Wake up call to sodium

L_Reece

We are remodeling the kitchen, so have been eating a lot of pre-packaged foods or eat out. This has made me reach my heaviest weight of 367. Last week, I noticed my ankle/feet/calves very puffy. My left leg started weeping water through the pores. I went to see a doctor and she told me to not go over 2,000 sodium per day. I stopped counting my calories and just started counting my sodium instead. This has forced me to cut calories anyways. It has been one week today and I am down 11 lb. I know this is all water weight, but my leg has stopped weeping and I feel better. I am going to continue in this way in hopes I can keep losing. I will keep everyone up to date. Wish me luck. Thank you.

cmriverside

That's really scary.

I hope you can start taking care of your body and lose the weight.

Aplant77

Wow!

pogiguy05

Sodium makes you retain fluids and what you described sounds like weeping edema. Processed foods have alot of sodium in them. I drink French Vanilla Coffee powder and I usually do 28 grams or 2 servings which has 110 grams of sodium in it. I drink way to much of this coffee and it adds up fast.

I know it is also a pain in the butt, but do you log your foods? I use MFP and have also used Lifesum to track my foods and calories. i dont do Macros just calories and it really helps when I am logging foods. You would be surprised what a serving is when you see it.

The other thing is no matter how much weight anyone needs to lose I think it comes down to this, How much do you want to lose weight for yourself? Everyone has to get to that point where they say enough is enough. I still struggle to stay on track and I am like a roller coaster dieter.

My highest weight was 253lbs and I am currently around 210lbs. I have also joined a stepbet and dietbet challenge to help keep me on track. My goal weight is 170lbs and I would be happy at 180lbs also.

I will get there in time.

paperpudding

Good luck OP.

This is quite a severe reaction and would not happen to most people just from eating packaged meals, high in salt or not.

Yes you should limit your sodium as your doctor said - but there must be an underlying condition neccesitating this which you should also be treating.

L_Reece

The doctor is running tests for an underlying reason. I have dieted off and on, but just did not keep up with it. This was the eye opener I needed to really stick to it and do something. Watching my sodium makes me under my calorie intake by a few hundred. I was down another pound this morning, so this seems to be working.

bigbandjohn

My quick note on sodium.... Average 1-2 grams per calorie. Adjust for your caloric intake. At 1600 calories, I need to average 1.5 grams. I try to (sometimes unsuccessfully) avoid higher sodium foods. I have been informed from a kidney doctor that you do need between 1000 and 1200 grams of sodium minimum on average today for health reasons, but most of that can be obtained naturally in foods without adding salt.

DaisyHamilton

Wow that is so scary. Good luck OP, glad you found something to help motivate you, but sorry that it was in this way.

ssbbg

bigbandjohn wrote: »

My quick note on sodium.... Average 1-2 grams per calorie. Adjust for your caloric intake. At 1600 calories, I need to average 1.5 grams. I try to (sometimes unsuccessfully) avoid higher sodium foods. I have been informed from a kidney doctor that you do need between 1000 and 1200 grams of sodium minimum on average today for health reasons, but most of that can be obtained naturally in foods without adding salt.

This is a good rule of thumb, except mg not grams! I like 1 mg/ 1 calorie better than 2. (Even on a 1200 cal diet that gives you the 1200 mg your kidney doc recommends) That gives you a bit more wiggle room to use a higher sodium condiment too.

lynn_glenmont

bigbandjohn wrote: »

My quick note on sodium.... Average 1-2 grams per calorie. Adjust for your caloric intake. At 1600 calories, I need to average 1.5 grams. I try to (sometimes unsuccessfully) avoid higher sodium foods. I have been informed from a kidney doctor that you do need between 1000 and 1200 grams of sodium minimum on average today for health reasons, but most of that can be obtained naturally in foods without adding salt.

I think you mean average 1 to 2 milligrams of sodium per calorie, not 1 to 2 grams per calorie, which would be horrifically bad advice. On a 2000 calorie diet, that would be 4 to 9 pounds of sodium a day.