How much of it is water weight?

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countlessnumbers
countlessnumbers Posts: 21
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been told that usually the first few pounds you lose are water weight. I have lost about 10 pounds (some before I joined this site). I want to know if most of it is water weight or not. I do not feel very different than I felt 10 pounds ago. Does anyone know? thanks :)

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  • mary020378
    mary020378 Posts: 28
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    i think it all depends what your beginning weight is and its a percentage of that to determine how much is water weight that you lose i think its 5%. i dont know if it makes sense
  • luv2ash
    luv2ash Posts: 1,903 Member
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    to be honest, I could care less how much of my weight was water weight - LOL. I was just thrilled to see the scale move and still moving. It still was weight, and I still had to carry it around, and it still kept me from wearing cute clothes.
  • babs23
    babs23 Posts: 86
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    There really isn't any way to tell, at least I don't think so.

    They key is to keep your electrolytes balanced to avoid water retention in the future. Keep your sodium low (1500mg/day) and try to reach your potassium goal every day. High sodium consumption leads to water retention, but potassium counter acts that by flushing it out.

    Once you create that balance, water retention won't be an issue. Just say no to salt! :) Good luck!
  • countlessnumbers
    countlessnumbers Posts: 21
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    thanks everyone! :)
  • eddyca
    eddyca Posts: 153 Member
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    I wish I knew the answer to this too! I lost 6 pounds in week... and this is after 1.5 months of dieting?? I recently cut about 10-20% of the fat I was consuming 2 weeks ago so maybe that's what sped up the weight loss. I'm betting at least a few of those pounds were water weight though :-/
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I can definitely tell when I lose water weight, but I carry more of it than most people. Push your thumb into your lower leg and then let up and count the time it takes your thumbprint to go away. If it's more than a couple of seconds, you're retaining water. If it bounces right back to normal and there's no print, you're not carrying much water weight (unless it's in your stomach). Another thing I do to try to avoid weighing water is to weigh first thing in the morning at the same time on the same day of the week. I see a shift at TOM but other than that it's really very constant for me.

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