Ever wake up in the middle of the night with a pasty mouth and an unquenchable thirst? That's often a reminder you ate something too salty for dinner or right before bed. That "something" was probably a processed food containing as much as half your recommended sodium intake for the day. It leaves your cells screaming for water and desperate to retain it, which causes a temporary but unsettling weight gain.
Sodium is, frankly, what makes processed foods so addictive to our taste buds.
Check the foods in your pantry. I just did. I discovered two bags of "stuffing mix." The Western Family brand of stuffing had 10 times more sodium per serving than the Country Hearth brand. I also compared two boxes of Near East couscous. The "original plain" couscous had 220 calories and 5 mg sodium per half-cup serving. The "Mediterranean" variety had fewer calories (190), but a whopping 500 mg sodium....that's 100 times the amount of the plain! I think I prefer to cook the plain and season it my own way. A little dash of table salt isn't anywhere near 500 milligrams!
Watch the sodium! Worry less about salting your food at the table and more about eating packaged, processed foods. Even if you stay within your calorie range for a day, your weight will likely be higher the next day if you've eaten a bowl of salty soup or chili the night before. And whether it's "temporary water weight" or not, it's still plain old extra weight on your joints.
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