A bloated tummy is not just about feeling fat. It can cause pain, gas (flatulence or burping) and audible stomach gurgling. One in three people experience mild to severe bloating (meteorism). For some, it happens occasionally and passes quickly. But for others, bloating may be an ongoing battle. Bloating can strike at the worst times - like before a big meeting or a first date.
Understanding Bloating
Bloating is a common condition characterized by a sensation of fullness or swelling in the abdomen. While many people associate it with overeating or excess gas, the underlying causes can be more complex. Medically, bloating usually means a visible increase in the size of your belly (abdominal distension) over a short period of time, causing discomfort.
Common Causes of Bloating
Bloating occurs when your gastrointestinal (GI) tract fills with air or gas. The most common reasons it happens include:
- Fluid retention: Caused by hormonal changes and menstruation. A high salt intake can lead to water retention in the gut, producing feelings of bloating.
- Food sensitivities or intolerance: As your digestive system struggles to process food. Lactose intolerance, for example, can cause gas, bloating, and stomach pains.
- Digestive disorders: Including gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD), Crohn’s disease or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Bloating is a common symptom of IBS, along with abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, and constipation.
- Lifestyle habits: Such as chewing gum, using straws or eating quickly. Eating behaviors and other habits such as gum chewing, gulping foods and drinking with eating can cause us to swallow air.
Possible causes of recurrent bloating may include:
- Eating foods that contain compounds that ferment in your colon, such as fiber, sugar alcohols, and FODMAPs.
- A food intolerance, such as a lactose or fructose intolerance.
- Swallowing excess air, for example, when chewing gum or eating with your mouth open.
- Fluid retention in the abdomen, for instance, due to heart disease or liver failure.
- Constipation.
- Imbalances in your gut microbiome, the ecosystem of bacteria living in your gut.
- Ileus, when the bowel stops moving food forward due to surgery, medication use, or other causes.
- Health conditions, such as IBD, IBS, or endometriosis.
- A bowel obstruction, which may also involve vomiting and constipation.
- Psychological stress.
- Imbalance of bacteria (dysbiosis). Your intestines house bacteria that break down undigested carbohydrates through fermentation. However, when there’s an imbalance, certain bacteria can overgrow in the small intestine and produce excessive amounts of gas, including carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen.
- Antibiotics.
- Chronic stress. Stress can cause heightened inflammation that triggers pathogenic (bad) bacteria growth. Over time, this can impact your gut microbiome.
- Smoking and alcohol consumption.
- Prior abdominal surgeries. Removal of parts of your intestine can result in a change in your gut bacteria.
- Increased digestive bulk. Fiber adds bulk to your poop, which is beneficial for regular bowel movements and overall gut heath.
- Swallowed air. Everyone swallows air while eating and drinking.
The Role of Intestinal Gas
Intestinal gas is made up of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane. The composition varies depending on the type of intestinal gas. The colon is filled with bacteria, yeasts and fungi, which break down the foods not digested by the small intestine, mostly different forms of carbohydrates. These bacteria particularly enjoy undigested carbohydrates, and the fermentation leads to gas production, hydrogen and methane expelled as flatus.
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People vary widely in how sensitive they are to gas production. Bloating is a sensation that makes the abdomen feel larger than normal. The abdomen doesn't get physically bigger until its volume increases by one quart, so the bloated feeling may occur, but the abdomen is not distended.
Lifestyle and Dietary Changes to Prevent Bloating
Knowing what causes you to bloat is the first step in stopping it. But even if you haven’t identified a culprit, there are proactive steps you can take to keep bloating from happening. Here are some simple lifestyle and dietary changes that can help you reduce the risk of bloating:
1. Get Moving
Exercise can go a long way to prevent bloating. For starters, it reduces stress - which can cause gastrointestinal distress. Exercise also stops bloating in its tracks. Moving after a meal helps release trapped gas before severe bloating and pain occur. Research shows that walking or engaging in minimal physical activity after eating - for 10 minutes or 1,000 steps - reduces gas and bloating better than medication. Staying active is good for your brain, heart, and even your gut. According to a 2023 review published in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, exercise - whether it's walking, running, biking, swimming, or doing yoga - appears to help relieve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, which include bloating.
Light physical activity, such as walking or cycling, may help reduce bloating after meals, according to some research from 2021 that focused on people with IBS. Chair stretches and tai chi movements may also help. Additionally, regular exercise can help manage stress, a risk factor for bloating and other abdominal symptoms.
2. Eat Mindfully
Changing your mealtime behavior may change how that meal affects your abdomen. Eat slowly and don’t talk while you eat to reduce the amount of air you swallow with your food. If you think your bloating may be tied to overeating, try eating smaller meals more frequently. Your GI tract may do better when it only needs to process a smaller amount of food at a time. If you gobble down your meals, you may find that you're bloated afterwards. When you eat fast, you swallow air. You may also overeat. One way to help prevent this is to practice mindful eating. That means you focus on your food rather than your phone, TV, or another distraction.
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Eating slowly is key for allowing your body to properly digest and allow for hunger cues, which in return will enable the migrating motor complex. Metz explains doing this will “support cleansing waves in the GI tract," which occurs during these periods between meals.
3. Stop Swallowing Excess Air
It’s natural to swallow air as you eat and drink. But if you swallow too much air, it ends up trapped in your digestive tract. You can cut down on the amount of air you swallow by eliminating three lifestyle habits:
- Chewing gum, which often comes sweetened with hard-to-digest sugars. Your favorite breath-freshening pastime may be the number one cause for feeling bloated. When you chew gum, you swallow air that gets trapped in your digestive system.
- Drinking carbonated beverages, which contain gas. Carbonated beverages, including sparkling water, contain carbon dioxide. This is what creates the “fizz.” When you consume these beverages, you are essentially swallowing this gas.
- Using straws, which capture air and send it into your digestive tract. When you go to sip a drink from a straw, you suck in a straw-length volume of air.
4. Avoid Gassy Foods
Some foods are naturally more challenging for the body to digest, which can cause gas, constipation and bloating. Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, commonly cause bloating. Vegetables like cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli, for example, all contain the carbohydrate raffinose.
Many gassy foods (including whole grain products and some vegetables) contain hard-to-digest natural sugars, such as:
- Fructose, used in many processed foods and found in vegetables such as onions and asparagus.
- Raffinose, found in many whole grain products and beans.
- Sorbitol, used in sugar-free foods and found in certain fruits (apples, peaches, pears and prunes).
Check nutrition labels on packaged and processed products to avoid foods that contain these sugars.
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Some foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, can cause bloating but also provide essential nutrients. If you’re introducing them into the diet, do so gradually to reduce the risk of symptoms.
5. Closely Manage Your Fiber Intake
Experts recommend adults eat 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories of food because fiber is critical to gut motility: Getting enough keeps food moving through the digestive system - which can reduce gas and bloating. But your body cannot fully break down fiber, and the process can produce gas. Eat too much fiber or increase your intake too quickly, and you’ll feel bloated. While a high-fiber diet is a good thing for your digestive tract, overwhelming your system with too much fiber - particularly insoluble fiber, which is found in grains and vegetables and doesn’t dissolve in water - can produce excessive gas.
To get the fiber you need without experiencing gas or bloating, take these steps:
- Eat fiber with carbohydrates, because according to research, you are 40% more likely to have bloating if you eat a high-fiber and high-protein diet compared to a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diet.
- Eat less soluble fiber - such as beans, nuts, seeds and fruits - because those foods generally produce more gas than insoluble fiber (such as wheat bran or vegetables).
- Increase fiber intake slowly to give your digestive system time to adjust.
- Stay hydrated because fluids and fiber partner to keep the digestive system moving.
If you're eating more fiber-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in an effort to keep your digestive tract moving and grooving, you'll want to take baby steps, says Lindel, who recommends a gradual increase of fiber in the diet while also increasing fluid intake. Too much fiber and too little water can lead to constipation, gas, and bloating. By increasing fluid intake, this helps dietary fiber move through the GI tract and prevents unwanted bloating and constipation.
6. Stop Smoking
Studies show that smoking is associated with gastrointestinal distress, specifically bloating, constipation and abdominal pain. It also increases your risk of several diseases associated with abdominal bloating, including GERD, Crohn’s disease, pancreatitis and gastrointestinal cancers. But know that you may experience some uncomfortable abdominal effects when you first stop smoking. Research suggests that nicotine withdrawal can cause changes to the digestive system and how quickly it processes food, leaving you with constipation and bloating. Work with your primary care physician (PCP) to manage those symptoms until your body adjusts.
7. Consider a Low-FODMAP Diet
Research has suggested that limiting certain carbs - fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAPs) - may reduce bloating and other IBS symptoms. Foods high in FODMAPs include:
- Grains: wheat and rye
- Dairy: milk, yogurt, and cheese
- Fruit: apples, pears, mangoes, peaches, as well as natural fruit juices and dried fruits
- Vegetables: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, asparagus, onions, leeks, zucchini and green beans
- Pulses: lentils and legumes
- Other: sugar-free gum and honey
In a low FODMAP diet, certain foods are eliminated for several weeks, then gradually reintroduced, monitoring their effect. It is highly advised that you start a low FODMAP diet under medical supervision.
8. Avoid Eating Late at Night
Eating too late at night can lead to unwanted symptoms of gas and bloating. In addition to eating earlier in the evenings, overeating can also lead to bloating. Focus on smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day to prevent coming into your dinner meal 'hangry'.
Quick Relief Strategies
When bloating strikes, here are some quick strategies to help alleviate the discomfort:
- Try over-the-counter medications: The most popular one is simethicone, found in products like Gas-X or Maalox Anti-Gas. Simethicone helps to break up gas bubbles. Other products, like CharcoCaps, contain activated charcoal.
- Consider alpha-d-galactosidase.
- Eat Potassium-Rich Foods: If you’re feeling bloated from excess sodium, “the best tip for quick-ish relief is to drink more water and eat mild foods with potassium, like banana, avocado, and sweet potato,” says Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD.
- Eat Asparagus: This powerhouse veggie is a natural diuretic, helping water move through the body.
- Add in Other Diuretics: Registered dietitian Lara Metz particularly recommends upping your intake veggies such as cucumbers, fennel, celery, and lemon as well as fruits like berries and watermelon.
- Go for a Walk: If gas is the cause of your belly bloat, going for a walk may help. Moving stimulates the digestive system to contract, which may help pass trapped gas.
- Try Dandelion Root, Peppermint, or Ginger tea: Carolyn Brown, MS, RD, of the New York City-based nutrition practice Foodtrainers, recommends turning to these natural and gentle diuretics. Ending meals with tea is also a favorite of Lara Metz, who recommends peppermint or ginger tea to allow for a proper digestion.
- Take an Epsom Salt Bath: Magnesium in the form of Epsom salts is a natural saline laxative, so it can help you ditch extra water weight.
- Get Out Your Foam Roller: Foam rolling helps in multiple ways: “It enhances the body’s circulation, calms and regulates the nervous system, improves the body’s digestive and detoxification systems, and decreases inflammation,” explains Lauren Roxburgh, wellness educator, fascia expert, and author of the The Power Source.
- Consider Taking a Magnesium Pill: Magnesium can also help with bloat that comes from constipation.
- Or a Digestive Enzyme: Registered dietitian Kelly Schmidt recommends taking digestive enzymes as needed before particularly large meals or when you’re stressed, as both can contribute to poor digestion.
- Drink Plenty of Water: Drinking plenty of water can help you debloat overnight-or even faster, says Burgess. Water can actually help flush our system and reduce the puffiness.
- To Debloat Your Face, Try a Massage: Celebrity facialist Nichola Joss recommends using a face oil to give yourself a facial massage, helping with lymphatic drainage and making your face appear more sculpted.
- Sip on Some Coconut Water: Coconut water may help counteract water retention and bloating, says Nicole Lindel, RD, Everlywell adviser, who notes that this potassium-rich bev helps the body release water.
- Try Acupuncture: One study found acupuncture to be beneficial in those with dyspepsia (aka indigestion).
- Try a Gentle Stretch or Yoga Routine: Research has shown physical activity, including yoga, can reduce symptoms of bloating.
- Stretch out: Including regular exercise in your lifestyle is a great long-term solution to bloating, but for more immediate relief, try stretching your abdominal muscles. Lay on your back and pull one knee at a time toward your chest.
- Eat consciously: Not only does fibrous produce help aid digestion, but foods like potassium-rich bananas and hydrating watermelon help flush out belly-bloating sodium. Papaya contains high levels of essential digestive enzymes that break down protein to aid digestion, which helps you feel less full.
- Hydrate: Dehydration can lead to constipation, which contributes to bloating. When you aren’t getting enough fluids, your body retains water to compensate.
- Apply a warm compress to your belly.
Bloating and Weight Loss
Bloating often involves a physiological reaction in the digestive system. Typically, when you eat, your diaphragm rises and the front wall of your stomach contracts to create more space without pushing out your belly. When bloating happens, the diaphragm - a muscle just below the ribs - presses down on the stomach, causing it to protrude.
Rapid weight gain can occur for various reasons and may increase the chance of chronic bloating. Some research suggests that 25% of people who have recently gained weight experience increased bloating.
Bloating usually subsides as your body digests food, while additional body fat gain persists over time. When the bloating goes down, you will not notice that your weight may lower. If you lose body fat, your weight may fall. However, bloating often occurs with recent weight gain, and it’s common in people with obesity, so they may happen together.
When to Be Concerned
Most bloating is temporary, and if you can pinpoint the cause, it’s likely nothing to be concerned about. In most situations, occasional gas and abdominal discomfort does not require medical attention. Over- the-counter products, or a self-assessment of habits and changes in eating behaviors can help remedy the situation.
However, if you have frequent, severe, or persistent bloating, or if symptoms worsen and cause pain, it’s important to seek medical advice. If you have persistent or painful bloating, bloody poop, changes in your bowel habits or weight loss, it is important that you talk with your care team. They may want to order tests to determine the cause, including an X-ray or CT scan of your abdomen, a colonoscopy, an upper endoscopy or blood and stool tests. If you notice swelling in other parts of your body - for example, your legs and arms - or increased shortness of breath or chest pains, this may suggest you are retaining fluid, which may require further cardiac or pulmonary testing.