When you eat a meal, our stomach sticks out, we feel groggy, sometimes gassy! If you are someone who has this problem, you know it’s uncomfortable, painful and super inconvenient because you need to spend hours in the washroom and if that is the case, you need to go to the doctor to get it fixed! But if you occasionally feel a little rough after eating, there a few things you need to consider.
A lot of us think it is most likely one of the following: Bread, Gluten, Dairy, Wheat, Diet Soda. Sure, if you are intolerant to one of the above, it might be the cause and it is best to avoid it. But this only a fraction and is not the case for a lot of the population.
Some of the basic issues to take into consideration are:
- You’re just eating too much: If we see something tasty in front of us, there’s not real limit. We go by how we feel and eventually after going beyond the limit, we realise that we have overeaten. This happens when we look to end our cravings or allow ourselves to go off our diet and binge eat. Portion control is a habit we need to follow consistently.
- You’re short on fibre: For proper digestion, fibre is a key component in any diet! A good rule of thumb is to shoot for roughly 8-12 grams of fibre for every 1,000 calories you consume. 2,000 calories per day? That’s 16-24 grams of fibre. 1,500? That’s 12-18 grams. And if you have a 4000 calorie diet, 32-40g of fibre is good. Too much of something good can also become bad. Read on!
- You’re eating too much fibre: Your body doesn’t digest fibre (which is why it’s ideal for pushing food through your system) but at the same time, a lot of undigested matter in your body makes you feel like shit, as it will slow down the digestion and keep food in your system for longer!
- You don’t consume enough water: Fibre soaks a lot of water. So if you don’t up your water intake along with fibre, you will end up feeling bloated! Theres tons of recommendations when it comes to water intake, but as a rule of thumb, dont just drink when you feel thirsty, if thats the case, youre probably drinking less than required. Instead, use the colour of your urine as an indicator and drink from a similar sized bottle to track your intake.
- You’re eating the wrong foods: For whatever reason, some foods just don’t agree with certain people. Don’t buy into the sensationalism that a food is bad for everybody, but if you do feel like you feel pretty crappy and bloated every time you eat something in particular, then have a think about taking it out of your diet for a while and seeing how you feel.
There are other factors too when it comes to bloating which might make the matter more serious but these are the most common reasons/scenarios that people come across. Hope this is something that you can relate to help you with your issues when it comes to bloating!
If you are looking for a customised coaching plan, we’re here to help you and if you are looking for general guidance around nutrition, we have: The Kaizen Fitness Nutrition Manual, Nutrition 101 (Ebook), Recipe Books and a lot more to choose from.