Too much salt, worried about gaining weight.

Your body needs a certain amount of sodium to be able to function normally. Your body (muscle, including heart, plus your brain) can be considerably influenced by electrolyte imbalances. I wouldn't be trying to control water weight fluctuations through minimizing salt intake and chugging fluids (you know that propel has sodium in it, right?). Take a few deep breaths, water weight has little to do with the fat on your body.

Couple of things to unpack here.

Water retention due to fluctuations in sodium and carb consumption comes and goes, and the few pounds of daily scale-weight bouncing it causes are irrelevant to fat loss. What are you trying to lose? Fat, right? Why be concerned about water retention at all?

500 mg is the absolute rock-bottom minimum recommended sodium intake for a day. Below that, you are in danger of hyponatremia, a very serious medical condition. If you are eating that extreme level for a medical reason under a doctor's supervision, that's one thing. If it's for dieting purposes then it's time to talk to a nutritionist or other expert and get your diet plan straightened out, asap. The AMA says stay under 1500 mg per day; normal, healthy people without high BP often use 2,300 or 2,500 mg as a target. So that 1,133 mg you just ate is on the low end of normal, but the 500 mg you frequently eat is ill advised.

Finally, if eating a little extra sodium makes you petrified of gaining weight, you're not approaching this from a healthy mindset and might want to address that with a counselor or other suitable person.

0calsweetapricotgirl wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Your body needs a certain amount of sodium to be able to function normally. Your body (muscle, including heart, plus your brain) can be considerably influenced by electrolyte imbalances. I wouldn't be trying to control water weight fluctuations through minimizing salt intake and chugging fluids (you know that propel has sodium in it, right?). Take a few deep breaths, water weight has little to do with the fat on your body.

yes it was already included in my maximum sodium intake.

I get that the fluctuations in weight can be emotional when you are striving towards something specific, but you know that water weight is not the same as fat. Maybe it would do you some emotional good to not get on the scale as often.

Did you look at the link above? Can you see how daily fluctuations on the scale are normal and aren't really something to be concerned about?

lgfrie wrote: »

Couple of things to unpack here.

Water retention due to fluctuations in sodium and carb consumption comes and goes, and the few pounds of daily scale-weight bouncing it causes are irrelevant to fat loss. What are you trying to lose? Fat, right? Why be concerned about water retention at all?

500 mg is the absolute rock-bottom minimum recommended sodium intake for a day. Below that, you are in danger of hyponatremia, a very serious medical condition. If you are eating that extreme level for a medical reason under a doctor's supervision, that's one thing. If it's for dieting purposes then it's time to talk to a nutritionist or other expert and get your diet plan straightened out, asap. The AMA says stay under 1500 mg per day; normal, healthy people without high BP often use 2,300 or 2,500 mg as a target. So that 1,133 mg you just ate is on the low end of normal, but the 500 mg you frequently eat is ill advised.

Finally, if eating a little extra sodium makes you petrified of gaining weight, you're not approaching this from a healthy mindset and might want to address that with a counselor or other suitable person.[\b]

Yes my alarm bells went off. Being this petrified over temporary scale fluctuation is a cause for concern IMO.

Sodium doesn't actually impede ones progress. It may slightly affect the scale for a day or two, but that's it. It doesn't sotp you from burning fat in a calorie deficit. I eat most days probably a minimum of 3000 mg of sodium most days and have lost over 40 pounds.

Sodium is an important mineral in our bodies that we need for survival, and while a case can be made from minimizing excessive consumption, especially for people with certain health conditions, it is not something that should be avoided, or else you could cause serious harm to yourself.

Please talk to a supportive professional about these feelings, as they have all the warning signs of a disordered relationship with weight and your body.

0calsweetapricotgirl wrote: »

yes it was already included in my maximum sodium intake.

So based on this we can conclude that you're on a severe sodium restriction (more restrictive than what is normally suggested to your average cardiac patient) on your doctor's orders to treat a medical condition?

Then I would be considerably more worried about the medical condition that you're treating with this (temporarily failed) restriction as opposed to the irrelevant water weight gain that will ballance out over the next few days when you return to your normal way of eating.

Trying to treat this by chugging Propel, or plain water, or anything else for that matter, is pure madness.

Not everything in life is a major disaster or a major success, and if you approach weight management without some equanimity and patience you will be forever responding to the irrelevant to the detriment of what's really important: sticking to *reasonable goals* for a reasonably long amount of time so as to observe your reasonable success!

This level of distress needs to be successfully addressed.

Either by having a hard look at your goals and expectations on your own, or with the assistance of someone who can help you see the bigger picture.

Please take care of yourself.