Ep. #205: How to Get Rid of Stomach Bloating in 5 Simple Steps

[00:00:00] Hey, this is Mike and welcome to another installment in my in five minutes or less series, where I answer one common question quickly and simply, because while long form content is great, sometimes it is also nice when someone just gets right to the point and tells you what to do and how to do it in five minutes or less.

And that’s what I do in these episodes. In this video slash podcast, let’s talk about bloating because it’s pretty annoying. It’s pretty annoying when you feel like you’re eating you’re exercising right, you are drinking plenty of water, you’re taking your vitamins, blah, blah, blah. But your damn stomach is just bloated all the time.

And of course you wonder why do you look three months pregnant if you don’t suck your damn stomach in? Why does eating food make it look like now you’re carrying twins? Why does your [00:01:00] skin Feel thick and like a waterlogged sponge and in this video slash podcast we are going to talk about at least the most common reasons for why this happens and the easiest ways to address them to solve the problem So the first thing that many people think is bloating but is not is actually just that they are carrying too much body fat.

So what a lot of people think is bloat and often think is even loose skin is actually just fat. Now, fortunately, it’s pretty easy to tell bloating from body fat because bloating come and goes, but body fat remains stable. So for example, if you wake up with a flat stomach and then you have a three pound food baby by the time you come home, you’re probably looking at bloating.

However, belly fat doesn’t fluctuate like this. It doesn’t dramatically rise or fall depending on how you eat or how much water you drink or whatever. An easy way to check this is to simply [00:02:00] measure your waist at the navel in the morning and then measure it at night. And if there’s a large discrepancy there, you are probably dealing with at least some level of bloating.

But if it’s not changing that much, it’s more likely just belly fat. Another hallmark of bloating is that you can’t grab it by the handful like you can with body fat. When you’re bloated, your skin feels thin. Thicker and you look softer, but it doesn’t have the same wiggle and jiggle that fat does. So another common reason why many people are bloated is that they are lactose intolerant.

So research shows that about 70 percent of the world’s population can’t properly digest lactose, which is the sugar that is contained in dairy. And the reason for this is that their bodies fail to produce an enzyme called lactase, which is required to digest lactose. So what happens then if you don’t have this enzyme, if your body doesn’t produce enough of this enzyme is Undigested lactose will make it through your small intestine.

[00:03:00] It’ll land in your large intestine and then bacteria will start eating it up and The byproduct of that is gas. So then you can have the the swollen expansion of the large intestine, which then gives you the swollen expansion of your stomach. And diarrhea is also common as well. Another common, but undiagnosed cause of bloating is irritable bowel syndrome or IBS like symptoms.

which include abdominal pain, cramping, constipation, bloating, and things like that. And while the exact causes of IBS are unclear, you can definitely avoid triggers. For example, research shows that some people simply don’t digest certain carbohydrates well. These carbs are known as FODMAPs, which is spelled F O D M A P, FODMAP, and that’s an acronym for fermentable oligodye monosaccharides and polyols.

And in some people, these types of carbs can cause IBS like [00:04:00] symptoms, which again includes FODMAPs. Now, examples of foods that contain FODMAPs are grains like wheat, barley, and rye, as well as beans, dairy, and quite a few different fruits and vegetables as well. And the issue here is that some people’s bodies simply can’t digest these foods properly, similar to lactose.

So what happens is partially digested food particles find their way into the large intestine and then the bacteria go to work and they ferment and it causes gas and bloating. Another common reason why many people are bloated a lot of the time is their sodium and potassium intakes are very volatile.

They go up and down in large amounts because research shows that if you acutely increase your sodium intake, that you are going to hold on to more water and that a lot of that is going to be subcutaneous water, which is of course what and feel most when you’re bloated. If you also dramatically reduce your potassium intake, that can have similar effects in the body.

And also just [00:05:00] generally having too little potassium, which is the case for a lot of people, increases the, generally increases the amount of water that you’re going to be holding. And one of the reasons why sodium intake in particular is all over the place is it’s very easy to eat a lot of sodium. So one teaspoon of salt contains about 2.

3 grams of sodium. And according to the Institute of Medicine, that’s basically the upper daily limit of recommended sodium for most adults. In just one teaspoon of salt. And that helps explain why, if you go out and have a nice cheat meal or free meal, normal meal, whatever you want to call it.

Let’s say you go to a restaurant and you eat a couple thousand calories. It’s not even crazy. A couple thousand calories of foods you like. One of the things you have to consider is that restaurants are in the business of making really tasty food. And salt is a huge part of that as a general rule of just cooking.

For example, you want to use as much salt as possible. So you want to use it. [00:06:00] As much salt as you can, up to the point where then it becomes too salty. You want to be right below that. That’s how you maximize the taste of food, of most food at least. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it?

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You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Another reason why many people are bloated a lot more than they would like to be, and a lot more frequently than they would like to be, is because [00:07:00] their cortisol levels are generally too high.

So cortisol is a catabolic hormone. So that means that it breaks substances down in the body and it is produced in response to stress, physical, psychological stress. It’s not bad per se. In fact acute cortisol spikes are good. So in the case of exercise, for example, you want an acute spike of cortisol because it helps make energy freely available and immediately available to your body.

And it also has some interactions in terms of muscle growth. But if you have your cortisol levels chronically high, that is bad. And that can lead to various types of health problems. And bloating is one of them. Not that’s so much of a health problem, like I said, it’s more of a vanity problem, but it increases bloating because research shows.

That the higher your cortisol levels are, the more water that your body holds. Now this is one of the reasons why many people and women in particular notice, they tend to be more bloated [00:08:00] when they’re dieting, in a calorie deficit, and especially toward the end of a cut. So if they’ve been in a deficit for quite some time, they notice that they tend to get more bloated then than when they are not dieting, than when they are in, let’s say, eating around maintenance or maybe even a caloric surplus.

The reason for this is studies show that the longer you’re in a calorie deficit, the generally higher your cortisol levels are. So the longer you’ve been cutting for, the more susceptible you are to cortisol induced bloating, we could say. Now, one thing that you can do about this is you can incorporate refeeds into your diet or even diet breaks.

So if you want to learn about refeeds, musclefullife. com and search for refeed. Really what it boils down to is. Increasing your calorie intake by let’s say 20 or 30 percent for a day and eating a lot of carbs. So you have like moderate protein, a lot of carbs primarily because it spikes leptin levels and brings down cortisol levels and you’re keeping your [00:09:00] body, you’re keeping your dietary fat very low.

That’s a refeed and a diet break is more where you’re just Bumping your calorie intake, your daily calorie intake up by let’s say three to 400 calories on average. So you’re not getting necessarily right back to maintenance, but you’re getting, let’s say three quarters probably of the way there and you stay there for a week or so just to give your body a break.

And what you might find if you do this either refeed or diet breaks, I prefer refeeds personally. And when I’m cutting, I usually start with one refeed every other week. And when I’m getting toward the end of my cut, which means I’m leaner and I’ve also been a deficit for longer, I’m doing one refeed per week.

And so what you’ll find is you may not see much of a change on the scale for that week. And then you do a refeed and you have what bodybuilders call the whoosh effect you. Which is where all of a sudden you’re going to pee a lot. Let’s say, you wake up a few times that night and you have to pee and you are now a pound lighter overnight.

And what happened there is you were losing fat. It just was being obscured by the increased [00:10:00] water retention. You eat a bunch of carbs, let’s say in the case of a refeed and your body that favorably impacts your hormone profile, you shed some water and then you actually get to see your real weight, so to speak.

And then the fat loss becomes apparent on the scale. Okay. So those are the most common reasons why people are bloated. Let’s now quickly run through a few things you can do to reduce bloating. So the first one is you can stop drinking carbonated beverages because those drinks do not help. If you’re dealing with gassiness, if you’re dealing with a swollen stomach, then you don’t want to be drinking gas infused liquids.

So cut out carbonated beverages if you are drinking them. Another thing you can do is make sure you’re not constipated because constipation is known to exacerbate the symptoms of stomach bloating. And to do that, a lot of people think, Oh, you just have to eat more fiber. And that’s not necessarily true.

Yes. You need to make sure that you’re getting enough fiber in your diet. And if you want to know what is enough, head over to musclefullife. com and search for fiber. But research shows that if [00:11:00] you Increase your fiber intake, especially if you dramatically increase it over the, let’s say healthy amount that your body needs, you can actually make bloating worse.

And in that, and if your fiber intake is way too high currently, reducing it can actually help alleviate constipation. So yes, you need to make sure that you’re getting enough fiber, but once you’re getting enough fiber, two better strategies for reducing or minimizing constipation is just exercising and making sure that you’re getting enough magnesium.

Many people are not and find that they need to supplement with it. So another thing you can do to eliminate or minimize bloating is to make sure that your sodium potassium intakes are relatively balanced and in the right ranges. So in terms of actual numbers, I like to go with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation here, which is about one and a half.

to 2. 3 grams of sodium per day and about 4. 7 grams of potassium per day. Now, of course, I don’t get, I’m not that OCD and anal about it. My sodium intake is generally [00:12:00] about three to three and a half grams per day. And my potassium intake, let’s say is I’d say generally between five and six grams per day.

So I’m pretty good. You don’t have to, of course, hit, try to hit numbers exactly, but you want to be in that range. And one thing that is worth noting is that if you sweat regularly, which I do because I exercise. Pretty much every day I take usually one day off, no exercise, but these days I’m lifting weights five days per week and I’m doing yoga one day per week.

And I’m also working in one or two cardio sessions a week. So I’m sweating a fair amount and that increases your need for minerals, including sodium potassium. So that’s one of the reasons why my intake of both sodium and potassium is a bit higher than the IOM. Now, if you take a look at your sodium intake and it’s sky high, it’s probably because You are eating canned or prepackaged foods.

So if you got rid of those, that’s a good way to reduce your sodium intake. Ditching deli meat is smart as well because that type of meat is often very high in sodium. Not eating highly processed meats like bologna and hot [00:13:00] dogs, which are just trash. Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend them for other reasons.

Also limiting your use of table salt. And spices and also then checking the labels of any sauces or salad dressings that are used because they can often be very high in sodium. Now, as far as cortisol levels go, a lot of that ties into the bigger picture, ties into lifestyle, ties into exercise schedule, ties into sleep hygiene and so forth.

But a few things that you can do is to create a daily relaxation routine that you end your day and your night with. If you want some ideas for that, head over to musclefullife. com and search for relax. And I don’t remember the name of the article, but you’ll see an article I wrote on that. I’d also recommend to get off the crappy low carb diet because research shows that low carb dieting, especially in conjunction with regular intense exercise and regular intense weight lifting in particular results in generally higher cortisol levels than high carb diets.

Generally keep cortisol levels lower [00:14:00] for several reasons, but one of them being because on a high carb diet, your insulin levels are generally higher and insulin suppresses cortisol. So they have an inverse relationship. You can also work in refeed days. If you’re cutting now, if you’re not cutting, if you’re maintaining your bulking, you don’t need to bother.

That’s just for when you’re in a deficit. You should also be deloading. As frequently as you need. And if you’re not sure what that is, head over to musclefullife. com, search for deload. And lastly, I mentioned sleep hygiene, but make sure you’re getting that you are getting plenty of sleep because that is going to help keep your cortisol levels in check.

And lastly, if you do all those things and you’re still having issues, then I would look closely at your diet and look at what you’re eating and see if you can eliminate foods that are known to cause indigestion and IBS like symptoms, including bloating. And as we. Spoke about earlier, the two most common culprits are dairy and FODMAPS and cutting out dairy is simple enough.

You can just try that and see if that helps. Now, in terms of cutting out [00:15:00] FODMAPS, there’s a systematic way of going about it that I would recommend to call it an elimination diet. But if you want to learn more about that, head over to muscleforlife. com and search for FODMAP, F O D M A P. And you’ll see a long form article that I wrote on the entire subject that also explains how to do it properly.

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