Personal trainer reveals how her bloating is caused by eating 'trigger foods'

The personal trainer avoids eggs, dairy, and sugar

A personal trainer has shared a photo of the bloating she experiences after eating, and her biggest trigger foods, to ask her followers for help and advice.

Elena Arathimos uploaded the side-by-side transformation to her Instagram, where she has more than 113,000 followers and regularly shows off her workouts and healthy meals.

In the first photo, “taken first thing in the morning, after a workout, good light and no breakfast yet,” Arathimos shows off her abs and flat stomach.

The 34-year-old then shared with her followers what the “real” her looks like, in a short clip of her cradling her “bloat baby.”

“Second photo is me most days after I eat most foods,” the Sydney-based personal trainer wrote. “I’ve been quite lucky and have never really had a problem with food intolerances until about a year ago, so that’s 34 years of goodness I took for granted.

“I actually would LOVE some help/guidance from anyone who’s suffered from this and now has it under control.”

According to Arathimos, most foods cause her bloating, but her biggest “triggers” are eggs, dairy, and sugar - her favourite foods to eat, but which she tries to avoid since she developed an intolerance a year ago.

Despite taking probiotics daily, staying active most days, avoiding the trigger foods, drinking “loads of water” and getting the recommended eight hours of sleep, Arathimos said she still has her “bad days,” when the painful bloat forces her to change outfits after a meal.

Elena Arathimos bloats after every meal (Instagram)

The personal trainer’s followers were quick to recommend remedies for her to try, including the FODMAP diet, which omits fermentable, gas-producing food and is scientifically-backed.

Others suggested seeing an allergist, as it is likely that Arathimos’s body is reacting to foods other than dairy, eggs, and sugar.

“Superfoods superfoods superfoods! I drink lemon water with a teaspoon of activated charcoal every morning 90 minutes prior to eating. You can have it an hour after a meal that causes bloating too. I also try my best to add spirulina and chlorella to my shakes,” one person advised.

According to Johns Hopkins University Medical School, bloating may be due to a condition such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or gastroparesis.

Changing your diet is typically the first step in combating bloating, as “in the long run, the key to preventing bloating is understanding its cause.”