Salt and Body fat / water retention

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tmcginley
tmcginley Posts: 28
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

A trainer at my gym told me that a lot of what I may think is body fat could be water retention. He said i should axe all salt from my diet. I am an absolute salt fiend! I even carry around extra little packets of salt in my bag and find i particular crave a lot of salt after my workouts. Has anyone had success with cutting out salt- did they lose?

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  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    My kidneys seem capable of managing the salt/water balance. Cutting out all salt sounds like a bad idea - have a read at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001431/

    " If you play any sports, drink fluids that contain electrolytes (sports drinks). Drinking only water while you take part in high-energy athletic events can lead to acute hyponatremia."
  • tampabobby
    tampabobby Posts: 9
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    I have cut out added salt from my diet many times. I usually notice a quick 5 pound weight loss over the course of several days. I think its a great idea to recalibrate yourself to the taste of real whole foods w/o added salt. A cup of broccoli has 30mg of sodium in it already. If you are running a marathon or something then maybe you need to look into salt tablets but I haven't had any issues cutting out added salt while doing regular moderate exercise.

    Recently I have taken to adding 1/8 tsp of Celtic Sea Salt to a few dishes per day. I think of it as a topping. The granuals are big and crunchy and don't coat your food all the way over like regular table salt. Since I don't put salt on everything it is a real treat when I use this.

    The serving size for Celtic Sea Salt is 1/4 tsp which has 400 mg of sodium but I have found that 1/2 of that works great on small dishes.
  • hunter624
    hunter624 Posts: 252
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    During Army service in the Middle East, back in '64, we were issued salt tablets by the Army to replace lost seline fluids in sweating in the hot temperatures, so I think cutting out salt altogether may not be a good idea.
  • rugbygirlca
    rugbygirlca Posts: 85
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    Sodium is a nutirient which I track. I aim to keep my sodium levels at, or close to, 1500mg / day. On days when I exercise heavily, I do allow myself a little extra to replace sodium lost through sweat. It can be challenging to get down to 1500mg / day at first, but you do get used to it.

    When I do eat foods with a lot of salt - like soups or any prepared food - I find myself exceptionally thirsty. High blood pressure runs in my family and, although mine is very low, I have always been very conscious of the amount of sodium I take in each day.

    You don't seem to eat a lot of prepared foods, so you might want to track how much you are adding for a while to see whether you are taking in an appropriate amount each day.
  • nursenessa1
    nursenessa1 Posts: 182 Member
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    Hi

    A trainer at my gym told me that a lot of what I may think is body fat could be water retention. He said i should axe all salt from my diet. I am an absolute salt fiend! I even carry around extra little packets of salt in my bag and find i particular crave a lot of salt after my workouts. Has anyone had success with cutting out salt- did they lose?

    Tell your trainer to shut it. Water in your cells have a very specific purpose. If you are craving salt it is possible you need it. Pregnant women and people in general crave things they are defecient in. It is are bodies way of saying "hey gimme". Carrying extra salt with you is peculiar. Moderation is key.

    Water retention in a person who should restrict salt would be found in the form of various edemas. Pitting, general etc. Google it I don't have the patience to explain. :flowerforyou:
  • Determinednoob
    Determinednoob Posts: 2,001 Member
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    Your body needs salt. While you would still get enough from foods you eat without adding any from a shaker, comsuming absolutely 0 salt would literally cause you to die. Salt intake (within reason) being a problem or causing water retention is not a concern for people who excersise and drink lots of water regularly. If you were going on stage in 2 days then yeah, you might try to dry yourself out, but for normal everyday life, don't concern yourself with it.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    I actively avoid salty foods. I never add salt to anything... with that said, I am always pushing the "maximum recommended" amount of salt per day. It is one of the things I track on here!

    Overall, just try to keep your salt intake at a healthy level and realize that water weight is not fat weight. The goal is to lose fat, not water or muscle. :)
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    My kidneys seem capable of managing the salt/water balance. Cutting out all salt sounds like a bad idea - have a read at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001431/

    " If you play any sports, drink fluids that contain electrolytes (sports drinks). Drinking only water while you take part in high-energy athletic events can lead to acute hyponatremia."

    Yup.

    If you are craving salt after your workouts then you probably need to get some more electrolytes. You can make your own isotonic hypertonic or hypotonic drinks relatively easily at home: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/healthy_eating/newsid_2132000/2132209.stm

    Whilst sodium is partially responsible for water retention, particularly subcutaneous water, giving a "puffy look" cutting it out completely is flat out dangerous.

    ETA: a friend of mine has just pointed out, quite correctly, that there is a difference between table salt and sodium (although table salt does include sodium obviously). So for accuracy, trying to cut out sodium completely is dangerous rather than table salt.

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