The Sodium Effect. Temporary?

keithf1138

So I know that Sodium intake causes you to retain water, but I dont stress much on it because I view it as temporary. What I mean by that is the following:

Yesterday I knew that we would be going out for Thai food at our favorite Thai place. So I had a great workout in the morning and stayed active pretty much all day. I also ate very light during the day as well. It also was Prom Night for my son and I knew we would stop at a friends house for pictures and maybe socialize a bit. So in the evening had a couple of crackers with Blue Cheese and a Beer while socializing. Then we headed out for dinner. I estimated on the high side for the dinner, yet calorie wise according to FitBit and MFP I went to bed still with over 1000 calories to spare (Meaning I burned over 1000 calories more than I consumed).

Now I still wasnt expecting good results this morning because of the extra bulk and sodium intake last night. So wasnt surprised that I was up 1 pound compared to yesterday.

My belief is that the sodium had an effect to cause my body to hold water. This though should prove temporary. As I am now back on my normal day to day diet limiting sodium and drinking tons of water. So the body should adjust and those extra calories I burned on Sunday should give me good results sometime over the next couple of days.

Am I thinking correctly?

BurtHuttz

You got it right. Your body retains water when you intake higher levels of sodium in order to keep the desired osmotic balance and for other reasons. Within a few days of lower sodium and drinking water, the excess sodium is eliminated from the body and your water retention decreases.