Low-Sodium Diets and Weight Loss

When losing weight through dieting, it is important to differentiate among the types of weight that can be lost--lean mass, fat mass and water weight. There probably have been times when you started a restrictive diet and lost five to ten pounds in a week, but understand that you certainly did not drop 10 pounds of fat that quickly. More likely than not, the bulk of the weight loss was a decrease in water weight caused by lowering your intake of sodium.

About Sodium

Sodium is nothing more than salt, which is a necessary component of your diet to maintain optimal health. Side effects from excessively low sodium intake can include dehydration, low blood pressure and muscle cramps. The American Heart Association recommends that you consume at least 400 mg but less than 2,300 mg of salt per day.

Sodium and Water Weight

Sodium consumption encourages your body to retain additional water. This occurs because sodium intake places stress on the kidneys, which respond by diluting the blood with additional water to minimize the effect. While the effect is subtle, in the aggregate it can add up to five or more pounds of "negligible" water weight retention.

Weight Loss

A low-sodium diet will promote immediate results. Once your body no longer needs to hold onto the additional water, it will excrete it as quickly as possible. This is why you might find yourself going to the bathroom more often than normal while going through the initial stages of a diet. Thus, low-sodium diets lead to a false sense of accomplishment whereby the scale is showing a lower number, but you are not any closer to your goal.

Benefits

Despite the false sense of weight loss, minimizing sodium in the diet is beneficial for overall health reasons. Keeping your daily sodium intake fairly low (around 1,000 mg or so) will help to regulate high blood pressure and reduce the chances of cardiac disease. Look for fresh or frozen foods that do not have added salt, stick to unsalted nuts, do not intentionally add salt to any meal and select low-fat options wherever possible.

Considerations

Clearing up misconceptions about the different types of weight loss will help you to be more realistic about your dieting goals and the role that sodium plays in helping you accomplish them. So when you read about the next "miracle diet plan" that promises 10 pounds of lost weight within a week, ask yourself what percentage of that is actual fat and what percentage is merely water weight. Now that you see the link between low-sodium and weight loss, you will not be fooled by outrageous dieting claims.