Can extra salt cause weight gain/water retention?

#1

hi :slight_smile:
this past week i ve gained 2 damn kgrs that cant rid off!
I ve cut veggies. Nothing. I m not expecting my period any soon…
the only thing i ve changed before this weight gain until today,was salt. I ate more salt , 1 teaspoon or even more , EXTRA…
Fact is that i take electrolyte supplement and eat my food extra salty( besides that extra teaspoon)

Do u think that is the cause of those 2 kgrs? water retention because of extra salt?(and maybe less water these days…)

(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

There will be a constant back and forth with water weight/electrolyte balancing. Don’t view this as a negative and please don’t try to cut sodium/water to take off weight.
On Keto we lose a lot of water initially as glycogen is almost all water. That’s what we deplete very quickly. After that we have to make sure we aren’t dehydrating and our electrolytes are in balance by constantly replenishing them. This can cause weight to fluctuate more than on SAD LF diets.
Watch larger trends or ditch the scale for tape measures. If you focus on daily ups and downs which are mostly attributed to water fluctuations, you are going to drive yourself crazy.

#3

yes, i m trying mostly to figure out what caused that gain that doesnt seem to go!

have to add that past few days i dont pee much… and i dont sweat much(in general)
thats why i thought the salt was the cause

#4

plus, never before, in my 4+ month keto life, have i seen the scale move up. My weight remained exactly the same (and i didnt minded at all cause i m nearly underweight)

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

It’s worth remembering that a ketogenic diet does not promote weight loss so much as weight normalization. Perhaps your body feels it needs those extra kilos? And do you think the gain was water, fat, or muscle? If you gained muscle, isn’t that a good thing? What is your body composition? Many women find that their clothing size shrinks even when the scale doesn’t show any change in weight, because the addition of lean muscle offsets the fat loss as far as the scale is concerned, but muscle is denser, so the added mass actually results in a smaller size of clothing.

(Linda) #6

I don’t know about you, but I do know that without lots of salt I spend a good portion of what should be my sleep time up with leg and foot cramps inventing new dance routines.

#7

hahahahahah!
fortunately never had cramps. I mean since started keto.
My dancing skills remain zero.

#8

what concerns me a bit is that i think i dont pee enough…even though a drink water…not gallons but 2-2.5 lit per day.(i m 1.60m, and 48kgr as i mentioned, so i think its enough for my size)
with or without extra salt…so, i think its water retention

#9

Have you mentioned this lack of urination to your doctor?

(Bill C) #10

You shouldn’t worry about the water retention unless it becomes physically uncomfortable. Your body needs the water and when the time is right your body will expel it.

#11

i went zc to force it a bit…and after 2 days i feel more comfortable…reduced salt as well, as i take supplements and never have any cramps, headaches etc…
Things will go back to normal, i m sure :slight_smile:
Thanks a lot :slight_smile:

(Bill C) #12

One last thing is you might want to buy Morton’s Lite Salt, which has half the sodium and a good dose of potassium, which can be tough to get enough of when on keto. I use it on all my meals to be sure I get enough potassium.