How to Beat Belly Bloat

Calvin and Brooke Masters: Thanks for tuning in to Master Your Metabolism. If you found value in today's episode, it would mean the world to us if you'd hit subscribe and share this episode with someone who could use a little guidance in their health journey. Ready to take the next step? Head over to www.mastersfitnesscoaching.com and you can book a free call right from the site. You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. Brooke Masters: Hey there, everybody. Welcome to Master Metabolism. My name is Brooke. ⁓ wanted to do an episode today about bloating. And find that a lot of people are having bloat and trying lots of they see, things that worked for their friends. And the problem ⁓ is when you only treating symptoms and not really figuring out the root of the issue, that is number one. Calvin and Brooke Masters: so we can chat about your goals and how we can help support you. forget to join our Facebook group where we're sharing coaching tips, support, and tricks to help keep you on track and continue making progress. You don't have to do this alone. We're here to walk with you ⁓ step of the way. Until next time, stay consistent, stay kind to yourself, and keep mastering your metabolism. Brooke Masters: So there are lots of things that could be a potential issue, like bacterial overgrowth, H. pylori, you know, could be due to hormones changing. So lots of things can kind of change the dynamics. I always explain to people when they get started that you really want to start with the foundations and the basics first. It happens with everything, whether it be your nutrition, your workouts, like. Calvin and Brooke Masters: hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, let's try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: You're not going to go and do these complex movements in the gym if you haven't mastered how to squat properly, right? If you haven't mastered the foundations, if you don't know how to track your food, I'm not going to throw you in like a carb cycle and doing things. So there are some foundations first that explain to people, especially with digestion. First try some basic habits. Make sure the foundations are in place. ⁓ And Calvin and Brooke Masters: Let's do this together. Brooke Masters: After that period of time, you have tried these things and there is still dysfunction, still symptoms. may want to look deeper using lab work, using a GI map. And GI map is basically a test where it's a stool sample. They are going to look and being able to provide you information if you have H. pylori, parasites, yeast, bacterial, bad bacteria, good bacteria, ⁓ you all of the information so you can look at that and determine, okay. What would be the next chain of action? Because if you do have, in fact, bacterial overgrowth, parasites, etc., they do need to be treated differently. And you probably won't see as much of a difference with the foundations. But always try these things first before you go down multiple rabbit holes, spending a whole bunch of money and piecemealing these supplements because. You could be taking things and one thing can cause another issue. The same with medications. When you go to a doctor and they're just treating symptoms, definitely want to find the root cause. But the first thing is, I always rule out that people are actually doing the basics. So start with my number one tip: looking at the foods that you're eating. Whole foods are going to be easier for your body to digest. Your body recognizes them, your body knows how to break them down. Having a bunch of processed foods, protein bars, protein shakes, again, they're not bad. But if the majority of your food is coming from Whole Foods, you should see an significant improvement with your digestion. A lot of processed foods, even like the protein snacks, the protein chips, that you know, all of these things people are getting to increase their protein, come alongside with other ingredients that your body may not do well with, even carbonated drinks. So at am eating 80% of whole foods? ⁓ And there are certain foods that I think could be causing some inflammation or causing some trouble with my digestion, pulling those out for a week, seeing how you do, and then re-entering them is one way to be able to rule out and see if that in fact something that is flaring things up. The next thing I would say to look at is your fiber intake as well as your water. Because lots of people are like, great, I'm getting a whole bunch of fiber. They're eating about 25, 30 grams of fiber per day. But if you're not drinking enough water to move that through your system, it's almost like you're gonna create sludge and you don't have enough water to push it through, it can cause constipation. making there is a balance between the amount of fiber you should be taking in, ⁓ using veggies, beans, things like that. as well as adequate hydration, which does include using some electrolytes to be able to make sure the cells actually can utilize the hydration. And when I have people that ask how much water should I be drinking, it's like half your body weight in ounces. However, if you are more active, you will require more. The gauge for people ⁓ that use with my clients is if your pea is clear or like a very pale yellow, by midday you're in a good spot. If it is dark yellow, any other color, or ⁓ like you not, it is not clear, like you may want to start increasing water a little bit. and again, just adjusting your electrolytes to make sure your cells can actually utilize that hydration. another thing with bloating could be again motility and movement. So Doing things like walking after your meals is really great for motility as well as blood sugar balance. And, you know, again, you're eating something, utilizing that energy. So it helps to keep your insulin sensitivity in a good place, but it does help with motility. You know, making sure I tell people on average, like if you're sitting at a desk all day, you're probably getting in like a thousand steps. ⁓ being aware and start moving your body more will help with motility. also the timing of your foods. So people eating an a meal that is not balanced. They don't have protein, carbs, and healthy fats. So what happens is they just have like an apple, and then they're going to be starving a little while later. So then they have some popcorn. And then a little while later, they're still hungry. So they're doing this like snacking throughout the day. And Think of your body as a system. So, with your digestion, when you put food in, digestion starts, come to help break down food, it moves it through the system. ⁓ eventually it can be excreted and gone. What happens is if you keep feeding the system and you don't give it time to clean house, not only does it set up the potential to have overgrowth and bacterial overgrowth because food is sitting in the tract, ⁓ it never fully cleared. This food sitting there also happens with constipation. And if you are not able to move things through the system, it sits, ferments, and you develop this gas, you see that bloating again could be a few hours after you eat. Something like bacterial overgrowth, I usually see with people that I will ask them if they are bloating with water. And that's usually a telltale sign that there is some type of overgrowth. Although it could happen from low stomach acid. So making sure that you are, again, understanding how the system works, giving your body time in between. you have meals that have protein, carbs with some type of fiber, and a healthy fat, it is more balanced. The fats take longer to digest, the protein takes a little bit longer to digest. So it will keep you fuller for long periods of time. So it gives your body time to clean house. And then you have your next balanced meal. So really great as far as maintaining a good system, maintaining digestion and having a good system that is working properly. you know, people that are taking ⁓ greens for instance, if you have overgrowth and you put a greens powder on top of that, you could develop more overgrowth because it will feed on green. those greens, right? And that's not something we want to increase. So this is why I tell everybody don't just put supplements in because it worked for your friend. Everybody has a different body, a different system, a different history. doing those things and having those balanced meals is key. And stress will your acid, which when you don't have stomach acid to break down food, food will sit and ferment. So Stress could be daily stress with family, work, kids, etc. but it can also be from chronically under-eating and chronically dieting. Your body doesn't know you're trying to lose body fat. Your body thinks, hey, a famine. And ⁓ need survive this famine. it will do all of the things to be able to make sure that your body survives. Hormones will be downregulated because. We don't need to be procreating while we are running from said bear, right? Fight or flight response. digestion will slow down because you're not having a snack while being chased by a bear. And your body, many times, I know I was guilty of this of sitting down and shoveling in food ⁓ I have so much on my to-do list and not taking a few minutes to actually quiet my system, be present, chew my food really well. And when you're being chased by a bear and and shoveling food in, again, your body's gonna have that same response. you want to show your body it is safe. Show your body, I to get into rest and digest. This is something easy that when you are sitting down, stepping away from your computer, stepping away from your phone, ⁓ not while you're doing it, actually being present with your meal. Because when you take a few moments to even take a few deep breaths. In through your nose, another little inhale and slow exhale. Those slow breaths actually your body into rest and digest. And what it is for. It is for so that ⁓ when are sitting down to have a meal, chewing our food into a paste so our body doesn't have to work as hard, taking again slowing enjoying the Again, that is part of the digestive process. When your body senses the food, all of the The simp the systems in your brain start saying there is food, digestive juices start flowing, enzymes start being produced, because now your body is setting up for that process. So a couple of deep breaths, calming your system, being present with your meal, tasting your food, chewing really well, going slow, putting fork down between bites, these are all things that will help ⁓ body to digest food properly. And it can make a big difference, especially chewing the food. You may see a big drop in bloat when you actually are chewing all of the food, and it's not requiring your body to do so much work. So is one tip that I tell people, and they see a significant difference in a short period of time. You as far as supplements, again, I never suggest supplements until I actually see that there is an issue. Are there things that can help with digestion, like magnesium citrate? Yes, but. It is very aggressive and you don't want to require that all the time. And you have to figure out why the system is having the issue. Fix the foundations first if there's still an issue, then you look deeper, figure out if there is some other type of issue we need to address, and supplements can be super helpful. But some things that you can do that are more natural, lemon water in the morning helps with motility, helps with digestion. So warm room temperature lemon water. I usually add some electrolytes or magnesium, ⁓ not magnesium, sodium my water again to help with hydration. ⁓ And that in the morning again helps your system get woken up, start moving, helps with motility. Ginger tea, peppermint tea are all really great drinks to able, something warm ⁓ to be to help with motility as well. Talked about spacing meals, walking after, chewing your food, rest and digest, motility. Perfect. starting these basic foundations would be a great place to start and a great place to see, okay, I have done this for two to three weeks. Am I seeing improvement? Are there symptoms that I am noticing that I need maybe a little bit have a Some labs drawn, have a GI map done, know, or is it something hormone related? Because ⁓ with perimenopause, estrogen is responsible for a lot of things that go on with digestion as well as other systems in the body and your systems work together. This is the reason why when there is stress, digestion can be compromised. Hormones can be compromised because there is not, it's kind of like if you hurt your ankle, when you walk. You may start seeing changes in your knee. You may start seeing a little like my lower back starts hurting. it's not the back that was the problem, it was the foot, right? But unfortunately, it's not just the foot that works, it's the whole body in general. So understanding that concept as well, that we really can't get rid of stress. But what we can do is be aware of the stress that we have, how our responses with that stress, being able to do things like nervous system regulation. Being aware that we can't be in a fat loss phase for extended periods of time, giving your body the breaks that it needs, giving your body the relief because that's what it needs. Your stress and cortisol isn't bad. It's the chronic cortisol without the relief that will cause issues, right? Because is what wakes you up in the morning. Cortisol is what allows you to run from a bear. Cortisol is what ⁓ there to help you survive, but. We also need that balance with rest, with relief. ⁓ the foundations, being aware of this, even with your cycle. Women that are still getting their cycle, you will notice maybe some constipation before you get your period. You will notice you will hold some water. ⁓ these are things that, again, to an extent could be normal, but always want to look at when it becomes a problem, when it becomes chronic. Do we need to look a bit a little bit deeper and how to our bodies respond how we want them to and the body composition that we want? So I this helped. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. ⁓ I like to provide value. So if there is any other type of topic you guys would like me to share or talk about, please drop it in the comments. ⁓ And course, if you wouldn't mind sharing a review and following us and subscribing to our channel, I would truly appreciate it. And until next time.