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CynJ
11-03-2005, 08:57
I've noticed as I get older that I am retaining a lot of water around my period. To the point where I take off my socks and there are huge indents.

I'm curious to know if any has a problem with this too - and how it affects you while hiking long distances (ie shoes/clothing fitting, food/water intake, etc)

art to linda
11-03-2005, 11:46
I don't have the period problem anymore but have found that age has add to this swelling/water retention thing too ( gravity sucks as we get older LOL ) .... learned the hard way to only buy foot wear at the end of a long day on my feet. What felt fine at the begining of the day can have you hobbling after 4:00. You still need to keep your water intake high enough to prevent dehydration, and eat enough to fule your body......just plan to have clothing, etc. that is comfortable at all times.
You might check some of the older threads here as some woman have found that they stop having their period or their cycle changes when on extended hikes...... long periods of physical stress on females will do this especially if you are not getting enough to eat to replace what you are burning up.

Red Hat
11-03-2005, 13:29
No periods, but I was surprised to find that my extremities swell when I hike. I almost had to have a wedding ring cut off. Now I remove my rings when I hike. My husband didn't like it, but realizes now that it is not about the wedding ring, but about my swelling fingers. I do wear shoes larger than usual to hike since I know my feet will swell. My Crocs sure do feel good at the end of the day.

Spirit Walker
11-03-2005, 15:21
I bought my wedding rings a little large because of the swelling hand issue. It is only a problem when it's hot, but still I do get the sausage fingers. When I lost weight a couple of years ago I had to get inserts to make them smaller - which I will probably remove for my next long hike.

Walking sticks help keep the hand swelling down though. I find it's much worse if I leave the stick behind.

Happy Feet
02-23-2006, 11:35
Haven't really noticed EXCESS excess water retention. Just normal water retention.

The thing I HAVE noticed though, is my lack of energy just before and during my period. I just don't have the power that I have the rest of the time.

Light Traffic
07-02-2006, 14:53
I believe swelling of hands and feet is normal at end of day - happens to guys too - this by way of a thread on another forum. RE Swelling of hands - the reason walking poles help reduce it is because your hands are not hanging down at your sides with gravity and centrifugal force acting to pool blood and fluids, Another way to reduce hand swelling is to attach "hand straps" to your pack's shoulder straps - have a look here for an illustration - scroll to last pic at bottom of page - http://www.ula-equipment.com/options.htm

berninbush
07-05-2006, 16:56
I could be wrong, but I think I've heard that drinking MORE water actually keeps you from retaining it. I know that's counter-intuitive, but it's something along the lines of your body stores water if it thinks there will be a "shortage"... if you give it enough, it relaxes and lets go.

Light Traffic
07-05-2006, 22:30
I think you are right - same thing applies to losing weight - cutting back on food too much makes the body hang onto its stores of fat - it thinks there's a famine on!

Ridge
07-08-2006, 01:49
First, I confused the title "Water Retention" for "Water Detention", thinking this thread had something to do with something entirely different. But, since I'm here and I read over a few of yall's comments I can say from years of experience hiking with the opposite sex the following. When new or relatively new to hiking most everybody's body swells. Men and Women will experience some swelling, especially in the summer, of the hands and feet. Women more so, when they have to deal with their cycle. But, this stuff will quit or almost quit to the point you won't notice it if you hike enough and on a regular basis enough. When my wife walked every day, and then would do a long hike, no problem. When she brought along a girlfriend on a hike, the friend would have the swelling and you could tell her hands, feet and ankles were swollen. Its got to do with body weight and conditioning of the body, conditioning the heart and circulation system as a whole. You don't have to be a marathon runner, in fact, you need to just walk, but you have to do on a regular enough basis to get the benefits. You got to get the weight off, which I know is very hard to do and work on the rest of the stuff at the same time. Good luck.

Ridge
07-08-2006, 02:10
......- cutting back on food too much makes the body hang onto its stores of fat - it thinks there's a famine on!

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9139&page=18

Look for post #341

Refer to the lengthy article I wrote concerning weight loss (or gain) and caloric intake. You're right about the body's reaction to cutting back too much, if you don't take in a min amt of calories each day you risk screwing up your metabolism. I explain the only way to intentionally lose or gain weight and how calories are the main thing to control. I've had to become somewhat of an expert due to my previous years of long bouts of backpacking and losing too much weight, then gaining too much weight when not doing a lot of backpacking. So, I started the process of learning how to gain a good deal of weight before a long trip, say a 30 day trip, I'd gain about 30 lbs prior. Then I had to deal with taking off any excess and keeping it off when I got back. It's not that hard to do, if you are willing to do the bookkeeping and have a little will power, you can do it without even exercising, you just have to lower the caloric intake more.