Water Retention




Even the skinniest of skinny people (who are not starved) have muscles.
But even skinny people may not be ripped. Ripped, as in 'with awesome abs and great muscle definition'.
That is because muscle definition is not just about how much fat there is just below your skin, but at least as much about how much water is retained by the 'true skin' (the skin layer just below the outer skin).

Water retention is not just strongly influenced by various hormones (including the sex hormones), but also by food ingredients. Your first thought might be salt, but salt levels in your body are tightly regulated. In most people, salt intake has little influence on the extend of water retention. Secondly, you might think sugar, which is also hydrophylic ('holding/attracting water'), but again, in most people glucose levels are tightly controlled.
In healthy people, water retention is foremostly influenced by protein intake. That is because dietary protein is broken down in peptides and free amino acids, and the levels of these molecules can fluctuate to a far greater extend than those of glucose and salts.

But it is not just about any protein.
Food exposed to more than 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) will cause aggregation of particularly protein with sugar- or fat-like molecules (eg Maillard reaction products, such as AGEs and ALEs). This is also true for somewhat lower temperatures, but to a far lesser extend. These aggregates are decomposed at a much slower rate, and will therefore cause far more water retention.
As a result, any high-protein food exposed to high temperatures may make you retain more water. To prevent water retention, it is best to consume raw high-protein foods that can perfectly be eaten raw, such as raw salmon, tuna or mackerel, or carpaccio. And if you do not like to eat raw, at least only slow-cook these foods. You may use an oven or slowcooker, to prepare red meat, poultry or fish at temperatures of 70 to 80 degrees Celsius (158 to 176 degrees Fahrenheit). In general, veggies contain little protein (except beans etc), and can therefore be cooked normally with little effects on water retention.

But how come that bodybuilders who eat lots of cooked chicken are so very much ripped?
Every bodybuilder has a diet plan, but all these plans have one thing in common; there is a metabolic phase (bulking up on muscle mass) and a catabolic phase (becoming ripped, and losing some muscle mass in the process). And in that second phase they use diurethics (and/or subsequent sodium loading and depletion), to eliminate water retention. So that once they are on stage, they are 'ripped to the bone'. Do not check up on their muscle definition in the 'bulking up phase'...