Understand How Salt Can Affect A Healthy Weight Loss Program

When we are trying to live a healthy lifestyle and lose weight or maintain our weight, we often make eating a healthy diet, taking vitamin supplements, and getting regular exercise our primary focus.  These are some very important factors to a healthy weight loss program, but when trying to lose weight, consuming too much salt or sodium could hinder our efforts or cause weight gain.

In order to permanently lose weight we must burn more fat than we consume.  This is a simple but important definition because there are other actions that can cause us to lose or gain weight that are neither effective nor permanent.  Permanent and effective weight loss takes place only when fat is reduced.  A diet that’s high in sodium will not help with fat reduction.

A high sodium or salt diet will result in water retention which can cause a temporary weight gain.  When you eat a low sodium diet you will temporarily lose weight, but since it is water weight that is lost, it is only temporary.

A diet program or fast that focuses only on increasing you potassium intake or reducing your sodium intake will result in a quick, but short term loss of water weight.  This may encourage you and prompt you to continue following the best diet plan or purchasing the diet pills, but you must remember that this weight loss in not permanent.

In reality, diets that are high in sodium are bad for you.  Not because of the temporary weight gain but because of how it affects your immune system, blood pressure, digestive system, and cardiovascular system.  Generally, too much salt is not good for your health.  People should consumer no more than 2400 mg of sodium each day, but most Americans regularly consume in excess of 3500 mg daily.

For the sake of your health you should get into the habit of reading labels and limiting your sodium intake to less than 2400 mg a day.  If you were to keep your sodium intake to less than 1800 mg a day, you would likely lose a few pounds rather quickly.  The human body needs only 400 mg to 800 mg of sodium each day to function properly.

When you read labels you should pay close attention to the amount of sodium, fat, calories, and sugar that food contains.  You should avoid using table salt and eating foods that are known to be high in sodium like MSG, Soy Sauce, sport drinks, instant foods, fast foods, and most canned foods.  Canned soup is known to be particularly high in sodium.  In addition to avoiding these foods, you should get in the habit of reading all food labels before eating the food.

You may be able to offset some of the negative effects of a high sodium diet by adding extra potassium to your diet.  Not only should you add potassium, but you should work toward reducing your sodium intake for best results.

We need to protect our health since it is our most valuable commodity.  We can maintain our health and lose excess weight by burning more fat than we consume.  You can effectively burn fat with regular exercise and by taking quality vitamin supplements.  You can set your self up for permanent weight loss success and live a long, healthy life by eating a low fat diet and high fiber foods like nuts, 100% whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans.