Should I really care about sodium?

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  • magicpickles
    magicpickles Posts: 286 Member
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    Do you still lose weight if you eat a lot of sodium? or does it just take longer to show up?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    magicpickles wrote: »
    Do you still lose weight if you eat a lot of sodium? or does it just take longer to show up?

    Yes you still lose weight eating lots of sodium, however that loss can be masked due to water retention. So you may have lost 1lb of fat, but you are holding onto 1lb of extra water, so it looks like you haven't lost any weight at all.
  • cdncarrie13
    cdncarrie13 Posts: 10 Member
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    I retain water SOOOOO EASILY its crazy!!! I set my sodium at 1500mg a day. Sometimes I go over that but try never to go over the RDA!!! If I have too much sodium (and yes it sometimes does happen) I will retain or gain so easily. Just my opinion but salt is not good for you should always be concerned about it. I never use table salt anymore (rare occasion when I have french fries, have to salt them, haha) and when a recipe calls for x amount of salt I leave it out. Only time I use salt is when baking. Salt is the devil in my world :wink: But some have no problem with it and more power to them :wink:
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Since February I've been trying to keep my sodium low. I got good at keeping my daily sodium intake below 1500mg. I also developed painful nighttime muscle cramps in my feet. One day a few weeks ago I binged on salty snacks. I logged it accurately, and my sodium that day was over 5000 mg. I had no more muscle cramps for a week. My binge was a one-day event and I returned to my low sodium ways. After my body excreted enough sodium to reduce my electrolytes below a needed level, the cramps returned. Discussing this with my Dr last week, she agreed that my low sodium could be the cause of my muscle cramps and recommended that I get my sodium up to 2g per day. That's what sodium is good for.
  • ThatsJustEric
    ThatsJustEric Posts: 16 Member
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    Good question and read
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
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    I try to, since my BP runs borderline high. Also, I tend to retain water if I eat foods that are especially salty, so I like to limit my intake when possible.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    edited August 2016
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    cdncarrie13 wrote: »
    I retain water SOOOOO EASILY its crazy!!! I set my sodium at 1500mg a day. Sometimes I go over that but try never to go over the RDA!!! If I have too much sodium (and yes it sometimes does happen) I will retain or gain so easily. Just my opinion but salt is not good for you should always be concerned about it. I never use table salt anymore (rare occasion when I have french fries, have to salt them, haha) and when a recipe calls for x amount of salt I leave it out. Only time I use salt is when baking. Salt is the devil in my world :wink: But some have no problem with it and more power to them :wink:

    Salt (Sodium) also has that effect on me, but it's a necessary evil. Without it we would likely die. It's an essential electrolyte. If you exercise heavily and sweat a lot, you'll likely find you need more than the daily RDA. Just depends on the person. Neat thing about it though is you can easily fix the water weight gain in a day or so by drinking lots of water (seems silly but it works). I generally weigh in on Thursdays on a regular basis so on Tuesday-Wednesday I make sure I get a very adequate amount of water and watch that my sodium doesn't go over about 3-4000mg a day. That way my weight is more accurate on Thursday mornings.

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