sodium: how does water weight effect fat weight?

Options
Evamutt
Evamutt Posts: 2,376 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I usually keep sodium under 2000 but I recently made a ham & my sodium went up to 3000, & my weight 2 lbs in the morning . My question is, is the water weight "real " weight? I really don't know about water weight. Does it add inches? I'm not planing to go over sodium any more since I noticed it but would like to have knowledge

Replies

  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Options
    Two-thirds of the human body is water, so yes, water weight is real. In fact, most of your weight is water. When you have too much sodium your blood gets thicker, your extremities swell, and your clothes may feel tighter.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Options
    It's not fat and will come off in the coming days.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,376 Member
    Options
    wasn't sure how to phrase my question, but that's what I meant nutmegoreo, will it come off or will I have to "lose" it food wise. Thank you
  • pogiguy05
    pogiguy05 Posts: 1,583 Member
    Options
    Why so focused on one thing like sodium and water retention. there are days my weight fluctuates 5lbs depending on if I drink enough water during the day. How much weight do you need to lose?

    If you want to know if water is real weight weigh yourself in the morning then drink a good amount of water then weight yourself again. I am sure you will find you gained weight, but eventually it will pass thru you and then your weight will go down.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Options
    Evamutt wrote: »
    wasn't sure how to phrase my question, but that's what I meant nutmegoreo, will it come off or will I have to "lose" it food wise. Thank you

    No problem. It usually takes me a day or two. I will drink a little extra water to help flush the extra sodium out. Over time, I stopped being bothered by the fluctuations, but I know it can be irritating.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Options
    Water weight is not fat and will not turn to fat. Therefore a calorie deficit is not needed to lose water weight. It goes away on its own.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,376 Member
    Options
    Thank you everyone. I'm down 47lbs & have 10 more to go. I was at 150 for so long, then I hit 149 for 3 days(never thought I'd get there) & after I had all that sodium scale said 152! I don't want to go over the 2300 mfp gives me. I used to eat too much sodium before & have cut down. Not good for my bp. I do fluctuate during the day but I take my morning weight as the "real" weight.
  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
    edited November 2017
    Options
    When the concentration of sodium goes up in the cells and tissues (not only blood), those cells store more water through a process called osmosis.

    Osmosis is the movement of solvent (water) from a less concentrated solution to a more concentrated solution through a semi permeable membrane (most of the body).

    When you retain water, the concentration of sodium comes down. When you then pee, this concentration of sodium in the body doesnt vary much, but now you have peed so less water weight.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,376 Member
    Options
    I love your pic misnomer1jha4zapg16ey.png
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited November 2017
    Options
    misnomer1 wrote: »
    When the concentration of sodium goes up in the cells and tissues (not only blood), those cells store more water through a process called osmosis.

    Osmosis is the movement of solvent (water) from a less concentrated solution to a more concentrated solution through a semi permeable membrane (most of the body).

    When you retain water, the concentration of sodium comes down. When you then pee, this concentration of sodium in the body doesnt vary much, but now you have peed so less water weight.

    You can get short term variation in sodium levels in your blood plasma where the sodium concentration is typically around 130-150mM but those variations are quickly dealt with by your liver and by recruitment or explusion of water in the manner that you mentioned.

    Cells themselves aren't permeable to ions (semipermeable as you stated), sodium is directly and intentionally imported or exported by active transport and the internal concentration within the cells are tightly regulated and remain fixed in a narrow range right around 10-20mM. So the sodium concentration within your cells doesn't change based on your sodium intake because if it did short-term the active sodium transporters would pump it out or pump it in depending. If the surrounding liquid goes extremely hypotonic or hypertonic relative to the cell then yeah that system can get overwhelmed but if you've reached that point you are in dire trouble. That is not somewhere you are going to get to by eating too many potato chips one night.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    Options
    Evamutt wrote: »
    Thank you everyone. I'm down 47lbs & have 10 more to go. I was at 150 for so long, then I hit 149 for 3 days(never thought I'd get there) & after I had all that sodium scale said 152! I don't want to go over the 2300 mfp gives me. I used to eat too much sodium before & have cut down. Not good for my bp. I do fluctuate during the day but I take my morning weight as the "real" weight.

    3 lbs is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Don't sweat it, no pun intended. My weight fluctuates by that much or more over the course of a week, or even over a couple of days.

    It's counterintuitive, but if you're retaining water because of excess sodium consumption, the best way to get rid of it is to drink plenty of water. It helps your body flush it out.

Categories