Salt, water and weight

I recently did a 1.5 mile swim race in the ocean. I'm not a fast swimmer, so I spent two hours fighting the waves and swallowing lots of salt water. I weighed myself before the race. 213. I weighed myself later when I got back Home. ( I often weigh my self before and after running races to check hydration levels...So I guess I did the same out of habit. ) I hopped on the scale. 218.

What! I gained 5 pounds over the course of a race? I was baffled. Then I remembered that my tongue was slightly swollen at the end of the race. I then realized the impact of consuming (Unintentionally in this case) high amount of salt. It took several days for my weight to return to 213!

I had never realized how much salt causes us to retain extra fluid until my ocean race. I now am aware when I eat high salt food I delay normal weight loss numbers and remain artificially high. I had always thought that water weight was an exaggeration until I experienced it myself. I am glad to announce the water weight is gone and I resume losing. 211 and forward.