Sodium is @#$#ing P-ing me off!

Mr_Knight

One of the advantages of tracking pretty much everything there is to track is you can get a sense of your body's natural responses. For instance, I have noticed now that if I eat more than 7000mg of sodium over a 48 hour period, my body will retain 2 litres (~4.5 pounds) of water until my sodium intake drops significantly. This pattern has repeated several times now so it's not an "n=1" thing.

I don't eat a huge amount of processed food, so it's not *that* big a deal, but I do love deli meats, and we all know those are Na-bombs. Gah.

Curious if anybody else has tracked closely enough to quantify the direct effect of Sodium (or any other micro-nutrient) on their body.

magerum

ph inbalance. Try adding potassium.

Chief_Rocka

Curious if anybody else has tracked closely enough to quantify the direct effect of Sodium (or any other micro-nutrient) on their body.

Red Bull gives me wings

PikaKnight

Maybe don't eat so much deli meat then if it is pissing you off.

It's pretty well known that too much sodium (like 7K worth) will cause you to retain a lot of water. Not understanding what there is to really "notice" when this is pretty common.

CyberEd312

Nope never tracked a gram of sodium, never seen the point in it......

tonynguyen75

One of the advantages of tracking pretty much everything there is to track is you can get a sense of your body's natural responses. For instance, I have noticed now that if I eat more than 7000mg of sodium over a 48 hour period, my body will retain 2 litres (~4.5 pounds) of water until my sodium intake drops significantly. This pattern has repeated several times now so it's not an "n=1" thing.

I don't eat a huge amount of processed food, so it's not *that* big a deal, but I do love deli meats, and we all know those are Na-bombs. Gah.

Curious if anybody else has tracked closely enough to quantify the direct effect of Sodium (or any other micro-nutrient) on their body.

Replace deli meats with regular, non-preserved meats.

And no, I don't track any micro nutrients in my diet. I just try to get vegetables in every day and fruits every now and then.

DopeItUp

Yup, happens to everyone. My weekends are usually very sodium heavy (tacos, pizza, high overall intake, etc). I put on 3-4 pounds by Sunday or Monday. It's usually gone by Wednesday. Happens like clockwork.

Justifier

I used to track sodium thinking that I should limit it because that's what everyone says to do. I ended up light-headed and faint. Turns out my blood pressure drops too low when I don't eat enough sodium. Less than 2000mg a day was dangerous for me. Since I discovered that, I haven't felt faint at all and my blood pressure is now perfectly normal.

mikeykhan2003

Yes - my "cheat" day on Friday is basically sodium only. I still hit my macros and am very close to my calories, but I don't track sodium, because I know regardless of how much water I drink (a lot) or potassium I take in (not as much) that it'll be 3 or 4 days sorting it out.

I'm using 5.2 fast, so the rest of the week I'm fasting on Monday / Wednesday (at work so I get all the water and green tea I could ever want), and I shoot for 1800 or less on Wednesday. This means I generally lose about 1.5 lbs of water weight a day with good hydration, and by Thursday I'm back down to my "non water weight" weight.

It's a game I play, but it allows me to continue to control my water weight (from sodium) a bit when I'm trying to track my progress. That said, I can easily gain 8 lbs of water weight by the end of Saturday after so much sodium on Friday.

stillnot2late

I track sodium and potassium, trying my best to keep that potassium more than the sodium. Just noticed a lot of the foods in the list don't have the potassium content. Its soo hard cause I love the deli meats, wow! Noticed that a ham I was eating regularly had half of the sodium I needed for the day just in 2 ounces.

LizL217

Nope never tracked a gram of sodium, never seen the point in it......

Word. Don't track it because I don't really care (I don't have blood pressure issues or other medical reasons to worry about it).

I'm sure that an excess of sodium probably does cause my weight to fluctuate from day to day, but I don't really freak out over day to day fluctuations.

LiftAllThePizzas

I don't get it. But then my goal is to decrease body fat and increase muscle, not to manipulate or control my water levels.

Mr_Knight

I track sodium and potassium, trying my best to keep that potassium more than the sodium. Just noticed a lot of the foods in the list don't have the potassium content. Its soo hard cause I love the deli meats, wow!

Yes, agreed on all counts. Potassium seems to be the forgotten stepchild in the database.

The nice part about having this quantified is now I know precisely what to expect, and how to "undo" it. Fortunately I have no blood pressure or any other medical issues that would prevent me from indulging if I so desire.

NonnyMary

7,000 GRAMS OF SODIUM IN TWO DAYS??

its a wonder you are not in the heart attack unit of the hospital.

Justifier

7,000 GRAMS OF SODIUM IN TWO DAYS??

its a wonder you are not in the heart attack unit of the hospital.

7000 grams would kill you. 7000mg? Normal daily intake for many people. Especially eating processed foods.

QuietBloom

7,000 GRAMS OF SODIUM IN TWO DAYS??

its a wonder you are not in the heart attack unit of the hospital.

7000 grams would kill you. 7000mg? Normal daily intake for many people. Especially eating processed foods.

Um. I seriously ♡ your profile pic.

NonnyMary

7,000 GRAMS OF SODIUM IN TWO DAYS??

its a wonder you are not in the heart attack unit of the hospital.

7000 grams would kill you. 7000mg? Normal daily intake for many people. Especially eating processed foods.

Um. I seriously ♡ your profile pic.

sheesh 7,000 seems HUGE!! whoa!!

Do you agree that a pic like that would motivate someone to want to lose weight?

walleymama

I think it's interesting that you were able to quantify that for your own body. Yes, it is known that sodium causes water retention, but the degree to which that happens probably varies somewhat among people and also some people just never eat enough of it for it to matter (me, for example, as I don't like salty foods).

You can never have to much data, says this self-professed spreadsheet geek!

MuseofSong

Instead of letting sodium make you p.o.'d. Drink a lot of water on heavy sodium days so you can get it out of you that very same way. Once you give yourself a couples days of 10 cups of water and 2500 sodium or less, it'll evacuate and that bloat weight will go.

The only thing that's WEIRD that I learned over the last few week is the more water I drink, the more thirsty I am. But, when I'm trying to flush out sodium, I guess that's a good thing. I just finished my 10th glass of water, and I am thirsty. Heh, but I also had 3k sodium today, soooo yep, gonna go drink some more water and probably have to wake up twice tonight for bio.

Good luck!

DrewMontoya

Here are a couple of relevant articles about salt. The levels I eat don't cause me to retain water, so I don't track it either.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all

ereck44

7,000 GRAMS OF SODIUM IN TWO DAYS??

its a wonder you are not in the heart attack unit of the hospital.

Really! Just google it and you will see that over time it will harm your arteries and other harmful things that too much sodium will do to one's overall health.

I myself track both sodium levels and potassium levels. It's a great day when my potassium levels are greater than sodium--that means that I am eating a lot more fruits and vegetables that day. I can't say that I haven't had 3500 mg Na+ days, but that is usually when I eat pizza. I know that it will affect my weight on the scale, but that is minimal compared to the damage that it is doing internally.

Unknown

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Cindyinpg

I don't track sodium, I like my salty snacks and I'm always over the recommended daily intake. It hasn't affected my weight loss and I've seen no solid proof that it will ever adversely affect my health.