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What the hell is water weight really. And why do other people lose it and not me? So I hear when starting a new diet/weight loss plan people often lose lost of weight at the beginning and then plateau and it is often written off as water weight. This makes no freaking sense to me. A cursory google search turned up nothing scientific, just a bunch of airheads exchanging anecdotal evidence. You can't be losing it if it is straight up water unless you are dehydrating yourself and most weight loss programs have you drinking boatloads of water, so that seems contradictory to me. To boot, I never get lucky this way, each pound I lose is hard won. I can diet for weeks and lose 1-2 lbs and then ONE slip up and I'm back where I started My fiancee can lose 10 lbs then have a week of binge drinking and eating and only be back up 5 lbs. WTF?! Is water weight real or just a name people have given to quick success in the beginning stages of weight loss? I saw 2 theories which may hold water (pun 1. Diets tend to make you eat less sodium and sodium makes you retain water. So when you stop eating so much sodium your body can't hold onto the water. This makes a limited amount of sense to me, but I think the results here wouldn't be as drastic as the anecdotal figures reported. 2. At the beginning of a diet your body hasn't caught onto the reduced calorie trend and so is still burning calories faster, then when your metabolism catches up, you stop losing weight at such an enjoyable rate. This one makes the most sense to me, but in this case it has nothing to do with water and hence must just be a common saying or flawed notion. Does anyone know what the real deal is with water weight.