Can you all help me out here? As we all know, we retain water when we eat too much sodium. Through your own journeys, can you tell me your experiences, for instance, if you ate something with a lot of salt one day, about how much extra would you expect to.see on the scale the next day, and how long would it be before your weight evens out again? I'm flipping out!!😖😩
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Downandout123
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Depends how much salt and how much food. Can be a kilo and a half on a bad day. But as BridgeGirl said: best just pick yourself right up and continue with healthier foods. O, and maybe next time don´t weigh the morning after you´ve eaten something high-sodium.
I have the problem with fluid. The key is to keep your intake of salt consistent. If you suddenly go for that bacon sandwich you will suffer and it's not good for your organs. I cook without any salt, I buy most products low salt where possible. This has evened out my weight to about the same each day BUT that bacon sandwich did show and I knew before I got on the scales as my feet hurt and felt puffy. 3 lbs heavier! Water weighs a lot!
I like salt in my food but don't get much bloating (we all get water retention sometimes!). I don't know if it makes a difference but I drink quite a lot of water throughout the day - maybe it flushes out any excess sodium?
Sugar also retains fluid - but sugar is calorific, and causes long-term weight gain.
Salt tends to give you high blood pressure - but I have low blood pressure, so I use a lot of salt.
If you eat a kilo of green vegetables, the net human metabolisable energy is not high, so the short term weight gain would not be much more than a kilo? I eat a carvery most Sundays, with as much vegetation as I can get on the plate - but, if I am not suffering from slower digestive transit - it is out of my body by Tuesday?
If you were a boxer, a jockey or a rowing cox, and you have to be a certain weight on a certain day - these considerations would be significant.
Your body maintains sodium/potassium balance by tweaking various control levers (including appetite). It's quite hard to eat 'too much sodium' - experimentally, it's been found that people naturally eat exactly the right amount if given free choice. Which is hardly surprising.
Most people in the West are actually eating too little salt, which is associated with a much higher risk of problems than too much (if you do eat too much, your body just excretes it, whereas if you eat too little, it has to excrete potassium to maintain balance).
Chronic water retention is a common result of eating an excessive amount of carbohydrates, for too long. This is why low-carb diets are associated with an initial period of water loss. Carb-loading is also a well-known trick for those before-and-after photos for diet plans: the "before" photo is usually taken afterwards, following a day or so of pizza and fizzy drinks, which makes the subject look suitably bloated.
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