Are you trying lose weight and/or avoid sodium?

crfq5knwgf

My blood pressure got out of control after years of being overweight. Avoiding sodium while losing weight is complicated.

rileysowner

I was very sodium focused when I first started to try to lose weight. I didn't find that keeping sodium lower while losing weight was that difficult. Track it in your diary here, and if you have foods that you eat that have a lot of sodium look for alternatives. Usually, home cooking food will be the best approach to do this.

Having said this, I quickly noticed sodium had no affect on my blood pressure, so I got much less focused on it. For some people it makes a big difference, for others almost none at all.

Sadly, I put weight on again after a knee injury that removed my motivation. Then life got exceptionally difficult. Then Covid came. After that my weight was up, and while my blood pressure was under control with meds, I was not making the progress I was making earlier to minimise or get off meds completely. Ultimately, what got me back into it was having my A1C creeping up.

Now, I am doing Keto to deal with my growing blood sugar issues. The interesting side effect of that is I don't pay attention to sodium at all. However, my blood pressure in the past two months has continued to go down so I am only on one medication with numbers going down on occasion to 92/63, but usually around 120-125/75-85. There are some who postulate that insulin resistance and high blood sugar levels make it difficult for kidneys to maintain the proper electrolyte balance increasing blood pressure. It may also be the weight I have lost and the exercise I have started doing again.

TLDR: Use your diary to see which foods are high in sodium, and cut back on them or find alternatives that don't have as much sodium.

Sammi_x_

I have also switched to pink salt if I have to have salt. Lower in sodium than table salt but if in a shop buy just try and keep an eye on salt levels as it contributes to water retention.