As many of you know, I have had abdominal surgery, which has left me with a problem of swelling around the tummy. I am trying various remedies for this, and this week I decided to make a determined effort to go salt free (or as much as I could) to see whether that made a difference.

I started Tuesday (and I did eat a chinese meal on Monday which will have made my Monday weight higher than usual as I always retain water due to the high salt levels), but by this morning (Friday) my weight has reduced by an incredible 7lbs (that's in just 3 days).

I haven't watched the calories any more than usual, and in fact on Tuesday had rather too much of the chocolate brownies (and cookies.... and chocolate crispies....) that I took to work.

Now, I do exercise and I do watch what I eat, but I don't think I've done anything different this week to what I would normally do. I tend to eat healthily anyway with very litttle in the way of ready meals etc, but I do like my bread, ham, snack-a-jacks etc. and probably eat a little in excess of the recommended salt intake per day.

This week I've kept it under the 3 to 4 gram mark, and so far it seems to have paid off.

It just shows what a difference that water retention can make to our weight, and why we shouldn't get to excited about fluctations - up or down - but look at an overall trend. There's no way I've lost 7lb of fat, so it has to be water, and I drink water like a fish so I'm not dehydrated. Therefore the weight loss must be due to less salt??

OMG Teresa, it really makes you think, doesn't it? I really admire that you take the time, and effort, to really notice yourself. You are a true inspiration!

I don't add salt to things, but I wonder how much is hidden, as it were. I don't eat crisps, biccies, ready meals (being wheat free), but I am sure I'd be surprised where it is lurking.

I wonder if I could do the same. Perhaps that needs to be the June challenge?! Or July, as we have the 5-a-day one for June.

Good grief what a huge loss TE? So do you count salt instead of calories and how easy is it to do? As Julia says there's probably a lot of hidden salt in what we eat that we won't account for.

It certainly would make a healthy June challenge - there's no harm in any of us doing it!

If only it were - all I decided to do was keep a real eye on what I was eating and how much salt I got through in a day. When you add up all the little bits here and there, it can start adding up to a lot...

It seems to have made a difference to me, but then I am probably carrying more water than average due to my post op swelling. Others might not notice such a dramatic difference.

Having said that, I've just got back from the gym and I can't get my trousers done up so I had to come home in my gym gear...

Sorry having never done this - how do you measure your salt intake? I don't know what's a daily allowance.

Found the following online:

We have salt in every cell of our bodies - about 250 grammes (a cupful) in an adult human. That’s why our tears and sweat taste salty.

Salt plays a crucial role in keeping our bodies functioning properly. When we exercise, when we’re hot and it maintains the balance of our fluids, which carry oxygen and nutrients around our bodies

The two elements of salt

1) Sodium

enables the transmission of nerve impulses around the body, regulating the electrical charges moving in and out of the cells
controls our taste, smell and tactile processes
helps our muscles - including the heart - to contract
is key in the operation of signals to and from the brain.

2) Chloride

the digestion process
preserving the acid-base balance in the body
absorbing potassium
helping the blood to carry carbon dioxide from respiring tissues to the lungs.

The body is able to adjust to the amount of salt that we consume, such as through making us thirsty when it needs extra water to dilute the salt. A healthy body processes just the amount of salt it needs and the kidneys dispose of any excess.

Without enough salt, our bodies cannot perform all the vital functions listed above. Symptoms of insufficient salt include muscular weakness, muscular cramps and, in the extreme, heat exhaustion and heat cramps. Severe salt deprivation can even prove fatal.

The average person is the UK consumes something like 12 grams of salt a day, whereas the recommended level is no more than 6 grams.

My point was, that even if you think you eat healthily (which I do) you can still be unknowingly eating much more than this.

For example, bread contains around 0.5 grams per slice, and ham is about 0.5 grams per 20g serving. So, something healthy like a wafer thin ham sandwich on wholemeal bread with salad, could contain over 2 grams of salt, without you adding anything. Add a packet of snack-a-jacks, which I am partial to (rice cake snacks, low cal) and the salt goes up to around 3 grams... That's half the day's recommended allowance, and yet I would think I was eating OK.

For tea the other evening I had vegetables, jacket potato and a piece of smoked haddock. Very healthy. But there was 3 grams of salt in the fish. Again, half the day's allowance.

Rice crispies contain around 0.7g in a 30 gram serving (and who eats that amount), even the milk contains a trace. A reasonable bowl of low fat cereal and skimmed milk could contain 1.5 grams + of salt, which is more than a packet of crisps, and yet we wouldn't eat them for breakfast...

If that was my day's food, it all looks very healthy, low cal, low fat, lots of fruit and veg, and yet I would still be exceeding the recommended intake for salt.

I have a tin of Weightwatchers soup in my cupboard - there's 0.9g of sodium per tin - they don't quote the salt, which I think is a bit naughty because most people get confused by this. You have to mutiply sodium by 2.5 to get the salt level, so 0.9g of sodium is actually 2.25grams of salt. Add a chunk of bread and that's well in excess of half a day's allowance. There's even salt in the cake my husband bought for his birthday - around 1g a slice.

I'm not advocating that everyone should give up salt entirely (as I said I was aiming for around 3-4 grams a day) as clearly that would be dangerous, but it can explain the fluctuations in weight if you are prone to water tenetion (which I am) that we all get het up about - those weeks when you know that calorie wise you have been OK, but you still don't lose, or even go up (very frustrating)... And the average person doesn't need to worry too much about eating too little, purely because it is added to so many foods.

It's no different from having a target for fat or sat fat intake. To little isn't good for us, as it too much. It's all about a healthy balance.



Just read the labels - although there is some salt in natural foods, it is very small. Most comes from "processed" foods, and I don't just mean ready meals. Just check labels for bread, crackers, biscuits, cereals, baked beans, soup, ham, cheese, even sweet stuff like cakes. If it only gives you the sodium, don't forget you need to multiply it by 2.5. Don't get too worried about it, just keep an eye on the biggies.

See this website for more information and guidance - URL

It says, amongst other things:

If I cut down on salt my body won't have enough - FALSE
It's actually very difficult to eat too little salt. This is because it's in so many everyday foods, such as breakfast cereals, ready meals, soups, sauces and biscuits. And people in some countries survive on a fraction of the amount of salt eaten by people in the UK.

Judging by what you say it must be. Thanks for that TE. Last night I roasted the usual chicken without sprinkling salt over prior to cooking - it tasted just as good (and the dog didn't need to go pee in the middle of the night)! Now you've drawn my attention to it I'm going to be more aware of my salt intake - question though, do your own preparations taste bland? It's probably a habit that I reach for the salt/soy when flavouring - I couldn't drink tea with sugar so I guess one can get used to eating foods without so much salt.

Emm! That's no way to talk about your husband!

If you mean my cooking... then I have to say I don't really miss what I've never used. I don't think you need salt in a lot of stuff, herbs and spices can pep up your taste buds too.

Bread actually needs salt in the cooking process, so you still need it even if you bake your own.

Other stuff - I don't bother with it.

I don't use salt at all for cooking. The only time I use(d) it was on my chips which I very rarely, if at all, eat. You've got me thinking Teresa that I may not be having enough salt as the only thing I eat on your list is bread and that's not very much. Everything else seems to be from scratch and doesn't have any salt in apart from the Marigold stock which I occasionally use in a risotto.

I'll keep an eye on this now.

I never add salt to cooking but as you say so many hidden salts are in everything we eat esp bread, cheese... hard to avoid! I did have salt on my chips yesterday though...mmm...

Oh, I'd forgotten about cheese Emily - I do eat that quite a bit. Those chips sound appealing....

They were SO good. My parents were around so I took them for dinner at this gorgeous new 'gastropub' which does AWESOME crispy yet soft inside chips. You can't beat a good chip!!

Cheesey chips, that's another winner... but a salt nightmare!

You posted on another thread that you had had a bad week when you had ate lots of bread and cheese and gained something like 3.5 pounds.

If you don't normally eat much salt then the weight gain could be because you retained more water than usual because you ate more salt than usual (that was the point of this thread). To gain 3.5 pounds of fat, you would have to have eaten over 12,000 calories more than you needed (1 pound = 3500 cals). That's a lot of cheese! But, it could have just been the extra water, and that's why it does come off again a few days later if you revert to you normal habits again.

For the last couple of weeks I worked really hard at my food intake and exercise, only for my weight to creep up and up. I think now that the swelling/water retention was masking my "true" weight loss, and now I have made an extra effort to cut the salt, it's appeared all at once.

Sometimes when we gain weight is just extra water. If you weigh once a week, and your weigh day is just after you've perhaps eaten a bit of extra salt, that can explain why the weight loss doesn't show on the scales.

I've been looking at salt today Teresa and had mackerel for lunch and then toasted muffin and mozarella (low fat) for tea, so probably rather salty. It's weigh in tomorrow as well so I shouldn't have eaten all that salt! Oh well, shall report in tomorrow!

Well, after doing so well we went out for a chinese meal on Monday - I am all swollen again now - and I'm up 4 pounds!

I won't being doing that again in a hurry!