh, this is water weight. This isn't real weight. It's like something inside of me that's transient, and it's gonna go away." That's kind of what I think of. How about you, Zach?
ZACH:Well, I mean, first of all, you're right. We're always looking for some explanation outside of ourselves. We're like,"Well, this is why."
KATIE:Surely it wasn't the, you know, the four hamburgers I ate throughout the week--
ZACH:Four hamburgers. KATIE: No, over a whole week. Okay. Fair enough. I too have had four hamburgers in a week, so I'm not one to judge.
KATIE:I'd love to have four in a day.
ZACH:I don't know if you think this way, but when I think water weight, I think exercise. I think losing weight. My mind connects these dots. We're like, "Well, if I sweat a lot, there goes my water weight. Problem solved," right? But then you gotta rehydrate. KATIE: Yeah. So then I'm like,"Well, why am I rehydrating? I'mma just sweat out all this weight." It's tough. KATIE: Okay. Yeah. I've never thought of it that way. I usually think of it when I am feeling, like, puffy or more bloated. Like, that's such an interesting term in itself, bloating. Because that's when you wonder,"Is it water weight? Is it fat I'm putting on? Am I just retaining water more than usual for some reason?" No clue if it's ever true, but I'd like to think so when the scale is telling me something I don't wanna see. Absolutely. And that's what we're talking about today, water weight.
KATIE:It is indeed. And, Zach, who did we talk to today about this?
ZACH:We talked to Dr. Laura Choi. She's a weight loss surgeon here at Houston Methodist.♪ ♪All right. Thanks for being on the podcast today with us, Dr. Choi.
DR. LAURA CHOI:Oh, it's my pleasure.
ZACH:So, weight management, as I'll call it, is always a popular topic in health circles. And, you know, for those of us who keep an eye on the scale, we notice those numbers, they fluctuate every day. And people are always looking for something to point to of why. And water weight has been a hot topic these days. And I feel like people might be pointing the finger at that about why their weight is fluctuating. Is that a fair statement? DR. CHOI: Absolutely. I think that's exactly the reason why you're having fluctuations. And if you are very friendly with the scale and you happen to step on a scale multiple times a day, which I don't recommend... ZACH: Okay.
DR. CHOI:...you will see a trend. You'll see that your weight can be as high as two to three or, for some people, like seven to eight pounds heavier in the evening than it is early in the morning. And there's definitely fluctuations to how much water your body is going to retain throughout the day. So, as far as calling it water weight, it's a bit of a misnomer because it's not the same thing as gaining weight or losing weight. But that fluctuation is just really a reflection on the amount of water your body is holding onto at the moment. ZACH: Okay. And you mentioned weighing yourself. Now, I've always heard that consistency is the key when you're trying to track your weight that way. And I've also heard, like you said, don't do it at night. So do it first thing in the morning before you even shower, before you drink anything, eat anything. Is that still the recommended time? I think that word consistency is very correct. You know, certainly, if you weigh yourself every day, that number of data points is not gonna be very valuable. But if you just wanna follow a trend and you just, you know, wanna look at things academically, it's perfectly fine. But you should weigh yourself at the same time of the day, whether you do it first thing waking up. And a lot of people like to do that because that's where you're gonna see the lowest weight you will for the day.
ZACH:That's what we're going for.
DR. CHOI:So, it gives you a little extra perk for that. But if you tend to weigh yourself once a week, then weigh yourself on the same day of the week at the same time of the day. If you do it every other day, same concept, because then you're gonna be able to follow the trending over time a lot better. And the trending is what's really important to see kind of where you're going.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:You know, when you go to your doctor's office, you're gonna get weighed. ZACH: Mm-hmm. When you go to a different doctor's office, or if you go to your friend's and you just happen to see a scale in the bathroom and you step on a scale, you just wanna make sure that you're following your trend on the same scale, just because all scales are gonna look a little different or they're gonna be calibrated a little differently. And, you know, surprisingly, if somebody-- If your friend lives on a 20th floor, that may show you a different weight than if you live in a basement apartment. ZACH: Okay. And so-- And it's still not the same scale. ZACH: Yeah. So just keep trends on the same scale, keeping those themes in mind about the same time of day.
ZACH:Okay. You know, we're talking a lot about scales. Another, I won't call it a trend, but another approach I've seen is a circumference, you know, waistline circumference measuring, and that could be more accurate.
DR. CHOI:So, accuracy isn't what we're going for. It's a little bit more of a better definition of health risks associated with excessive weight. So, body mass index is what we traditionally go with. So, it's a very simple formula based on height and actual weight. So, you're getting, you know, how much body mass you're actually carrying per weight. But we also know that when people tend to gain more weight, like in an apple shape, central obesity, or we talk about visceral obesity... ZACH: Mm-hmm....those words take on a different level of health concern. So, rather than just going with a straightforward, how much, you know,"How much do you actually weigh versus your height?" ZACH: Mm-hmm. Like, for example, if you take any professional football player with tons of muscle mass.
ZACH:Right.
DR. CHOI:All those people are gonna have very high BMIs, and people are gonna say they qualify for weight loss surgery. But that's not necessarily a clear picture of their health. It's more about whether you are carrying a lot more visceral fat for the weight that you are. So when we talk about the utility of measuring waist and hip circumference ratios, the value there is really to looking at health risks associated with visceral obesity and whether, even for the same weight, you may be at a higher health risk if you have a higher waist circumference versus somebody with the same weight who may have a lower waist circumference.
ZACH:Okay. Okay. Now, getting back to this water weight, like, is there a certain demographic or age or any sort of pre-existing conditions that may cause you to carry on more water weight than usual, have more water retention?
DR. CHOI:Yeah. Yeah, there is. Well, first we have to clarify that there are reasons for why somebody may have excessive water weight on their body. And those are definitely health risk or medical problem related. So the, you know, most common one people talk about are heart disease, who have congestive heart failure, like their heart just cannot pump as effectively as it needs to. And so, a lot of the fluid will sit in their tissue. You also have people who have chronic kidney disease or who may be dependent on dialysis because their kidneys don't function well, and they're gonna hold on to a lot of water in their tissues. And that's what really we're talking about when we talk about water weight. ZACH: Yeah. Water that sits in your tissue. And it's gonna be spread out, but it's gonna be most noticeable just under their skin in your hands and in your feet, like in the extremities.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:A lot of people, if they take their calf, like their shin, and kind of press, and it kind of makes a dimple that takes a few seconds to bounce back, that's definitely a sign of excess water in their tissue.
ZACH:Okay.
DR. CHOI:And then there's gonna be functional water weight fluctuations. So, best example are menstruating women with fluctuating different hormone levels, or we sometimes see that in pregnant women who are gonna have puffy hands and feet because of their hormone fluctuations. Their tissues are gonna hold on to more water weight. And then, of course, the important thing to follow for those women are to look at where they feel like they're the most bloated in their portion of the menstrual cycle, and then really monitor that that bloated sense or that sense of puffiness seems to subside at some different sense of their cycle. So, you can keep an eye on that just to kind of know that that's something to be expected.
ZACH:Mm-hmm. And that's something that will naturally dissipate unless you have a deeper issue?
DR. CHOI:Correct. So, the fluctuations that follow a cyclical pattern like a monthly menstrual cycle, that's just part of the process. And a lot of women just kind of have to suck it up.[laughing] But, you know, you definitely don't wanna just, you know, chalk all kinds of water weight to just like,"Oh, it's normal," because you could have some underlying heart condition or kidney function or even a blood clot that's pooling fluid in your legs. So, you don't wanna minimize something that just doesn't feel right or doesn't look right or it's very new and different. Then you should certainly check that out with your doctor.
ZACH:Absolutely. No, a lot of those are a lot more serious conditions than I had even considered before. Talking about blood clots and dialysis because of kidney disease. I mean, that makes perfect sense. I mean, it's all liquid, right? That's what we're talking about.
DR. CHOI:That's right.
ZACH:Water weight, like you said, misnomer. Liquid weight, really is what we're talking about.
DR. CHOI:That's right. And, you know, just to kind of highlight, you know, what I see a lot in patients of mine who are actively losing weight, whether they do it through surgery or with medical management, you know, they're not gonna see like an even, you know, layer shaved off their body on a daily basis. So, everyone kind of expects, like, "Oh, I should be seeing this sort of a smooth pattern like you see on a graph." And I call it like an uneven staircase, where you may not see anything for a couple of days, no matter how well calorie restricted and how much you're exercising. And then suddenly, you know, you go to bed one night and wake up, and you're like five pounds down. You didn't magically lose five pounds overnight. It's water balancing out. So, you may have held on to some excess water. And then, you know, over a short time, a lot of that water flushes out, and then you're down at a true weight loss trending that you can see.
ZACH:Okay. Okay. Now, are there any advantages or any reason to not try and get rid of water weight? I mean, everything you're telling me here sounds like you wanna get rid of this liquid weight.
DR. CHOI:Well, I think if it's in excess. And then that's kind of a tricky part to determine for yourself. Gotta remember, a human body is at least 60% water volume. You know, water is in every, each of our cells and in the tissues in between and in all of our organs. And it's a vital component of our body and our makeup. But how that water is distributed, or whether you're holding on to more than what your cells and your tissues and your organs are really needing to have with it. So, then they're gonna settle in your soft tissue or spaces like inside your lungs or inside your abdominal cavity. And those are types of water retention that we really don't wanna have. And a lot about what we do every day affects how much water we're gonna hold on to. So, if we're sedentary, you know, as somebody who manages obesity, my patients hate talking about this part, but our human bodies were meant to move all the time and in a pretty high amount of activity level. And so, when our bodies are sitting in front of a computer or in a car, you know, for many, many hours of our waking day, we are gonna hold on to more fluid in our tissue and pool, and it's not gonna be circulated well. And that's unhealthy kind of water retention. What we eat also affects how much water we retain. So a lot of processed foods with a lot of chemicals and all the calorie density and all the, you know, simple carbohydrates that it contains are also gonna be water retaining. And it's also gonna be inflammatory, which also then compounds the water retention.
ZACH:Sodium being one of the greatest offenders of that?
DR. CHOI:Absolutely. And the high volumes of sodium that are in processed foods because they want it to taste good, so you come back for more, right?
ZACH:Yeah, just pouring that salt on your food.
DR. CHOI:There you go.[laughing] So that's also going to force a lot of water to be retained within the cells and between the cells. And, you know, your body uses water as sort of a balancing mechanism of all the important electrolytes and all the chemical environment that our cells and our organs need to have. So, what we eat or drink, you know, on a day-to-day basis is also gonna affect how much water you retain. And, you know, retaining a lot of water is not gonna be comfortable. So that's definitely one reason. But it's also not as healthy as having the right volume of water be a part of your cells and your tissues and your organs. ZACH: Yeah. And then everything you're talking about lines up with what limited research I've done so far because I've seen that people with a higher percentage of body fat have a lower percentage of water compared to people with lower body fat percentages. That just makes sense based on what we've been talking about. Well, because when you start measuring body fat percentage, then, you know, what's the other percentage of your body? It's lean body mass. So, it's things like, you know, your bones, your organs, and your muscle mass. And so, the more muscle mass we have, the more water volume we're gonna hold on to because muscles will hold on to that. ZACH: Mm-hmm. And when we have more fat volume as a big percentage of our bodies, remember, you know, like water and oil don't mix, right? So fatty tissue isn't gonna hold water like healthy muscle tissue or other lean body mass tissue will. So having less water volume doesn't equate to, you know, "Oh, I don't have water weight." It means that you just have a higher fat mass, which you also don't wanna want. And that's probably a bigger problem that you wouldn't want.
ZACH:Oh, absolutely. You know, something else I found that surprised me anyway, because it's counterintuitive, again, at least to me, is dehydration. So, if you're dehydrated, your body, to compensate for that, it will hold on to what water you do have even longer, which can raise your water retention. DR. CHOI: Absolutely. So, yeah, it does seem counterintuitive because if you call yourself dehydrated, you kind of just picture yourself like a little dry rung towel.[laughing] ZACH: Yeah.
DR. CHOI:But what, you know, your body is like an active, dynamic living system. So, when it's not being provided with enough water, then it can't let anything go.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:So, you know, it leads to lots of other issues like, you know, your body will concentrate its urine too much that it's unhealthy for your kidneys. You get constipated because you don't wanna lose any volume through your GI tract. It's not a fun picture to get truly dehydrated. And, you know, those people who have actually experienced it know it comes with other terrible symptoms like nausea and vomiting and having pain. And it's not pretty. ZACH: Glycogen stores. There's a connection between our glycogen levels and water retention, yes? DR. CHOI: Sure, yeah.
ZACH:And, for the uninitiated, could you explain what glycogen is and does in our bodies? DR. CHOI: Yeah. So, glycogen is this important, important sort of a mid-product that our body, tissue, and organs kind of break up for energy source because glycogen is basically like a little chain of, you know, simple energy units. And so, your muscles have a lot of glycogen stores because, you know, when it's being worked really hard and your blood, you know, can't pump enough through at a rate, it's gonna use up its own glycogen stores. And when you have a high level of glycogen, for example, for people who develop fatty liver, you know, some of that is a response from your body, you know, having a lot of glycogen available because you're eating a lot of sugar or, like, simple, you know, starch calories, and you're, you know, taking in too much excess at a time. And so glycogen sort of becomes like that middleman that turns, you know, into one over the other so that your body has access to all that energy. Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:So, when you have a high level of that stored in certain parts of your body, then you are gonna see more fluid associated with it that kind of comes with that. And that kind of leads us to talking about, you know, some of the healthier ways of eating that kind of incorporates all of these concepts that are really, like, complicated inside your body. When people go on the so-called low-carb diet, which I hate that name because carbohydrate is a very, very important part of your diet.
ZACH:Yeah.
DR. CHOI:But there's a big umbrella that carbohydrate, you know, covers. So, we're talking about everything from sugar to, like, pasta and bread to all kinds of green vegetables and fruit and all the great whole grains that are, you know, part of your balanced diet and calling it "carbs." So really, I'd like to describe it for people that I work with as, like, you know, focusing on low-starch or low-processed- starch diets, where they're leaving out sugar and bread and pasta and all the simple-- ZACH: All my favorite things. Yes, yes. DR. CHOI: All the white stuff. All the pale beige food that we all come to love. Reducing that can also sort of start burning off some of your glycogen stores. And people actually see weight loss, but they may be seeing early water weight loss. And so, they may be able to see, you know, when they drastically change their diet to something where they're avoiding all the starches, you could actually see a few pounds off, like, in a week. And that I will call, you know, water weight.
ZACH:Okay.
DR. CHOI:Because it is taking off weight, but it's kind of like, you know, giving your body a different composition. And that definitely does work. And if you kind of sustain a lean protein, you know, high fiber diet, then that water weight can stay off. ZACH: Mm-hmm. And, you know, just on that end, I think it's pretty important to sort of think about, like, what you wanna feed yourself to not always be confused about, you know,"Is this water weight? Is this actual fat weight?" Because in the end, you know, it all comes down to trying to provide your body with the right type of fuel so it can get into the right balancing act.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:And, you know, the body is an amazing thing. There's a lot we know about it. There's a lot we still don't know about it.
ZACH:Right.
DR. CHOI:But of all we can learn about it, it has this amazing balancing mechanism so that, you know, what we do in excess will definitely impact it, and usually in ways that we don't want it to.
ZACH:Yeah. And deep down, we know, you know, we've either seen it in ourselves or in other people. You know, puffy face today or whatever, right? We know where that came from, right? Too many chips, too much salt, or whatever, right?
DR. CHOI:And that is definitely true.
ZACH:Mm-hmm. DR. CHOI: Right? Like if you've had an excessively salty meal and a midnight snack and you go right to bed.[laughing] Let's talk about medications. Are there any medications that can lead you to retaining more water weight?
DR. CHOI:Yeah, there are definitely a variety of medications that have the side effect of causing some, you know, what we call, for lay people, swelling. So, some heart medications can do that. You know, certain, you know, mood disorder medicines can tend to do that. But there's also medications that, you know, people utilize to get rid of the water weight. So, like I'm talking about the diuretic form.
ZACH:Yeah. Yeah.
DR. CHOI:A large class or family of, you know, medications that help to sort of pull excess water out of your system. And, you know, some people really need to be dependent on them, like for some people with heart disease or with kidney function disease. But, you know, there are some medicines that are used that are diuretics for different reasons. Like, some diuretics are used for treating skin disorders or they have some other indications, and they will definitely tend to pull some extra water off of your body. Just have to be careful that you don't get dehydrated because the name of the game isn't to squeeze everything out dry. It's to have the right balance. Oh, and this is what I wanted to mention also. When people, when some people are very protein deficient, and this is one of the reasons why, you know, we hear so much about like,"Oh, protein is so important." And protein is really important because it's a fundamental building block that you, you know, really have to get from the outside to get into your body. But when you don't have enough protein in your system, your cells can actually become leaky. And that's kind of the best way to describe it, where the fluid kind of leaches out into the soft tissue and your blood vessels, and your organs cannot hold on to the water volume inside its cells. So that's actually a condition we really, really have to be careful about. So, protein malnutrition can definitely make you see lots of extra water weight that we have to be careful about and treat that from a medical perspective.
ZACH:Okay. You know, to that point, are there any easily identifiable signs people can look out for if they're gaining weight and they wanna make sure it's not water weight, it's just "regular weight," so to speak?
DR. CHOI:Yeah. I think a good rule of thumb is you wanna make sure that you're kind of fluffing out in a very generic, well-spread way to kind of point towards overall weight gain.
ZACH:Proportionally, yeah? DR. CHOI: Yeah. So, if you're seeing, like, excessive swelling in one hand or both hands or both feet, or maybe more dangerous, one foot and leg, then you might be really dealing with some type of a blood clot or a blood vessel issue. ZACH: Okay.
DR. CHOI:So that needs to be looked at right away. And if you kind of can sense this sort of, like, sense of bloating and feeling, you know, puffy, or you can, like, see it on your facial skin, then that definitely points more to the water weight. But sort of the medically dangerous kind of water weight is where I mentioned if you kind of push your skin down, if it creates this pit that takes a while for it to sort of re -- bounce back-- ZACH: I'm okay right now. I think you're good. ZACH: Okay.[laughing] You got the healthy diagnosis from this doctor.
ZACH:Well, thank you. DR. CHOI: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I first heard the term water weight, I don't know, a few years ago. And I always thought it was more surface-level, simpler stuff like we're talking about. Like, oh yeah, your puffy face and this. And there is that, but learning about these deeper issues, I mean, it can be concerning if you let it get out of control, right?
DR. CHOI:Right. And you just don't wanna chalk everything to, like,"Oh, I'm just retaining water," and call it a day. So, I think, you know, the key elements you wanna take out of a lot of the good research that you did was, you know, your diet's really important.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
DR. CHOI:You know, eating healthy is super important, not just for this reason. Because you gotta remember, food is fuel. You know, you're not gonna go put dirty dishwater in your car and expect it to function. ZACH: Nope. But, you know, you should have better care for your body than your car, which a lot of us don't do.
ZACH:Yeah. No, it's funny how we treat it that way. I mean, cars need gasoline, right? You can't put ice cream or dirty dishwater like you said. Our body's like, "Yeah, you know, whatever."
DR. CHOI:Yeah. It's like, "Oh, it's something. That'll do." ZACH: I've said this before. I wish our body had, like, a check engine light that came on. But I guess that's pain. I guess that's discomfort. You see the visual signs. So, I guess, in a way, we do have that. Right. Our bodies just, you know, don't make it easy for us sometimes. So, you know, we just need to be smart and educate ourselves and learn about concerning signs, you know. And again, like, you wanna be well hydrated because dehydration is not good for swelling and all those types of things. And, you know, I always wanna, like, make sure everyone understands we need to be physically active. ZACH: Mm-hmm. Our bodies, human bodies, were designed to function at its best when it's physically active. So, that's also important in not pooling, you know, fluid into your tissues. And I don't want you to have to wonder about whether you have water weight or extra fat.[laughing] I don't want you to deal with any of that at all.
ZACH:Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Choi. I've learned a lot in this conversation.
DR. CHOI:Great. Thank you for having me.♪ ♪
KATIE:Zach, now that you have talked to Dr. Choi about this, you mentioned that you feel like the way to get rid of water weight is to sweat it out. ZACH: Yeah. What's your take now? ZACH: That is inaccurate. That is... I'm not a medical professional. That's why I ask the medical professionals questions. Yeah. Well, I am still shook, though, by you can be dehydrated and still be carrying water weight. I know I mentioned that in the interview, but that, to me, that's the thing that has stuck with me through my research, through my conversation, and even now talking to you, Katie. Yeah. I think on the surface, it's counterintuitive. I agree. Her explanation, though, made a lot of sense of, yeah, if your body doesn't know when it's getting its next drop of water, what's it gonna do? It's gonna hold on to it. ZACH: Yeah. There's your water weight. So, I thought that was interesting. I like how she framed dehydration as an example of, you know, "unhealthy" water retention. You know, we shouldn't be dehydrated, and that's an example of when, you know, our water weight might increase in a somewhat negative way. The rest of it's pretty normal, like hormones fluctuating and stuff. ZACH: Mm-hmm. The two other ones I clung on to because I feel like this is where I suffer the most are being too sedentary because I sit a lot. I do exercise, but then I sit all the rest of the day. ZACH: Yeah. And processed foods. I have gotten in a really bad habit lately of just, like, too many desserts, too much snacking.
ZACH:Mm-hmm.
KATIE:And I do have, I have felt a little more bloated and stuff lately, which probably has all just been a bunch of,"unhealthy" water weight.
ZACH:There it is. Yeah. Speaking of diet, carbohydrates, right? People make them public enemy number one sometimes. They say, "You've gotta get rid of all your carbs." And Dr. Choi said,"Hey, those are actually very important, and you shouldn't eliminate these carbs." And diets that do, I mean, they're not sustainable, really.
KATIE:They're not sustainable, and she did mention at first, when you go on these carb-restrictive diets, you're just losing that initial water weight. But you're not... Yeah, it's not a sustainable diet, so you can't keep it. So, then all you've really ever lost is water weight, which kind of wasn't true weight to begin with anyway. So, what have you done? ZACH: Exactly. I like how she reframed, rather than saying limit carbs, limiting starchy, processed, or refined foods, something like that. Don't quote me. I'm gonna get it wrong. Anyways, the words were starchy and processed, which makes sense. It's all the stuff we know that is not amazing for us. ZACH: Yeah. The processed foods. We've had episodes talking about those in the past, and we all know they're not the best for you. They're very convenient and easy to eat, and they're also very tasty. So it's hard. But you know what's also tasty? The Mediterranean diet, Katie. How excited were you that this came up yet again?
ZACH:I was just waiting for it. I think I'd say over half of our experts have brought up the Mediterranean diet, and for good reason.
KATIE:Yeah, absolutely. I think, for any of our new listeners, if you're curious about the Mediterranean diet, we have a whole episode on it. As Zach mentioned, it comes up routinely in all of our episodes, but we have a whole episode dedicated. But it brings up the good point of, you know, it's not as simple as saying,"Carbs are the enemy" because there are carbs throughout the Mediterranean diet. It's just knowing which are those carbs that don't cause you to retain an unhealthy amount of water and do other bad things to your body. So, yeah, I'm glad that came into this too. It helps explain some of the kind of, like, biochemistry behind some of this.
ZACH:Yeah. And I would remind people, look, if you're looking to lose water weight, not drinking water is not the answer. You wanna stay hydrated, you know.
KATIE:Exactly.
ZACH:Your recommended eight glasses a day sort of thing, that's a nice, just a baseline for water. I drink water constantly. And so, part of me is like, what if I just stopped drinking all this water? Would I lose this water weight? So now I know, no, that's not the answer. So that was... Look, I learned a lot from this episode. I hope our listeners did too. KATIE: Yeah, absolutely. All right. That's gonna do it for us this time on On Health with Houston Methodist. Be sure to share, like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We drop episodes Tuesday mornings. So, until next time, stay tuned and stay healthy.♪ ♪