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One of my professional mentors, Dr. John Brimhall, has a saying that goes, “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”  What Dr. Brimhall is referring to is the body’s natural tendency to retain water whenever the body develops toxicity, either due to an excessive toxic load or due to impaired detoxification/elimination.

The body is pretty smart and has some very strong pro-survival mechanisms.  The dilution of toxins via water retention is one of these mechanisms.  Many times people are puzzled as to why they can’t lose weight despite eating less and exercising.  A few may be even more puzzled because they are actually gaining weight with their diet and exercise programs.  Of course, exercise in the early stages of a weight loss program may cause increased muscle development that produces weight gain faster than the loss of weight from burning fat, but that’s not always what’s happening. 

In many cases, difficulty losing weight is a simple matter of the body holding on to water as a means of diluting toxins being stored in the body’s tissues.  It is not unusual for the body to retain gallons of water - which can weigh 10 to 20 pounds or more.  In some cases, the tendency to retain water may increase the more fat is being burned, because many toxins are stored in the fat tissues.  As the fat is burned, the toxins are released into the blood stream, and the liver and kidneys may not be able to keep up with the processes required to properly detoxify and eliminate them from the body, so the short-term compensation the body takes is retaining water.

The good news is that as you continue your weight loss program, the body will usually catch up with the detoxification processes that are needed and will then stop retaining the water.  The main exceptions to this are in cases of liver problems, excessive alcohol consumption, and the use of medications/illicit drugs that the body cannot metabolize quickly. 

Stay tuned for more natural weight control information and tips. 

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