Weighing in on the Scale

Prev 1 2 3 Next

Water-weight: Here today, gone tomorrow

Sixty to seventy percent of your body is made up of water, so it's not surprising that daily weigh-ins reflect water-weight fluctuations; water-weight is a major component of what the scales measure, and the numbers can go up or down, depending on whether your body is losing or retaining water.

Water retention. Several factors can cause water retention. Excess sodium is one of them. The minimum physiological requirement for sodium is 500 mg per day, and most health organisations normally recommend a maximum of 2500 mg. But when you consider that just one teaspoon of salt supplies 2358 mg of sodium, it's easy to understand why many Australians consume sometimes twenty times more sodium than their bodies need, causing water retention and adding water-weight.

Not drinking enough water can also cause water retention. Although it sounds back-to-front, you need to drink a sufficient amount of water to flush out the water you're already holding on to! At least six to eight 250 mL glasses a day is recommended.

Other common reasons for water retention include menstrual bloating, constipation, and certain diseases such as heart or kidney disease.

Water loss. Generally it's only possible to lose 0.5-1 kilograms of actual fat per week. If you are losing more than that, it's likely that it's water you are shedding, not fat. While you will always lose some water-weight when decreasing calories, extreme dieting will produce extreme water loss, and false weight loss readings.

Excessive calorie restriction, for example, causes the body to use up stores of carbohydrates and to break down protein in the muscles. Since both carbohydrates and protein hold water in the cells, a loss of these also results in a net loss of water. As a result, rapid weight loss can often be made up of 75% water loss.

High-protein or low-carb diets also cause too much water loss. A high level of protein, especially from meat and dairy products, raises the levels of two toxic by-products: Uric acid and urea. To flush these out, the body pumps lots of water through the kidneys and urinary track. Loss of glycogen (a form of stored carbohydrate) on low-carb diets can also cause excess water loss, as can the diuretics people often take on these diets.