Sodium intake and weight loss

Many people believe any weight gained will be composed of fat. In fact all weight gains comprise of 3 components, fat, water and lean weight. As weight is gained all 3 components may vary according to several factors, the most common include diet, activity level, genetics and the time taken to gain the extra weight. In an extreme case, a greater percentage of fat will be gained if energy intake is too much, activity is low and the time taken to gain is quick.

Probably as much as 90% of excess weight will be made up of mostly extra fat stores. However, a small percentage of any gain will comprise lean weight and water. The water gain is often due to an increased daily sodium intake.

Sodium in the body is mainly found in the fluids that surround the body's cells, such as the blood and lymph fluid. When sodium intake exceeds the amount the body can handle it builds up in the interstitial areas and the kidneys have to work extra hard to excrete a constant rise in daily sodium intake. A build up may cause the body to hold extra fluids in the blood and around the cells which contributes to increased blood pressure and also excess weight gain from water.
Daily sodium intake will always be high in the western diet

The average diet in the western world is commonly made up of fast, packaged or convenient foods. These always consist of high levels of salt and salt contains sodium. If a diet is mainly composed of high sodium foods then naturally the sodium intake also rises thus extra weight is gained quickly as the body holds onto water. It has been estimated that many people in the UK and USA may be carrying up to 5 pounds of extra weight due to the effects of a high daily sodium intake.

The opposite effect also happens when an individual reduces food intake in order to lose weight quickly. A percentage of the loss will be water because less high sodium foods means a reduction in daily sodium intake which results in water loss as the kidneys have a chance to finally rid the excess sodium from the body. This also helps partly explain why a dieter may experience the yo-yo effect when dieting, water weight is lost with food reduction but quickly regained when the eating is back to normal because daily sodium intake rises once more.

The problem with diets

The idea with any chosen diet is to burn off as much fat as possible while at the same time losing the least amount of lean weight. This is important because a loss of too much lean weight contributes to a weight loss plateau.

The trouble with some diets is they cause the loss of more water and protein compared to the amount of fat, often giving the dieter a false impression because many people wrongly associate weight loss as fat loss. If any weight lost is composed mainly of water then the dieter will simply regain most weight at a later stage or after the diet is discontinued. It could mean a weight loss of 10 pounds within a few weeks is actually only 2 pounds of fat loss!

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