Maybe You Didn't Gain Fat. You Gained Salt.

"What we cannot see often decides the outcome more than what we can."

– Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

It wasn't until late March that I finally shook off the rhythm of the holiday.

The weight and measurements I'd lost in the second half of last year had almost all come back over the New Year break.

They came back. All of them.

So in late March I gradually started this year's cut.

Unlike last year, I have more muscle now, and I'm not going to use last year's carb cycling to cut. Instead I'm using a method called carb tapering.

But since I officially entered the cutting phase on April 1, my weight over the past week has confused me.

First, early in this cut, I haven't deliberately added any cardio to my training.

Second, I've kept up a regular four-day split and planned my diet strictly. Under those conditions, even without cardio, my weight should drop.

Lately, though, going from 79.6 kg on day one to 79.1 kg today matches the 0.55 kg a week I'd planned, but there's been a very obvious swing.

The day before yesterday I weighed in at 79.3 kg. That day I went out for a two-hour ride. Yesterday morning I stepped on the scale and was straight down to 78.4 kg.

Yesterday I did my regular strength training and ate normally. The next day, today, my weight was 79.1 kg, up 0.7 kg.

By the numbers, it's normal to shed half a kilo or more of water after a ride. But why, after eating normally today, does my body hold on to over half a kilo of water?

This rebound didn't bring me down. It made me notice something: when I was at 78.4 kg, why would my weight go up while I kept eating and training normally?

In theory, I lost that water through a hard ride, but with clean eating and consistent training, my weight shouldn't bounce back this much.

I thought about it and something felt off, so I went through everything I'd been eating carefully, and sure enough, I found the problem.

A while back I bought a case of beef meatballs to use as my main protein source. They have 16 g of protein and under 8 g of fat per 100 g. I thought those numbers were great. A bag is 250 g, so one a day was just right.

But I'd overlooked a very important number: the sodium. These meatballs have 650 mg of sodium per 100 g.

What does that mean? It means one 250 g bag has 1,625 mg of sodium.

The standard sodium intake for an adult is about 2,000 mg a day (5 g of salt), and for me on a cut, the most I should take in is around 1,600 to 1,700 mg a day.

One bag of meatballs alone covered my entire day's sodium.

For a while I was eating a bag almost every day. On top of that, as soon as I ate anything else with seasoning, my daily sodium went over.

And sodium is very easy to go over on.

One tablespoon of soy sauce has 900 mg of sodium. Doubanjiang, the chili bean paste common in Sichuan cooking, has 700 mg a tablespoon. A normal stir-fried dish usually has around 1,000 to 1,500 mg.

And among the foods people eat on a cut, a closer look shows quite a few that seem healthy but aren't low in sodium.

Take instant oats. Some packets of instant oats have 300 to 400 mg of sodium each. Only plain, unflavored oats have none.

Oats are an important part of my breakfast. A few days ago I asked a friend to pick up a big 3 kg tub of oats for me at Sam's Club. The sodium is very low, so I can eat them with peace of mind, and best of all, they're very cheap.

Then there are processed foods like turkey breast slices, chicken breast ham and beef meatballs. The protein and fat look great, but the sodium is shockingly high.

It gets worse. Even some flavors of protein powder have 200+ mg.

Note, though, that eating too much sodium doesn't make your body store fat. It makes your body retain water, which pushes your weight up.

The reason I pay attention to this number is that I believe eating too much sodium every day throws off weight tracking during a cut.

And judging by everyday eating in Sichuan, most of the time our daily sodium intake is over the limit.

When daily sodium reaches 3,500 mg, a gain of 1 to 2 kg is perfectly normal. Many ordinary people mistake this water retention from excess sodium for a sudden weight spike, and start a punishing crash diet in revenge.

Plenty of people around me are like that, my mom for one.

Weight gain from sodium isn't fat gain. It's water retention, and it usually returns to normal in 1 to 3 days.

So how should we handle the sodium we take in every day?

1. Drink more water.
2. Eat more vegetables, and a banana (potassium).
3. Skip a meal.
4. Get out and walk more.

Simply put, these four are about increasing outflow and cutting intake. Drinking water and eating potassium neutralize the sodium in your body, eating less cuts the sodium you take in during the day, and walking balances the sodium in your body.

Note that you don't need to do all of them at once. If you've already skipped a meal, your total sodium intake is already lower.

I've noticed that many people have a misconception about healthy eating: as soon as they decide to eat healthy, they start eating less of everything.

Divide what we eat into three main types: protein, carbs and fat.

Many people think healthy eating means eating little or none of protein, carbs and fat alike. In my view, that's faulty logic.

These three macronutrients are like a triangle. If you cut all three at once, you end up with unbalanced nutrition and too few calories.

If you eat fewer carbs, eat more protein.

If you can't eat that much protein, eat more clean carbs.

Healthy eating means finding balance among the three nutrients and keeping your ingredients clean, not cutting how much you eat.

In one sentence: the real culprit behind weight swings on a cut is often not fat. It's the sodium you overlooked, making your body store water.