Hi all..
My questions, but your thoughts, wisdom and opinions being solicited. It's about water retention...what are some of you who have been on this long enough to understand your body and this diet experiencing? I know the heat...and we sure have had "extreme" the last few weeks...can affect fluid retention a bit or in some of us...a lot..

However; I feel I'm struggling with that issue a bunch more than I want to...and as careful as I am..watching and reading carefully, adding very little or NO salt to my food, drinking 90+ oz of water a day, I still wake up often with my rings tight...and see the scale registers a little bit of a gain from earlier in the week. I do weigh daily so I can monitor what may have taken place the day before and modify if needed. Processed foods from the IP plan have more sodium that I would regularly eat in "real" everyday life..there is no doubt in my mind of that and it's been a concern of mine since early on with IP. I am thinking of taking a few weeks off and going it on real food...so I can control the sodium for the rest of the summer. Thoughts? I know I have the discipline to plan/shop appropriately and stick to 2 meals and 1 snack of about 100 calories and meet the protein and carb/fat guidelines. I really want to get this last bit of weight off...but think the combo of the heat and the processed nature and sodium OF IP is slowing me down here in the last few weeks. I did have a virtual CT scan colonoscopy (love it...no anesthesia unless they find something) a few weeks ago, and my body is working fine. The report from a virtual is awesome...it give you info on all your organs....and also main blood vessels.(actually stated no plaque visualized important words for me as my dad had his first stent at a young age) Report came back as a most unremarkable citation on colon and all abdominal and chest organs......

Except that the radiologist sent an addendum to my Physician stating "Upon comparison to the study from 5 years ago...patient appears to have lost significant subcutaneous adipose tissue"... !!!!

I'm so glad you started this thread! I am having the same experience with my weight creeping up and I am 100% OP and drink plenty of water. I just got off the scale when I read this!

Congrats on your scan, my dad also had heart problems young so I understand your trepidation. I think you should try going off and using "real" food for a few weeks then at least you can be sure it is your diet and not something else. Please keep us updated!

I found this here

In the summer, body weight can go up by several pounds due to increased body water. This is accomplished through fluid-conserving hormones such as aldosterone, which allows the kidney to retain more fluid and reduces the amount of salt in sweat, a measure that also aids in water retention. The increase and stabilization of total body water can only be accomplished by continuing to exercise in hot weather and will not occur in people who spend most of their time indoors in air-conditioned environments.

There has already been quite a bit of discussion about it being NORMAL to retain more fluid in the heat so I have to ask why it is such a concern. We know we are losing fat and we know the scale is only one measure. We know our goals are long-term and the heat won't remain forever.

The plan works.

Now, if there is a reason for phasing off p1 for medical reasons or by someone who has regained control and wants to use whole foods instead of processed, I support that. The amt of soy/processed food in IP is what kept me from starting IP eight months sooner than I did. However, water retention during a heat wave really isn't a problem.

Oooh...thanks for the reinforcement...Lisa had reasons for jumping off for a while and I can't wait to see how her journey resumes. And really agree with her thinking our metabolism and bodies do just hit the wall like anything else after a while.
Since I leave for Austin, Tx on July 31...I'm contemplating this approach starting today through the end of my trip on Aug 7th. Had an egg white omlette with asparagus, mushrooms and spinach for breakfast...NO salt! We are heading to Philadelphia for a movie this afternoon and I'll do a salad and few chicken strips for lunch...(telling them no salt)...and salad and grilled "something" for dinner. Before bed I'll do my last orange drink. It is the only one I think that is GF with 0 sodium. Lemonade, wildberry yogurt and the rasperry jelly are 55 or lower...so until I can get to my IP site and order a few boxes of the orange drink will use those for the nighttime snack. I'll keep y'all posted.

Lisa..I've never experienced this in previous summers. The only difference this summer is the total IP diet...That is why the concern on my end. In addition, have a sister that is in renal failure...close to needing a transplant. So not wanting to push myself there as it can be hereditary.

Wow, great scientific explanation! It sound like it is suggests exercising outside would be helpful to minimize this effect! I could walk outside in the evenings rather on the treadmill. It will be interesting to see if that makes a difference!

Also, I am only about 6 weeks in to IP but would be afraid that, were I to go off of it, I might lose my way back on. One of my issues with weight has been that I really need structure and a lot of support to lose weight the right way successfully. I don't want this to be something else I stop doing and think "I'll take it from here" and the weight comes back again.

Have you talked to your doctor about this? Sounds like you should! I would be concerned too! It sounds like you had a good check-up recently but it did not review your renal health?

I was like that for about 10 months! Gradually I started to feel like I could actually maintain a lower weight, healthier lifestyle, which includes monitoring my food intake and my exercise.
Then I knew phasing off wouldn't be so scary. My Fitness Pal has been a huge help with that!

Excessive heat is just one more reason why the scale doesn't tell the whole story of our weight loss journey. Lets make sure we're not falling prey to worshiping the scale. It is ONE tool on this fantastic journey.

I haven't been on the scale in 3 weeks (away from home. Every scale is different). I put on some jeans last nite (heat wave ended here) and they were definitely bigger than last time I wore them. Still headed in the right direction, scale or no scale, heat or no heat, P1 or P3!

All blood work looks good...and my BP is normal lowside which sounds great. I am just jittery because my sister who is 2 yrs younger than I, actually has always had low BP as well...but apparently during menopause was having BP spikes that were missed on regular cks. And she is a health care professional...just as I have a background in that. Her bp spikes along with a cystic (hereditary) problem caused a mini stroke resulting in her totally losing vision in one eye, and damage to her kidneys which now has resulted in a very poor glomerular filtration rate. She is of course being watched much more carefully these days, but we are worried about her all the time. She would not be a candidate for this diet at all. She is on a restricted sodium and low purine diet for the rest of her life hoping that can avert dialysis or transplant. She is averse to starting dialysis, because she is widowed and her job has her traveling. This was all discussed with my MD and she ran all the appropriate tests early on in my journey on this diet. All of the siblings had this discussion with our docs after the cystic kidney disease was confirmed. I am the oldest of 6...and she had no symptoms as a younger person. The kidney stuff all came to light within the last 2 years. We are still learning.

Lisa good for you...! I bet you've lost on what you've been doing. Time for a new photo??

My family history, which is most likely boring to others, is part of my anxiety... has me itching to be more in control of these real factors that make me nervous. A lot of what I've read indicates that long term.(.and after 6 months ...I am getting into that category...) can bring sub-clinical health problems closer to the surface. Sensitivities to ingredients and thyroid problems are not isolated after people start this protocol as we have read and you have experienced. Kidney problems scare the *#@**7!! out of me, esp after working in health care and often with the OP dialysis units.

Looks like I am behind in my posts! Good luck 65, I am in awe of you success so far and have always enjoyed reading what you have to say!

I am definitely not in health care, though from constant dieting over the years I sometimes feel like I can parrot all the nutritional information, even if I am not good at following it on my own.

With that being said... I actually thought all the IP food was extremely low in sodium as compared to an average diet? Is that incorrect? I understand the proteins are highly processed, but I don't think processed, in this case, equates to high sodium. In fact, I get headaches more now which I attribute to my lack of sodium... at least causally as ensuring salt in my lunch and dinner seems to alleviate the issue. Sodium is a necessary component for health - and I would be interested to know if your sodium intake is actually LESS than your sister's restricted diet due to the lack of "other" processed foods. If I am tracking religiously in myfitnesspal.com, I can see that I am far from hitting the recommended % of sodium of a normal adult.

A question about added salt-- my coach is very insistent on me adding the ideal salt to make certain I get the allotted amount per day. It's always bothered me a bit because I generally avoid adding salt to foods. 65x65, how do you get around this?

Thanks!

I have had my struggles with water retention a couple of years ago. The issues were most likely due to hormonal imbalance. The crucial factor being thyroid health. I will not go into details, but the issues became medically relevant. In the meantime I resolved those medical issues and I lost a bunch of weight on low carb. First on Medifast, where PMS and water retention basically disappeared. When I hit a plateau last winter, I switched to much lower carbs using IP. This worked great for weight loss for a couple of weeks. But the very low carb eating also exposed what the commercial does not tell you. Namely, carbs are necessary for the production of certain hormones, including estrogen/progesterone, and active T3 thyroid. When you are sublinical hypothyroid, these facts may well be exposed as some above also experienced. I personally noticed it when I started to experience the exact same symptoms I hoped I never revisit. One of which is water retention. Though, thankfully, I noticed the symptoms early and stopped low carbing.

In your case, I would get a complete thyroid panel and also have your sex hormone levels checked. Just to exclude a situation that can cause long-term negative effects on your health if not corrected. Otherwise, keeping a good salt balance in the heat may be hard to do on low carb. You actually need more salt than would appear healthy, at least in the beginning. A good source of scientific knowledge is Phinney who published two books recently (low carb living and low carb performance).

Otherwise, when in doubt, take a diet break. I am actually slowly regaining my thyroid hormones and am still loosing weight, though much more slowly (but I am also eating significantly more now).