High salt diet question
loribethrice
Posts: 620 Member
I have to eat around 10,000mg of salt a day on doctor's orders to keep my blood volume up so I don't pass out due to my dysautonomia. I also drink a gallon or two of water a day because I have to stay hydrated all the time for the same reason. I take prescription salt pills from my cardiologist. Does anyone else have to do this? How do you deal with the water retention? I've lost 60lbs, but I feel like it might be messing with my losing these last 10lbs I need to lose. Any suggestions?
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Replies
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You may need to get used to the idea that your current weight and goal weight are going to need to be reset. You'll figure out soon enough what that will need to be. I have issues with water retention and while I was taking a prescription diuretic my weight was about 8-10 pounds less than it is now. Thankfully, I'm carrying it all over instead of it concentrating in my ankles and calves like it did before so it's not that noticeable. One way I deal with it is to run. It sounds silly, I suppose, but if I run for about 6 miles (takes me about an hour), I'll shed about 2 pounds of sweat. I know most of that comes right back overnight but it makes it easier to look at the scale only after a run.
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I've noticed that on the days I exercise I weight 1+lbs less than on the days I don't. It drives me insane! I can't work out 7 days a week because I need a break sometimes too, lol. I've been stuck between 142.6-144.8 for weeks now and all I want to do is hit 135. I can't think of what else it could be and I kept seeing people talking about not eating a lot of salt. I wish I had that option.0
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High sodium isn't going to keep you from losing weight. I can promise that. Most of what you see in these boards with people talking about sodium and drinking lots and lots of water to flush it are all so focused on the scale they can't see anything beyond it. What's a couple of pounds of water weight compared to being healthy and fitting into the clothes you want to wear?
I can lose weight just fine it's just that my ending weight won't be as low as I had originally planned because I know I'm carrying a couple of extra pounds of water. Actually, since I'm also lifting weights, it's a whole new drawing board anyway, so my goal has shifted more to size than pounds. I'm no longer focusing on the scale as my main measurement of success.
While I'd love to get you 'round to my way of thinking, I know that can be a significant mind change. So, rather than worry so much about the sodium issue, which you can't control, take a really good look at what you're eating. The closer you get to your goal weight the more specific you have to be with regards to what you're eating vs. what you're burning. So here are few questions about things which might be tripping you up:
Are you faithfully logging every thing with calories that crosses your lips? That means, every stick of gum, vitamins, that lone Oreo you polished off so you could throw away the bag (just kidding!)? Are you weighing your food as often as possible? Weighing will ensure your portion sizes are correct. Measuring cups work for liquids. Are you using recipe entries you created yourself rather than relying on something someone else entered which may or may not be the same as yours? Are you using a heart rate monitor to calculate calorie burns during exercise? MFP's calculations are notoriously overinflated. Are you factoring out the calories you would have burned anyway if you hadn't worked out?0 -
High sodium isn't going to keep you from losing weight. I can promise that. Most of what you see in these boards with people talking about sodium and drinking lots and lots of water to flush it are all so focused on the scale they can't see anything beyond it. What's a couple of pounds of water weight compared to being healthy and fitting into the clothes you want to wear?
I can lose weight just fine it's just that my ending weight won't be as low as I had originally planned because I know I'm carrying a couple of extra pounds of water. Actually, since I'm also lifting weights, it's a whole new drawing board anyway, so my goal has shifted more to size than pounds. I'm no longer focusing on the scale as my main measurement of success.
While I'd love to get you 'round to my way of thinking, I know that can be a significant mind change. So, rather than worry so much about the sodium issue, which you can't control, take a really good look at what you're eating. The closer you get to your goal weight the more specific you have to be with regards to what you're eating vs. what you're burning. So here are few questions about things which might be tripping you up:
Are you faithfully logging every thing with calories that crosses your lips? That means, every stick of gum, vitamins, that lone Oreo you polished off so you could throw away the bag (just kidding!)? Are you weighing your food as often as possible? Weighing will ensure your portion sizes are correct. Measuring cups work for liquids. Are you using recipe entries you created yourself rather than relying on something someone else entered which may or may not be the same as yours? Are you using a heart rate monitor to calculate calorie burns during exercise? MFP's calculations are notoriously overinflated. Are you factoring out the calories you would have burned anyway if you hadn't worked out?
The way people panic about it I thought it made a huge difference. I have eaten the same things for over a year now every day since I started this. The only adjustments I made to it were subtracting things out as my calories lowered, but still used the same foods. I don't drink anything except for water...I can't have caffeine so I don't see the point of drinking soda or coffee or anything like that. I never use MFPs exercise calories, I always make sure to use a HRM because MFPs measurements are always at least 100+ more. Before I even exercise I always have a 45 calorie deficit because I make sure not to eat all my calories. I also try to walk as much as possible at work at night since I work 11p-7a. I've never taken a vitamin with calories...I didn't even know vitamins could have calories, lol. I also don't chew gum because of my TMJ, so I guess I'm good on that front too, haha!
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salt affects scale weight only. You will still lose weight. Not everyone retains significant water weight from eating high salt diets.0
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Since you have to take additional salt to keep your blood pressure up, it is safe to say that you aren't retaining more water than a normal person. If anything, you are retaining less water than most of us. For whatever reason, you have less water in you blood than most of us. If you were retaining water, your doctor would take you off the additional salt because your blood pressure would be elevated.0
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Just to add on what was already said; focus on measurements more! If water retention is factored in at all, the number on the scale is not going to reflect your progress as accurately.0
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Take a good diet plan, daily exercise and stick with it. It will surely help you to loose your weight.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »Since you have to take additional salt to keep your blood pressure up, it is safe to say that you aren't retaining more water than a normal person. If anything, you are retaining less water than most of us. For whatever reason, you have less water in you blood than most of us. If you were retaining water, your doctor would take you off the additional salt because your blood pressure would be elevated.
I never really thought about that! I drink at least a gallon or two of water a day because I am constantly dehydrated and drink an Emergen-C packet daily for the electrolytes.
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Yup. I don't have to take pills like you do but my doctor recently told me that I needed to eat a lot more salt than I was two weeks ago. I passed out during training at work (military), and it was because I had extremely low blood pressure. My doctor wasn't too worried because I'm fit, but he said that it's something to keep an eye on. Now that I've increased my salt and electrolytes, I'm doing much better. I haven't seen it affect the scale at all. I drink a lot of water, too.
The only annoying thing is that MFP is always all, "You're goal is to stay under 2,300mg of sodium." Yeah... if I want to pass out again =\0 -
Calories will inevitably be the cause for weight loss. Even if you have water retention, you will eventually have greater fat loss than water retention. Having said that, do you maintain a food diary and do you use a food scale? If you do, can we see your logs. I suspect based on what you said above (about eating the same thing all the time) that you do not. What you have to realize, when you are larger, you have greater room for error, while you don't when you are lean.
My wife has POTS, but what her Electrophysiologist told us, is she should limit drinking plain water to 8-16 oz a day as drinking plain water can lead to electrolyte depletion, causing you to be dehydrated. She found that adding NUUN tablets and Emergen-c has significantly eliminated dehydration. So it's possible you are dehydrating yourself by drinking so much plain water.
Second, my wife has also seen huge improvements with having a potassium supplement (prescription) and adding magnesium taurate (OTC). Also, adding foods high in those elements have provided an impact, especially while working out.0 -
kaseasteele wrote: »Yup. I don't have to take pills like you do but my doctor recently told me that I needed to eat a lot more salt than I was two weeks ago. I passed out during training at work (military), and it was because I had extremely low blood pressure. My doctor wasn't too worried because I'm fit, but he said that it's something to keep an eye on. Now that I've increased my salt and electrolytes, I'm doing much better. I haven't seen it affect the scale at all. I drink a lot of water, too.
The only annoying thing is that MFP is always all, "You're goal is to stay under 2,300mg of sodium." Yeah... if I want to pass out again =\
I hate that warning. It tells me that everyday. I put salt on everything I can...even in my oatmeal. I have to though because 80/48 is not a good BP no matter what! The worst thing is that my blood sodium levels are always low even though I eat so much of it which I guess is because I drink so much water and because my body just can't hold on to it in general since I pee so much. Damn bodies! I hope you continue feeling better!!0 -
Calories will inevitably be the cause for weight loss. Even if you have water retention, you will eventually have greater fat loss than water retention. Having said that, do you maintain a food diary and do you use a food scale? If you do, can we see your logs. I suspect based on what you said above (about eating the same thing all the time) that you do not. What you have to realize, when you are larger, you have greater room for error, while you don't when you are lean.
My wife has POTS, but what her Electrophysiologist told us, is she should limit drinking plain water to 8-16 oz a day as drinking plain water can lead to electrolyte depletion, causing you to be dehydrated. She found that adding NUUN tablets and Emergen-c has significantly eliminated dehydration. So it's possible you are dehydrating yourself by drinking so much plain water.
Second, my wife has also seen huge improvements with having a potassium supplement (prescription) and adding magnesium taurate (OTC). Also, adding foods high in those elements have provided an impact, especially while working out.
I have my diary closed due to too many comments that have to do with my eating disorder and what I eat. I was getting tired of being attacked due to something I can't control because my issues with food are phobias that cause me true panic attacks. When my calories lower, I lower what I eat. Everything I eat is prepackaged, so I know how many calories in it based on the packaging. I have 45 calories left over each day before exercising and I don't eat back any exercise calories.
I have POTS also. I always only drink plain water and 1 Emergen-C a day. I used to drink Gatorade G2, but the sugar made me very sick and I gained a lot of weight from it. I tried NUUN tablets, but I can't get them down. I can't handle a lot of flavors and textures.
I do take magnesium. My potassium levels seem to be normal, so I don't supplement for that since when I used to my stomach would be bad. Same reason I can't take iron. I have very low B12 levels which I get shots for.0 -
loribethrice wrote: »kaseasteele wrote: »Yup. I don't have to take pills like you do but my doctor recently told me that I needed to eat a lot more salt than I was two weeks ago. I passed out during training at work (military), and it was because I had extremely low blood pressure. My doctor wasn't too worried because I'm fit, but he said that it's something to keep an eye on. Now that I've increased my salt and electrolytes, I'm doing much better. I haven't seen it affect the scale at all. I drink a lot of water, too.
The only annoying thing is that MFP is always all, "You're goal is to stay under 2,300mg of sodium." Yeah... if I want to pass out again =\
I hate that warning. It tells me that everyday. I put salt on everything I can...even in my oatmeal. I have to though because 80/48 is not a good BP no matter what! The worst thing is that my blood sodium levels are always low even though I eat so much of it which I guess is because I drink so much water and because my body just can't hold on to it in general since I pee so much. Damn bodies! I hope you continue feeling better!!
Ugh. Of course, reading my post again, I see I made typos. I hate that so much! Haha.
I add salt to everything, too. We have to! Very low blood pressure is one of the worst feeling ever. I figured out how to manually change my sodium limit here, so I don't get that annoying message anymore.
Hope your blood pressure behaves
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kaseasteele wrote: »loribethrice wrote: »kaseasteele wrote: »Yup. I don't have to take pills like you do but my doctor recently told me that I needed to eat a lot more salt than I was two weeks ago. I passed out during training at work (military), and it was because I had extremely low blood pressure. My doctor wasn't too worried because I'm fit, but he said that it's something to keep an eye on. Now that I've increased my salt and electrolytes, I'm doing much better. I haven't seen it affect the scale at all. I drink a lot of water, too.
The only annoying thing is that MFP is always all, "You're goal is to stay under 2,300mg of sodium." Yeah... if I want to pass out again =\
I hate that warning. It tells me that everyday. I put salt on everything I can...even in my oatmeal. I have to though because 80/48 is not a good BP no matter what! The worst thing is that my blood sodium levels are always low even though I eat so much of it which I guess is because I drink so much water and because my body just can't hold on to it in general since I pee so much. Damn bodies! I hope you continue feeling better!!
Ugh. Of course, reading my post again, I see I made typos. I hate that so much! Haha.
I add salt to everything, too. We have to! Very low blood pressure is one of the worst feeling ever. I figured out how to manually change my sodium limit here, so I don't get that annoying message anymore.
Hope your blood pressure behaves
I think I inherited it because my Pap had bad orthostatic intolerance. Everyone else in my family has high BP so it had to come from him! How did you manually change your sodium? I need to do that!!
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loribethrice wrote: »Calories will inevitably be the cause for weight loss. Even if you have water retention, you will eventually have greater fat loss than water retention. Having said that, do you maintain a food diary and do you use a food scale? If you do, can we see your logs. I suspect based on what you said above (about eating the same thing all the time) that you do not. What you have to realize, when you are larger, you have greater room for error, while you don't when you are lean.
My wife has POTS, but what her Electrophysiologist told us, is she should limit drinking plain water to 8-16 oz a day as drinking plain water can lead to electrolyte depletion, causing you to be dehydrated. She found that adding NUUN tablets and Emergen-c has significantly eliminated dehydration. So it's possible you are dehydrating yourself by drinking so much plain water.
Second, my wife has also seen huge improvements with having a potassium supplement (prescription) and adding magnesium taurate (OTC). Also, adding foods high in those elements have provided an impact, especially while working out.
I have my diary closed due to too many comments that have to do with my eating disorder and what I eat. I was getting tired of being attacked due to something I can't control because my issues with food are phobias that cause me true panic attacks. When my calories lower, I lower what I eat. Everything I eat is prepackaged, so I know how many calories in it based on the packaging. I have 45 calories left over each day before exercising and I don't eat back any exercise calories.
I have POTS also. I always only drink plain water and 1 Emergen-C a day. I used to drink Gatorade G2, but the sugar made me very sick and I gained a lot of weight from it. I tried NUUN tablets, but I can't get them down. I can't handle a lot of flavors and textures.
I do take magnesium. My potassium levels seem to be normal, so I don't supplement for that since when I used to my stomach would be bad. Same reason I can't take iron. I have very low B12 levels which I get shots for.
So even prepackaged stuff can be off. Ever weigh a piece of bread, a bagel or other items compared to the serving size? Realistically, it's hard to help you in the weight loss department without being able to look at your diary... even if it was only open for a day or two. Or even if you wanted, you can put a password on it and send it to a few people over PM. I have done that with a few members with similar cases.
The only time my wife will drink Gatorade or any of those drinks is in an emergency. But since you are constantly dehydrated, I suspect plain water is your issue. My wife has she is if she doesn't have 3-5 nuns tablets a day. We have also found that starting the day off with an Emergen-C and having one before a workout worked wonders; the Emergen-C have greater concentrations of potassium and magnesium which help make up the electrolytes. Accelerated electrolyte depletion is an extremely common occurrence with POTS and since drinking a ton of plain water will further accelerate electorlyte depletion, you may want look into incorporating more drinks with electrolytes. Personally, I would try a few weeks by adding a few more Emergen-C's (20 calories) into your routine or , consider picking up some NUUN (7 calories).
Other potential issues with POTS. Based on the research I have done over the few years and discussions with a POTS specialist, gluten intolerance and carb issues have been associated with POTS. My wife's EP suggestion limiting carbs, very similar to those with PCOS and we have eliminated gluten. Now these might not affect you, but something to consider since there is a struggle with weight loss.
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loribethrice wrote: »kaseasteele wrote: »loribethrice wrote: »kaseasteele wrote: »Yup. I don't have to take pills like you do but my doctor recently told me that I needed to eat a lot more salt than I was two weeks ago. I passed out during training at work (military), and it was because I had extremely low blood pressure. My doctor wasn't too worried because I'm fit, but he said that it's something to keep an eye on. Now that I've increased my salt and electrolytes, I'm doing much better. I haven't seen it affect the scale at all. I drink a lot of water, too.
The only annoying thing is that MFP is always all, "You're goal is to stay under 2,300mg of sodium." Yeah... if I want to pass out again =\
I hate that warning. It tells me that everyday. I put salt on everything I can...even in my oatmeal. I have to though because 80/48 is not a good BP no matter what! The worst thing is that my blood sodium levels are always low even though I eat so much of it which I guess is because I drink so much water and because my body just can't hold on to it in general since I pee so much. Damn bodies! I hope you continue feeling better!!
Ugh. Of course, reading my post again, I see I made typos. I hate that so much! Haha.
I add salt to everything, too. We have to! Very low blood pressure is one of the worst feeling ever. I figured out how to manually change my sodium limit here, so I don't get that annoying message anymore.
Hope your blood pressure behaves
I think I inherited it because my Pap had bad orthostatic intolerance. Everyone else in my family has high BP so it had to come from him! How did you manually change your sodium? I need to do that!!
I went into my diary setting and clicked around. There's a link where you can set your diary to the recommended or do your stuff manually, I clicked manual and only changed the sodium, left everything else at what MFP recommends.0
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