Hi all,

Have any of you noticed a difference in your weight as a result of consciously reducing your sodium intake?

I just paid attention to my sodium intake for the first time today (and will from now on!!) because I had gained weight since my last weigh-in (3 lbs) despite working out (running, power yoga, kickboxing etc) 5 days a week and meeting my calorie goals (maybe a little under) and I needed an explanation.- a culprit so I wouldn't feel too dejected.

Anyway I noticed my sodium intake was OBSCENELY high over the past 2 weeks that I have been on MFP. The sodium mainly lurked in the soups (vegetable, low fat) and other comforting hot dishes that I have been eating since the weather turned cold here in Chicago. My vegetable soup (Safeway Selects Signature Cafe) has over 2000mg of sodium in one bowl (but only 360ish calories)It's not even from a can!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Panera veggie soup with fresh pesto also had over 1000mg of sodium. Also, apparently there was a lot of sodium in Thanksgiving food (which I did not overindulge in this year but ate leftovers in moderation, thus stretching out that sodium calamity).

Anyway I'm going to TRY to reduce the sodium and see if it releases any water weight. I don't understand the weight gain, otherwise. My body is sore from all the different workouts I've been doing and I track my calories religiously.

BUT is sodium even that big of a deal, or is it one more annoying thing I have to worry about?

Thanks for reading!

Any day that I have a high sodium day, I usually see weight retention or gain for at least 2 days afterwards. I went on vacation this summer and ate a ton of high sodium food (smokies, hot dogs, dip, chips, bacon, margaritas etc) and after 1 week I was up 9 pounds!!!!! However, coming back home, I lost 8 of the 9 pounds within 8 days, so I am pretty sure high sodium and low water intake was the culprit.

I think it's a big deal, but it's definitely a tough one to combat. I don't eat a lot of processed foods, but I find my sodium is usually over 1500mg (This is the goal Health Canada has given for those 9-50yrs old)
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2006004/article/sodium/4148995-eng.htm

I try to drink extra water to hopefully flush some of it out....I can only handle so many battles at a time, so once I can win the portion control battle, I will take a BIGGER step towards my sodium battle.

Sodium is the devil!! lol! All that sodium will have you retaining water like a sponge, so I definitely recommend reducing it and doing your best to stay at or below the limit. Prepared foods (like your Safeway soup) are notoriously high in sodium as you learned the hard way. Is it annoying to have to worry about? Yup. But so worth it! Cut the salt, drink plenty of water, and you will see that number on the scale go down as your body releases the water its been retaining.

I have always fluctuated a lot with my weight until I started tracking my sodium intake -- hypertension runs in my family, and excessive sodium is one of the causes of this, so I figured I'd pay a little more attention to how much I was taking in -- it was CRAZY!!! Soups are the worst.....

Now that I stay below the recommended amount on MFP, my weight only fluctuates when Aunt Flo comes to visit. It's nice to have that regularity on the scale --- then if I DO gain weight I don't just blow it off.

I now buy all low-sodium or no salt added groceries -- the taste difference was noticeable at first, but now I prefer it. Kind of like diet soda, I guess!

sodium if probably a big factor in weight gain/water retention. but also, if you've just started working out your body might be holding on to water as your muscles heal. that happened to me, when I first started going to the gym I went 5 days a week for at least an hour and stayed within my calories and then I weighed myself the next week and had gained a little. I was told that my muscles were probably healing, so the body absorbs extra water. give yourself a few weeks of exercising but definitely cut down on your sodium. I'm pretty sure you're only supposed to have 2000mg of sodium in on DAY, not one meal lol

It's extremely hard for me not to eat sodium. I'm going to try to start watching it better, because I'm up quite a few pounds from last week. There's WAY TOO much salt in food these days!

I am keeping my sodium under 2500 mg a day. Sodium can interfere with weight loss, as well as java

The Six Week Plan and Jenny Craig both reduce your sodium to speed up the weight loss. I use their guides for intake and it seems to make a lot of difference on my weight. If I go over my calories I don't see as large of imapct as if I go over my calories with sodium.

Thanks so much for posting this... I had a weight gain this morning too, after going over by about 1500 on sodium yesterday... Boo

Sodium just retains a lot of water which makes your weight go up. I keep it under what the daily intake is for the day because I cannot stand holding in water. If you go over a lot, drink a looooot of water to help flush some of it out.

Have you tried making your own? I found some recipes on Allrecipes.com. I use sugar free tomato juice and low sodium chicken or beef broth. One cup of the veggie soup I made was slightly under 500 mg sodium. You can make a big pot of homemade soup and then place them in individual containers so you can just grab and go for work. And it will last several days.

I don't always have time to cook "real meals" but I try to do stuff Sunday afternoon/evening that will last me a few days.

I've read in a few articles that bananas and sweet potatoes are great for combating water rentention. I'm pretty sure it's the potassium.

I love both! Maybe you could try to incorporate both into your days?

THIS!!! sooo me right now!

I finally checked my reports all the way back to the beginning and realized that foods high in sodium are usually the cause of my weight 'gains'.

Glad I found this post. Will definitely keep this in mind going forward.

BTW, I found this post using Google by the way. Glad MFP is showing up in Google search. Hope it leads more to our wonderful place.

<3 MFP!

Yeah sodium always makes me hold on to weight.