Anyone else having trouble with sodium and sugar targets?

dittrimd
dittrimd Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been using MFP for about 6 weeks and I have having a hard time with the sodium and sugar amounts. I have not had a problem with fat and all my good targets like Vitamin C, A are fine but sodium and sugar are the worst. I do not worry too much about the sugar becuase most of it is from natural sugar like fruits and vegetables. For the first four weeks I completely cut out processed sugars and now I hardly eat processed sugar at all. Sodium is my biggest worry. It is amazing how much sodium is in our food. Before MFP I cannot imagine how much sodium I was getting. I am just curious what everyone else is doing.

Thanks,

Mark D.
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Replies

  • Agirard25
    Agirard25 Posts: 154 Member
    i am not really struggling with sodium anymore-i basically have stopped eating anything that I don't make fresh....but I am completely struggling with sugar levels! I am really paying attention to where they come from, and i guess they are natural...but I can't believe how quickly I am over!!!

    any advice appreciated!
  • SabrinaR10
    SabrinaR10 Posts: 25
    I have had a problem with it as well, almost in exactly the same boat. I feel like with the awareness I have now, I am able to do better with the values. I have cut my sugar down A LOT... If you are eat natural foods, then going a little over the goal seems to be ok with me :)
  • NNAhuja
    NNAhuja Posts: 669 Member
    You aren't the only one. I'm over on my sugar ANYDAY I eat fruits or drink most anything but water.
    A lot of sodium I have issues with are from processed foods (lunchmeats or canned stuff).

    I'm interested to see what others say.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,314 Member
    The sugar thing is like you said. I don't worry about my one piece of fruit a day and dairy sugars.


    The Sodium. The only way out of excess Sodium is to eat no processed foods or restaurant food (that includes lunch meats, unless you make them yourself.)


    You need some salt, but the processed stuff is super sodium heavy.
  • LittleLolita
    LittleLolita Posts: 76
    I hardly ever go over my sodium, but sugar is out of control almost every day. There's so much sugar in everything!
  • Machdude
    Machdude Posts: 136 Member
    Sodium is my biggest issue as well. At home not as big as when on the road calling on customers. I usually stop at subway and get a sandwich with around 300- 330 calories and thought I was doing great. Problem was when I started MFP and started tracking sodium I couldn't believe my "healthy" sandwich had about 1000 mg of sodium. I also noticed that if it's low fat, it is higher in sodium than the regular version, if it comes out of a box, can or jar, it's loaded with sodium, and restaurant food is much saltier than my home cooking. Breads - don't even want to go there. Even then, I make a nice potato and leek soup that I thought was healthy at 265 calories, but it has 900 mg of sodium in one serving. At least MFP has made me aware of this, like you, I had no idea i was consuming that much sodium.

    My method to manage it is to, plan my daily meals using the diary. If I know I am going to subway for lunch, I don't have a high sodium soup for dinner. The diary is a big help in planning everything for me, for example if I'm am going to be near or over on my calories I add some time to my workout to "cover" those calories. The diary allows me to look at my day ahead of time and make adjustments to my menu and/or exercise to try to keep everything in line. I have also switched to reduced sodium items like soy sauce, broth, stock and other items available in a lower slat version. I also started using more real spices in my food and have been able to reduce the salt in most of my recipes by at least 50%. Hope this helps!
  • jhartram
    jhartram Posts: 165
    I was in pretty much the same boat up until the last couple of weeks... I'm just starting to climb out now. Even making things at home I was still far more limited by my salt than I was my calories! Then I started reading labels...

    (Yes, I'm that freak in the grocery store with 9 kinds of butter/margarine in her hands comparing everything.)

    I've discovered that there are lower-sodium alternatives to my staples... I switched to almond butter instead of peanut butter (not much price difference, believe it or not!), started using "No Sodium Added" canned beans/tomatoes in my chili... There is stuff out there, it just takes a while to find it. Oh, and just because it says "Heart Healthy" does NOT mean it has less sodium, nor does a generic brand automatically have more. My friend laughs at me every time we go shopping because I yell at the food for false advertising.

    I quit watching my sugar, because it's almost all from fruit and my post-morning-workout protein shake puts me over the top before my day has really started.

    Hope this helps! =D
  • seebeachrun
    seebeachrun Posts: 221 Member
    Yep. I try to make sure that when I go over the sugar target that it is covered by the sugars in unprocessed foods (i.e. raw fruits and veggies.) I'm pretty sure the doctors are more concerned with processed sugars that are in sweets and/or commonly added to flavor foods.

    I am completely at a loss on sodium because some days I'm good and others I'm not. Today I went over because I ate canned soup; low in calories but very high in sodium for preservation. As much as I would like to say that I will make homemade soup some days I need foods that are already made and fit within what I consider my more important targets (calories, protein and carbs.) Plus a lot of condiments that make bland food like plain chicken breasts taste better are able to do that because they are packed with sodium. I try to consolidate this with the idea that I drink a lot of water which should flush a lot of the sodium out.
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
    yeah, sodium is my weakness :(

    processed foods definitely have more sodium than if you made the same thing from scratch.

    on days where you're really over just try drinking a lot of water to help flush it all out. good luck!
  • Woooolywool
    Woooolywool Posts: 136 Member
    I've actually posted a topic similar to this one on my intake of natural sugars. I struggle a lot with them too, I'm always over my recommended allowance on mfp, and by quite a far margin too. My natural sugars come from fruit mainly, and I LOVE fruit. People have told me that the best way to go about it is to have 2 fruit a day with 3 veg. BUT, considering that it's not processed, I don't really see a problem with it..
  • mom2tek
    mom2tek Posts: 75 Member
    I totally agree. I'm always over on my sugar. I do believe most is from fruits but even then when your trying to watch it it's tough. I'm border line diabetic and trying to watch very carefully.
    Sodium is not too much of a problem unless I eat more processed foods.
    I can't believe how quick the sugars add up. It's still discouraging even when it's from natural foods. I had gestational diabetes with both of my pregnancies and was told to watch even how much natural sugar I consume. It seems impossible!
  • OliveJuice1984
    OliveJuice1984 Posts: 45
    I was in pretty much the same boat up until the last couple of weeks... I'm just starting to climb out now. Even making things at home I was still far more limited by my salt than I was my calories! Then I started reading labels...

    (Yes, I'm that freak in the grocery store with 9 kinds of butter/margarine in her hands comparing everything.)

    I've discovered that there are lower-sodium alternatives to my staples... I switched to almond butter instead of peanut butter (not much price difference, believe it or not!), started using "No Sodium Added" canned beans/tomatoes in my chili... There is stuff out there, it just takes a while to find it. Oh, and just because it says "Heart Healthy" does NOT mean it has less sodium, nor does a generic brand automatically have more. My friend laughs at me every time we go shopping because I yell at the food for false advertising.

    I quit watching my sugar, because it's almost all from fruit and my post-morning-workout protein shake puts me over the top before my day has really started.

    Hope this helps! =D

    I'm that freak too! Been on this journey for a month and my grocery store runs have doubled in time because I am stopping to read every label that I pick up and comparing it to others. Biggest shocker for me so far was looking at regular Oreo's compared to the Reduced Fat Oreo's (I didn't buy any for myself, it was for a baking project for someone else) and the reduced fat was only by one mg and because of that the sodium content spiked up. There was little difference other than that.

    I think it's very important to read the labels before you buy something and don't just look at the percentages, look at what the item is made out of. There are key words in the ingredients list that should show you big red flags.
  • glenbabe
    glenbabe Posts: 303 Member
    I have 500mls of skimmed milk a day for cereals at breakfast and cups of tea.....this milk contains so much sugar ...then a portion of fruit and maybe a fruit yogurt and I am way over my daily sugar allowance .....these are not the bad sorts of sugars so will this affect my health I would hate to become diabetic.....I am okay on sodium as I prepare almost all my own meals from scratch.
  • cpudoc64
    cpudoc64 Posts: 135
    Yes these are my trouble areas as well. I am usually over on both and if it's "Pizza Friday" or "Buffalo Wild Wings Thursday"...well...fuhgeddaboudit! I can kill my sugar intake for the day at breakfast alone if I have a banana and 1 cup of 100% fruit juice.

    I don't worry too much about them but like the original poster said, what was I taking in before I started tracking it?

    All of my sugar comes from my food; mainly the fruits and veggies I eat. I drink fat free milk and use no added salt. No more chips or cookies for the most part. What else can anyone do?

    I know like the Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet says no fruit for 2 weeks. But lose all the benefits of the minerals that are in fruits, like potassium? So where am I supposed to get them from? Supplements?

    I'm still losing weight and gaining muscle like I wanted. Still if I could fix this problem I think I'd be better off.
  • serendip58
    serendip58 Posts: 20 Member
    I,too, worried about my sugar intake. But, as others have mentioned- if you eat just natural items,(unprocessed fruits, etc.) then,don't worry.
    I actually dropped that sugar register from my monitor grid. Now, I don't stress if I eat more fruit, thus more sugar! Yay!!!
    Believe me- I was stressing~
  • josho655321
    josho655321 Posts: 110 Member
    I always go over on sodium and sugar, I don't put much stock into it though since I stay under cals and still manage to lose weight. Unless you have some underlying health issue I wouldn't worry about it. But if you are worried about it, I would hit up a Nutritionist forumn on another site where Doctors can address concerns.
  • sportyskylar
    sportyskylar Posts: 149
    how much sugar should we be aiming for? 35g? thats what MFP set up for me but I feel like its too low..
  • ahipsher
    ahipsher Posts: 46 Member
    Oh I'm over in sugar all the time, and it basically ALL comes from fruit.
    If I eat a banana and a clementine in the same day, I'll definitely go over in sugar.

    It's frustrating because I don't even take sugar in my coffee, nor do I really eat much dairy that's high in sugar (like milk and fruit flavored yogurts).

    I used to be bad about sodium because I LOVE hot sauce on EVERYTHING. It has 0 calories, but man, that's a quick way to go overboard in sodium. Delicious though.
  • rowbseat13
    rowbseat13 Posts: 147 Member
    I'm having a hard time with sodium, too. It's really frustrating. It's to the point that I don't eat back all of my exercise calories because I know if I do, I'll be over my sodium level. :-/

    I don't eat chips or fries or fast food or boxed dinners... Nothing that pops into your head when you think of salty foods. But still, I'm getting close to the 2500mg mark the time I log all three meals, which severely limits my snack options. I use a lot of (natural) peanut butter in post-workout smoothies, which adds up. I made chicken taco chili for dinner the other night, with plenty of veggies and beans, but the two friggin' tablespoons of taco seasoning I put in the crock pot had more sodium in it than my entire lunch that day. I even used reduced sodium beans and "no salt added" tomato sauce. It's really starting to bother me.
  • cpudoc64
    cpudoc64 Posts: 135
    I guess for sugar my feeling is as long as it isn't from sugary snacks, table sugar and the like, i'm ok. MFP is set to 37 mg for me.
    On sodium, I keep have it set to 1500 mg. My potassium is set to 4700mg but as long as potassium and sodium balance, I'm ok too.
    In other words, sodium intake is 1500mg but potassium intake would be 2200mg. To me, that's a very good day.

    I also heard that if you drink enough fluids(water), it helps flush your system(kidneys) and the added sodium won't be as bad.

    Anyone else heard that?

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