I failed on the DASH diet

Cinder333

I started the DASH diet about a week ago, and I am not doing good at maintaining it. I have been using MFP for quite some time, and haven't done very well. I am decreasing my calories by about 100 this week to leave a little extra room. I have actually liked a few parts of the DASH diet. I am now eating Fiber One with a few almonds for breakfast, and that decreases my sodium. I like making sure I get my 4 servings of vegetables, and again that helps with my sodium level. There was a study that orange juice lowered blood pressure, so I am using that as my fruit servings. I found some good low sodium marinara sauce that I will permanently use, and I also make my own pita chips with whole wheat pita bread and Mrs. Dash.

Has anyone decreased their blood pressure by focusing more on weight loss rather than sodium? I am definitely lowering my sodium, but wondered if anyone has experience with this. It is only my diastolic that is the issue. Although I have only lost about half a pound I still think I'm doing ok with tracking, and I am also figuring out how to eat more volume to stay full.

Thanks!

NovusDies

Unless your doctor specifically tells you that sodium will help your blood pressure you are better off focusing on weight loss and improved fitness not specific ways of eating.

Oh and the answer is yes. I have lowered my BP through weight loss.

apullum

Exactly what do you mean by "haven't done very well"? Do you mean that your blood pressure didn't go down? That you're having trouble staying in your calorie range? That you don't like the DASH diet? Something else?

hmhill17

I’ve lost 45 pounds and my blood pressure on the higi machine at the grocery store has been 90/60 for about a month. And my sodium has been off the charts high some days.
Weight loss and exercise will do more for bp, cholesterol, blood sugar, laundry list of other things than any special diet.

BarbaraHelen2013

Just going to mention that, generally, at least, you can only make one serving of fruit juice ‘count’ as a daily serving of fruit. This is because juice doesn’t have the valuable fibre content of whole fruit.

I don’t have any idea what the DASH diet is, though, so entirely possible that the ‘rules’ are somewhat different for that!

Sabine_Stroehm

How have you failed? It's been a week. Give it time.
DASH is generally good diet, but I agree with the post above. Juice is not a good choice for "fruit". It lacks fiber and causes a blood sugar rush.

kimny72

A week is a really short period of time. It's perfectly normal for it to take some time to get a new way of eating down pat.

Maybe pick one place you struggled to stay on plan, and just focus on fixing that one thing, one serving at a time. Then once that gets easier, add another.

I'd bet every little step you take toward the way you want to eat will make some difference, even if you aren't perfect all at once. And as long as you stick to your calories, weight loss will probably help too!

moogie_fit

Is it your first week tracking sodium? Is that what you mean by not doing well? The sodium levels on MFP along with other micronutrients are not so good. I second others in saying focus on reducing calories and body weight if needed, sodium will go down with calories and with less processes foods

lemurcat2

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

How have you failed? It's been a week. Give it time.

Yes, this. More information would be helpful.

I think DASH is great in part because it works with people where they are, so assumes that fruit juice might be easier than fruit and pushes only 4 servings of veg (which is IMO low) and whole grains as a replacement for more refined grains. It does not really focus on the benefits of beans/lentils and nuts/seeds, which I think is a miss. You seem to be following it based on lowering sodium, whereas a lot of it is actually about increasing potassium (i.e., the encouragement of fruit juice, potatoes, and dairy).

The answer is yes, it's possible to reduce blood pressure just by losing weight, but a more home cooked (usually lower sodium) and higher veg diet (more potassium) is beneficial too.

I find official DASH hard to follow in that my mind doesn't work in servings, I like more veg than it includes (I think based on the idea that the average American is anti veg), and I am not that into grains, but the general concept of the diet makes sense to me. There are ways to follow it in spirit but focus on grams and MFP logging, if that's your issue.