Feeling Puffy? Lose 5 ibs. Of Pooch Easily.(preventing pre-menstrual bloating)

If you have a Buddha belly that makes you feel like you're busting the seams of your jeans, don't freak. It's history with our superfast bloat-blasting fixes.

* Few things in life are more irritating than waking up with a midsection that resembles Meat Loaf's more closely than Madonna's. Just thinking of the obstacles that await--finding pants that'll zip, concealing your puffy paunch from the paramour du jour--is enough to make you want to put a pin to your beach-ball-like body. Well, don't! For starters, it would hurt...a lot. And second, it won't work.

The first step in the battle against the bloat is understanding what causes it. Simply put, it's the storage of excess water (about two to five pounds!) in your tissues, particularly those in your stomach, breasts, and bands. One of the most common culprits is PMS--in fact, a whopping 90 percent of women suffer from preperiod water-weight gain, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The reason: After ovulation, your body produces more of the hormone progesterone, which can slow down the time it takes for food to be expelled. So food sits longer in your body, allowing your intestines--and eventually the rest of your body--to absorb more water from that food, according to Kimberley Mulvihill, a San Francisco obstetrician and gynecologist.

Another culprit of fluid retention: foods that are high in salt. Eating excess sodium tricks your kidneys--which regulate your body's salt-to-water ratio--into thinking you need more water, so your system holds on to it, says Jana Klauer, M.D., a weight-reduction and nutrition specialist in New York City. Luckily, you can launch a counterattack against these saboteurs of svelteness. (Sneak peek: One method entails adding certain foods to your diet.) Check out our simple strategies:

BLOAT BUSTER 1

flush it out

It may sound counterintuitive, but the more water you drink, the less you'll retain. Down at least eight 8-ounce glasses of [H.sub.2]0 per day--10 if you feel bloat creeping up. "Water helps speed up the time it takes for food to be digested and flushed out of your body," says Dr. Mulvihill. It also expels excess salt from your system.