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Dumb Water Retention Question

alexreyn13
alexreyn13 Posts: 52 Member
edited April 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
People say that high Sodium intake can cause Water Retention, which could make your body weight stall or even rise on the scale.

This maybe a dumb question, but I just wanted to know for sure. Does that mean Water Retention can PREVENT fat from being burned, or does it just make it difficult to notice progress? (even though you are still losing body fat)

Replies

  • duddysdad
    duddysdad Posts: 403 Member
    You can lose fat and retain fluid therefore remaining the same on the scale for a while. As long as you are in a calorie deficit you are losing weight. Try to cut sodium a bit and drink more to get rid of some of the excess water weight.
  • violet_wister
    violet_wister Posts: 34 Member
    alexreyn13 wrote: »
    People say that high Sodium intake can cause Water Retention, which could make your body weight stall or even rise on the scale.

    This maybe a dumb question, but I just wanted to know for sure. Does that mean Water Retention can PREVENT fat from being burned, or does it just make it difficult to notice progress? (even though you are still losing body fat)

    difficult to notice progress even when losing
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
    Water retention simply means your body is hanging onto water. You can still lose fat/muscle and gain fat/muscle while your body is retaining water, but you might not see it on the scale.

    For example, I retain water two days before my period all the way to the last day of my period. While that week I won't see any loss, as soon as it's over I will typically see a 1 to 2lb drop.

    Hilariously, I can tell when in my periods are on my weight loss graph.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,435 Member
    I retain water when I exercise heavily. So if I go out and do a really long bicycle ride on a Saturday, I'll put on weight on the Sunday, I'll hold onto the weight on Monday and possibly also Tuesday, then during the day on Tuesday I'll make tracks to the toilet all day, and when I weigh myself on Wednesday, I might be down 1 kg or so.

    I also retain water in a very similar way when I fly. We flew between Brisbane and Hobart on Friday ... Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were rather disturbing with the weight gain ... and then I started dropping the weight, and today (Wednesday) when I stepped on the scale, I was down 1.3 kg. :) Most of that is probably water ... maybe the .3 might be real weight loss.
  • alexreyn13
    alexreyn13 Posts: 52 Member
    Awesome, thank you guys for the replies =)

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