Long Bones

http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-how-to-date-a-tall-chick/

This is a tip that has been very near to my heart over the course of the past two years. It is one of those things I have to keep on telling myself over and over again so I don’t get discouraged.

Do not worry about the small gains.

Most people I know who have been successful at weight loss either weigh themselves once a week or once a day. I have heard arguments for both and personally I am a once a day girl. But weighing yourself once a day has its hazards. You see, weight loss is never going to be a smooth slope downwards. You won’t see the scale go down by .2 on Monday, .2 on Tuesday, .2 on Wednesday on through to Sunday. For me I’ll have a week or two of really rapid weight loss, then a modest gain, then slow weight loss, another modest gain and then we’re back to rapid loss.

I could be eating perfectly, the exact number of calories a day that I need, and exercising regularly, and I would still see that pattern. There are several culprits for this weird weight gain, two of which I’m going to review here.

1. Watch your Sodium.

This is a biggie. Seemingly healthy meals can be rife with excess sodium. Salt makes everything taste better true, and sodium is a very good preservative so lots of prepared foods rely a lot on it. So keep an eye on how much sodium you’re taking in and try to keep it at a healthy level. What is a healthy level you ask? The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says less than 2,400mg per day and that 1,500mg seems to be more helpful. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/prevent/sodium/sodium.htm Decreasing your sodium intake will make you retain less water and have less random weight spikes because of it.

2. Watch your Hormones.

The second cause of random weight gains is your hormones. Both men and women (though obviously more apparent for menstrating women) go through monthly hormonal cycles which do very much affect how much you are going to gain or lose on a daily basis. There is nothing you can do to fight it. As far as I know. And even if there were I don’t think I would recommend it. Let your body do its thing and if you have a small gain and can’t get rid of it for a week, remember it isn’t your fault, it’s your body being human.