Weight a Minute! Water Gain

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

16 Jun 2008 02:00 PM

"I lost two pounds!" she said, her eyes alight with excitement. "But it was probably just water weight." Her happy expression disappears and a glum note crops up in her voice.

Why is that? A loss of two pounds is great! Why did she become so sad all of a sudden?

Because it's just water weight. And she knows it will probably come back.

That's the amazing thing about weight loss - it fluctuates so much from day to day. As a larger woman, I've got a whole lot of fluctuating going on - the more you weigh, the more your weight will change from one day to the next. I like being a woman of mystery, but honestly, this is going a little too far. The suspense of stepping on the scale every day is like to give me a heart attack just from the surprise of it all.

However, water gain does not have to ruin your life or cast you into the pit of despair. You can move beyond the emotional rollercoaster that goes along with that annoying pound on, pound off yo-yo we're all on.

Cut back your salt intake.

My doctor recently asked me to try a low sodium diet to try to reduce built-up water pressure in my ears. I came home and hit the Internet to learn all I could about a low sodium diet, and I've been absolutely fascinated by everything I've been learning. You'll hear about it all in good time, but for now, let's suffice it to say that the more salt you eat, the more water weight you'll gain.

I can hear you now - "But I already watch my salt intake. I hardly ever put salt on my food."

Yeah, well, I didn't either. But it goes a lot farther than that. Many, many foods already have salt in them. The more processed a food is, the more sodium it seems to contain. And many low-fat foods have more sodium than the regular fat foods.

The ideal amount of salt to consume is under 5,000 mg. a day, some sources say. Others encourage us to eat less than 3,000. Personally, I'm shooting for 400 to 1,000 on the advice of my doctor, and I'm already seeing a lessening of some of my other physical health symptoms. I don't know how it will work out for my ears, but I feel enough better in other areas, I'm game to keep it up.

Oh, and have I lost water weight? You bet, 2.4 pounds in two days. And unless I start scarfing down the salt again, I'm pretty sure it'll stay off.

Tristi Pinkston is a full-time blogger in Media Reviews, LDS, and Movie Reviews. You can read her blogs by clicking here.

Related Blogs:

Some Weight Loss Reminders

The Crazy Thing about Carbohydrates

Body Cleansing - Is It Safe?

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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