Sodium Intake??

The sodium retains water. So you can walk around with a lot of water weight, if you lessen your sodium intake you won't hold as much water weight and you will drop some of the pounds from that.
At least that's been my experience..

As others have stated, excess sodium results in water retention...also, I'm hypertensive, so I have to watch my sodium for medical reasons.

My sodium is always high, as well.
Try to limit the amount of processed foods and fast food you eat. Lots of my sodium comes from Jimmy Dean Delight breakfasts and from turkey.

Same thing happened to me. I realized the excessive amounts of my sodium intake after I entered my daily meal diary. Unfortunately the effect of sodium is not as bad on weight as much as it is bad for hypertension and consequent heart disease, I think that we should both consider this site as a blessing as it is showing us where we are going wrong especially in our activities of daily living.

Lack of exercise is also another risk factor for heart disease and increase in blood cholesterol and triglycerides.

Let's try to turn over a new leaf and choose foods with lower sodium intakes and try to keep up with the fitness plan that this site offer, and start with some form of exercise. If we are honest with ourselves we can realize our mistakes and learn from them.

I wish good luck to all of us who have this problem, hope that when we post again we get better results.

Calories and Sodium is all I track. The rest kind of takes care of itself for me. If I go over my Sodium by 500 mg or more I am guaranteed to see about 2 lbs on the scale the next day.

There is quite a bit of sodium in processed foods. If you want to avoid added sodium try to limit processed foods.
One thing that I discovered that surprised me was that boneless, skinless, frozen chicken breasts have a lot of added sodium, so if you want to save some sodium content, and eat a lot of chicken breasts, as many of us here do, use fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

My grocery shopping time has increased, as I have become a label reader. I look at the labels on everything I buy now.

yes the frozen chicken breasts arent all that great for you!
stick to fresh!!

Well most of the 8 lbs is probably water weight, but if you did not track for a few days and ate whatever I am sure that would make the scale go up as well. Drink lost of water and try to stay away from the salt for a couple of days and then see what the scale says.

Whenever I have soup I know my sodium intake is going to be over for the day, no matter what else I eat for the day. Consequently when I weigh myself the next day my weight will be 2-3 lbs heavier than it was the day before. By tracking sodium it lets me relax and know that it is not a "real" gain. I follow it up with lots of water and it balances out over the week.

Like most things, it depends. Look at tallieterp's post. Compare her situation to someone on a low carbohydrate diet (especially ketogenic diet), who may need to get far more sodium than is generally recommended because of the diuretic effect of that particular protocol.

Water follows salt. Always. The more salt you have, the more water you'll retain. Which will probably lead to a higher number on the scale (because your weight can fluctuate by several pounds daily, simply from water alone), but ultimately, doesn't always impact your overall weight loss, since you're looking to lose fat, and that has nothing to do with water.

Ultimately, salt is most important if you're watching your cardiovascular health, because it can cause increases in blood pressure and heart workload, since water can be retained in your bloodstream with increased salt levels. If you don't have any other health issues besides the weight, I wouldn't put a ton of stock in keeping to a super-low sodium diet, because if your kidneys are good, you will clear out the excess salt without about 24-48 hours without a problem.

Just don't weigh yourself every day, because you will get a false impression, since your weight can fluctuate with water very easily. Weigh yourself less often for a more accurate idea of what you're actually losing, or else you're just measuring water loss or gain every day.

You need *some* sodium in your diet, but not too much. You can mitigate the effects of excessive sodium intake if you up your potassium. Yes, bananas, but also things like spices have a lot of potassium. I thought spices had no calories to speak of so I didn't log them, but ever since I started, I discovered that quite a lot of them have huge amounts of potassium (and negligible calories). The nice thing about spices is that they will make up for the flavor you are used to from salt. I know it is hard to retrain your palate away from salt, but healthy eating kind of requires it even if weight loss doesn't.