Does a high sodium intake affect the scale?

JTurnerUK
JTurnerUK Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
For the last 7+ days I've stuck to 1500 calories a day and walked to get 10k steps. I haven't had any movement on the scale and I know how to count calories. My sodium intake has been 3500 to 4000mg. Can this affect the scale? I mean I've been really active, been disciplined with calories and to lose nothing is a bit of a killer.

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,839 Member
    Sodium is one of many factors that can influence your weight. Exercise and hormones are other factors. And food waste in your digestive system.
    This is an interesting read:
    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    One week really isn't long enough to know if you're doing the right things. You need to determine your long-term weight trend (at least 4 weeks), to smooth out the shorter term fluctuations and determine if you're losing bodyfat. Some people here use apps like Happy Scale or Libra.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    edited August 2020
    Assuming 1500 is an appropriate amount for you to be eating in order to be in a calories deficit, then what Leitchi says is true.

    How are you calculating your 1500 calories? How much weight do you need to lose to get to a healthy BMI?

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  • FitterFifteen
    FitterFifteen Posts: 75 Member
    If you’re salt intake has increased, then you will get a slight boost in water retention and therefore weight gain, this is temporary and will go down once you return to normal salt levels. This happens to me whenever I have something like pizza or when I use a little too much sea salt on my fries/steaks :blush: I can normally see about 1-2lbs difference on the day after because of this.

    If you haven’t increased your regular salt intake, then there won’t be a salt related increase. If you decrease, then you may well see a slight reduction.

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