Here to track sodium intake as a diagnostic tool

neohdiver

I've had hearing loss and tinnitus in on ear for years. My ENT doc mostly ruled out a tumor as the cause and was just calling it atypical (since it is one ear only) hearing loss. But I recently I've added vertigo. I have an appointment with the ENT doc at the end of October. In the mean time, I've been ordered to keep my sodium intake between 1000 & 1500 mg/day and need a tracking tool - which is how I ended up here. If it decreases the vertigo, it may be endolymphatic hydrops (which includes Meniere's disease).

Both good and bad timing. I had just decided to get serious about weight loss again after letting my weight creep back up in the last year. Calorie counting doesn't work for me since I grow bored with counting once I've lost the weight and the weight comes back fairly quickly. I also tend to treat the calorie cap as permitting me to eat anything so long as I don't exceed the calories for the day - not a healthy lifetime plan. The success I've had in recent years (when I've been skinny much more of the time than I've been fat) is to modify what I eat and not pay any attention at all to calories. I eat two normal servings of lean protein daily, as many fruits and vegetables as I want, cut out or minimize sugar and fats, and in the losing phase I eat two empty but filling high volume carbs (like a bag of low calorie kettle corn, or a bunch of rice cakes). Once I hit my target, I substitute denser carbs (whole grain breads, for example), which tend to require more calories to fill me - which I need for maintenance anyway. I've done enough calorie counting to come within 10% of the calories for the day - but I never actually count - and that change in how I eat has kept me skinny around 7 of the last 10 years.

So - the timing is good, because paying attention daily helps (although I've never tracked anything but exercise - I'm up to 64.6 miles in the pool so far this year !) But the timing is bad because I know from experience that counting calories (or anything else - like points or some substitute for calories) is not a useful tool for me. By default the calorie counter is displayed with my food diary - so I'm wrestling with whether to leave it displayed or not.

And, also bad timing because I am discovering that many of my empty carbs are high in sodium (the flavor of rice cakes I like have 735 mg for the quantity I eat in one sitting, and sometimes I have that quantity twice in a day). So that is a bummer and I will have to figure out how to adjust so I don't sabotage myself on the weight loss end while I am monitoring my sodium.

I guess one benefit of the timing is that because of getting the sodium out of my system I'm dumping water pretty quickly - so going from 172.2 lbs at my doctor's visit on 9/26 to 167.6 lbs 3 days later feels like a lot of progress (even though I know it is just that I'm dumping retained water).

hockra

I'm reflecting on your specific need to track something other than calories. Perhaps you could start a "group" on the community for users who joined MFP to track "something other than calories."

As far as you "shutting off" your calorie ticker from others view, I think either way is fine. I see a lot of MFP users who show "zero" weight loss (which might mean no weight loss yet, they are in gaining mode or, like you, not on MFP for weight loss reasons.)

MFP is an encouraging community of people who want to be healthy and learn to make good decisions. Even though your main goal for being on MFP is not to track calories, the encouragement and motivation opportunity is still there. If you start the group on community, many people will benefit. You may be one of the people who can make a "new" MFP path for others!

Take care.

neohdiver

I'm reflecting on your specific need to track something other than calories. Perhaps you could start a "group" on the community for users who joined MFP to track "something other than calories."

As far as you "shutting off" your calorie ticker from others view, I think either way is fine. I see a lot of MFP users who show "zero" weight loss (which might mean no weight loss yet, they are in gaining mode or, like you, not on MFP for weight loss reasons.)

The group is a good idea. I did find one thread about Meniere's disease - quite stale, although I did add a post there.

The shutting of the calories is in my personal food diary - I have added sodium to the three there by default (since that is what I need to track). I am just debating whether it is helpful to me to see the calories consumed daily - or whether it will encourage me to focus on counting calories rather than eating healthy food.

But, I just discovered it is a moot point. It turns out that displaying the calories is mandatory - so I can't just turn it off even if I wanted to. I may have to suggest that as an option...

TanyaReneeOSU

Your original post could have been written by me! I have recently been diagnosed with cochlear hydrops. From what I understand, it could lead to Minere's disease. I have also been ordered by my neuro-otologist to be on a 1400mg or less sodium diet as well. I have been sort of on a low sodium diet for several years because I am taking a blood pressure med. I now need to get serious about all of this. I'm also trying to lose 20 lbs so the calorie count doesn't bother me. My main question is how do you also track your sodium intake on this website. Maybe I haven't dug enough into the website, but I was hoping there would be a sodium tracker attached as well as the calorie tracker. If you set up a group, let me know because it sounds like we are in the same boat regarding the hearing issue. best of luck!