We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

will high SODIUM masquerade weight loss?

johnguitarman
johnguitarman Posts: 56 Member
edited January 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Hmmmm. I am a bit perplexed here. I have been losing steadily 1-2 lbs a week. I have a 1000 cal a day deficit. I am eating 2300 cals a day as calculated by my Bodymedia Fit. All of a sudden last week I lost 4.6 lbs even though I am set for a 2 lb week loss. I think I had that 'swoosh' effect happen.

Anyway today I weigh in and got a very weird reaction. At 8:30 the scale said I was 248.6 lbs which would have been a 1 lb loss for the week. I checked it a few times and it said 248.6 each time. I was happy but to triple check it 10 min later I was at 250 lbs. I dont know why? I checked another scale and I was roughly the same weight. I dont know why I went up so fast.

I did eat alot of sodium last night. I had over 4000mg. I have been struggling to keep my sodium around 2500mg a day but I am finding that pretty hard.

Now my question is if you eat too much sodium will it fill you with water weight and hide a true fat loss? I have been working out everyday and hitting all of my goals as set by my Bodymedia. If I did in fact gain weight this will be the first time in 9 weeks I havent lost at least 1 b. Of course that is if I believe the 250 lb scale reading and not the earlier 248.6 reading.

Replies

  • bleedingdesu
    bleedingdesu Posts: 63 Member
    Sodium can make you retain water, but you also might have too much of a deficit.
  • Reeceybaby1988
    Reeceybaby1988 Posts: 91
    1. its not fat
    2. you are putting too much emphasis on what the scale says

    take measurements today! re-measure in 2 weeks time and note the difference!
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Yes, I can go up by as much as five to seven pounds if I have a high sodium day, especially if it's at night on a day I don't excercise. Don't worry, just keep the deficit and monitor the trend over time.

    It's normal.
  • ken_hogan
    ken_hogan Posts: 854 Member
    I've had eating chinese or a good order out pizza the night before weighing in affect my weigh in the next day.
  • johnguitarman
    johnguitarman Posts: 56 Member
    Thanks everyone. I do take measurements also and I weigh in once a week on monday mornings to track my progress. I'll try even harder to cut back on my sodium. I know I didnt gain fat and most likely its water but I was wondering if high sodium could be the culprit. I am hoping I did drop at least a pound of actual fat.
  • difabu
    difabu Posts: 143
    I'm so glad you asked this question! This similar to the kind of drop I saw Wednesday and Thursday. Then I had a great night of sushi (with lots of wasabi and soy sauce) and then -- POOF! -- 5 pounds the next morning. I saw in my diary that I'd had half my sodium allotment Monday - Wednesday when I'm usually at or well-above in my sodium intake.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    a 15:1 ratio of high to low sodium intakes gave a weight difference of 2-3 lbs in a clinical study :

    http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/22/3/331.full.pdf

    So that puts a ceiling on the effect you will see.

    Carbohydrates also have a sodium and water retaining effect, so changing carb intake will influence water retention.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories