Why a Low Salt Diet Can Help You Attain Weight Loss

Does consuming salt make you gain weight?  Is a low salt diet important to achieving real, lasting weight loss?  Actually, consuming too much salt can add a few extra pounds to your body, but not through fat.  Too much salt makes you retain water, so those extra pounds are nothing but water weight gain.  Does this mean that low salt diets have nothing to do with real weight loss?

Actually, a low salt diet can help you with weight loss.  This is not necessarily due to the lack of salt, so much as it is a reduction in the amount of processed foods that you consume.  Most prepackaged foods available today in grocery stores and supermarkets contain an enormous amount of salt, which is used to enhance taste and for its preservative properties.  Therefore, cutting down on the amount of salt in your diet by restricting processed foods will certainly help you with weight loss.

In addition to weight loss, you will find that a low salt diet helps with other things, as well.  Too much salt has been directly linked to high blood pressure, which can cause strokes, heart disease and other problems.  Therefore, in addition to weight loss, reducing your intake of processed foods can give you better heart health, as well – which your doctor is sure to be pleased about.

Too much salt will also affect the way your body looks – water retention leads to a “puffy” look, which is often equated with fat.  While weight loss will not affect this, a low salt diet will help keep you looking good at all times, as your body is able to regulate the amount of water it retains.