will high SODIUM masquerade weight loss?

johnguitarman
johnguitarman Posts: 56 Member
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.

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