Calories Intake = High Sodium levels But Low Calories intake with mid level sodium = Starving ??

AliceDark

abneyhakeem89 wrote: »

amelialoveshersnacks wrote: »

Hubby is on a low sodium diet due to health issues. He also needs to limit his fluid intake. I don't cook with any salt or add any salt to cooked foods, I read labels as he is on1500mg max per day. So no bacon, no cheese, no packaged meals and no takeaways. All those no's do make me feel sorry for him so when I do a high sodium meal, I try to offset it with a higher serve of potassium. It seems to be working well for him.

Too be honest I need to get on this strict diet even if that means starving myself.An I hope your hubby continue to overcome this battle and destroy the opponent

Your weight loss is going to take a long time (likely a couple of years). Can you starve yourself for two years? What do you think starving yourself for a couple of weeks is going to do? At best, you'll lose a few more pounds in those weeks than you would if you just did what MFP tells you, but you'll be setting yourself up for a binge when you break and can't take it anymore.

Stop trying to look for quick fixes, because getting to where you need to be isn't going to be quick, and start making real healthy choices.

JeromeBarry1

@abneyhakeem89 You have a long journey ahead and we all hope you both enjoy it and succeed at it.

Sodium: Your body needs about 2300 mg of sodium each day to perform as a living organism. Your body can survive with 1500 mg sodium daily, and the American Heart Association recommends 1500 mg as a daily limit to help reduce high blood pressure. You excrete sodium in your tears, sweat, and urine. Your kidneys do a very good job constantly of excreting sodium. As your body seeks to maintain a constant salinity of your blood and tissues, your body recruits and demands water when your sodium intake is higher than you need. This is how salty food makes your drink more. An excess intake of sodium leads to a temporary retention of water. Water is relatively heavy, so excess sodium leads to temporary weight gain. Ignore that weight gain.

Food choices: You can only succeed if you enjoy the process. You will learn to enjoy different foods as you find that your macro needs are real things.

Losing weight: This really is all about getting into a calorie deficit and staying in a calorie deficit. Using the food diary to record everything accurately and honestly is the best way to know that you are truly in a calorie deficit.
If you find that your macro distribution is causing discomfort with the journey, you will have to make small adjustments to your food choices to satisfy your macro needs while remaining in the calorie deficit.

Exercise: Is good.

NCchar130

I've read that increasing dietary potassium can offset sodium. If this is not the case, anyone reading please correct me or explain further.

Fruits and vegetables tend to be pretty high in potassium. When you're able to get more food in the house, that might be something to look at. You can track potassium in your food diary.


Link to an article from 2011 about a study on this:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304584404576440233075168872

SusanMFindlay

NCchar130 wrote: »

I've read that increasing dietary potassium can offset sodium. If this is not the case, anyone reading please correct me or explain further.

This is true. What actually matters is the ratio of sodium to potassium you consume.

ogtmama

If potassium is a help, here's a list that might be good https://draxe.com/top-10-potassium-rich-foods/

Naptownbabi

But also be careful with the extra potassium, could cause kidney damage, which is also hurt by HBP.

https://sodiumbreakup.heart.org/a_primer_on_potassium

Naptownbabi

I have both kidney disease and HBP so im walking the thin rope between too much sodium/too much potassium. I just love Ramen and Kale too much