Sodium Intake

Ebony_Kitty

Hi All,

I am a runner, about 35mpw and a very salty sweater. Sometimes when I finish a run in the high temperatures, I feel dizzy and immediately drink Gatorade and add salt to it. That immediately makes me feel better.

Anyway, I use a FitBit to track expenditure and use MFP to track intake and try to come up with a number between -200 and +200 on average. I don’t pay much attention to macros, which is usually close to 50C/35F/15P. But I make sure I eat my Fiber because I tend to get backed up if I don’t. Other than that, I am a healty, muscular, and athletic 5’4” 120-123lb 32 year old female.

Just tonight I was looking over my diary since January in more detail. On average, I consume 5-6000mgs of sodium per day. I eat a lot of frozen meals, I eat out a lot, and I eat a lot of sliced deli meat, turkey and ham mostly. This does not include and table salt I add to my food occasionally or the 5-10 packets of salt I dump in my 20oz Gatorade bottles each week. Actual consumption would probably by 7000ish if I had to guess.

Is this something to worry about? My blood pressure is usually in the 120/70 range. HR can hover around 185 for all-out 5 milers, resting HR is in the 40s. I am shocked I eat that much salt. I am thirsty a lot but attributed it to my Invisalign and the dry mouth it causes. Maybe I should cut back?
What are your thoughts?

Thx.

vermilionflower

Salt isn't just about high blood pressure. Dry mouth can be caused by too much salt, to make you drink more water. Salt also makes your kidneys work more to filter out so much salt. It might help your dry mouth to cut back. I try to buy everything as a no or low sodium version, & my sodium is about 1200 a day. Not super low but not super high. (You only need 500mg a day to balance solid and liquid in the blood, so 1200 is not very low.)

stanmann571

If you're drinking enough, and your BP/RHR is fine don't worry about it.