Sodium, my enemy

lindamtuck2018

If I have a high sodium day of eating, my weight pops up but it is taking 5 to 6 days for the water weight to disappear. I do take diuretics, as prescribed by my doctor but there is no way the dose can be increased. Short of giving up my chips, sushi, Tim Hortons chili and other things I might have that is salty, what can I do?

whmscll

Drink a ton of water.

collectingblues

In addition to drinking more water, spread out your sodium intake. I like chips and sushi (and GF subs), but I can’t have them all in one day.

NorthCascades

Keep good food logs, so when the scale offers bad news, you'll be sure it's water not fat.

PAV8888

Is the desire to reduce sodium out of a concern about your water weight fluctuations or because of a concern about how the sodium may be affecting your health?

For the first, keep records so that you know what happened, but don't worry too much about it: it ain't fat.

If it is the second use your records to reduce your sodium consumption starting by cutting off sources you care less about. For example reduce or eliminate prepared or instant soups, or luncheon eats, pickles, or canned products.

Then keep pushing and expanding till you only consume sodium when you feel that the hit to your health is worth it.

amusedmonkey

If water retention is medically harmful to you, then you do need to pick and choose your foods. Don't have several salty foods in one day, pick the one you want the most on any given day and limit yourself to that, and only have them on days you really want them. If it's not medically harmful and your doctor is fine with you retaining a bit of water, just ignore the fluctuations. Water weight means nothing in the long run.

MikePTY

From a weight loss perspective, sodium is not your enemy. Water weight fluctuations work seperately from fat loss. So even if you temporarily gain water weight, if you are in a calorie deficit, your fat loss will continue as normal. This should lead to your weight continuing to head downwards on a trend, even with water weight gains.

For example, let's say a certain choice you make causes you to gain 2 pounds of water weight on Monday, but you are still in a 500 calorie a day deficit. Then after a week, the choices you make cause the water weight to clear, you should be down 3 pounds, not simply the same two pounds, because of the fat loss that is happening at the same time.

If you find yourself constantly gaining an losing the same couple of pounds over a long period of time, then the issue isn't your sodium intake and water weight but rather the amount of calories you are consuming.

lindamtuck2018

Thanks for all the insight. I do need to watch my salt intake a bit more. My hands, feet and ankles swell when my sodium intake is too high. My doctor is aware of this. I am definitely in a calorie deficit and I am losing weight at a fairly nice rate. I will increase my water intake on the days I have a higher sodium diet. I am on holidays for the month of June, so it is going to be harder to control the sodium in my food. I will definitely be drinking lots of water.

psuLemon

lindamtuck2018 wrote: »

Thanks for all the insight. I do need to watch my salt intake a bit more. My hands, feet and ankles swell when my sodium intake is too high. My doctor is aware of this. I am definitely in a calorie deficit and I am losing weight at a fairly nice rate. I will increase my water intake on the days I have a higher sodium diet. I am on holidays for the month of June, so it is going to be harder to control the sodium in my food. I will definitely be drinking lots of water.

If you focus on whole foods more often, you will reduce sodium. But largely speaking, it's huge swing in sodium that cause water weight fluctuations. If you maintained a higher rate of sodium, you wouldn't see those changes as your kidney's aren't responding to various levels of sodium. The below video has a good explanation of sodium.


https://youtu.be/UbKk9tbNrfQ