Why is my potassium goal so high?

obored1
obored1 Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am new to MFP I am interested in getting some weight loss friends to both give and get support from, a mentor or experienced person to gain some knowledge and tips from would be awesome.

I am new and bumbling my way through this, I am learning through mistakes what to do and not do, but I think there is probably an easier way...

My confused thought for the moment is trying to figure out why I am so short on Potassium every day, so my weekly shortage is huge.....any thoughts....

or is there some great diet foods I could add to help with the shortage, says my daily goal is 3500 is that a mistake? I have a potassium supplement that is 99mg per pill and recomends 1....that still would leave me way short.

Replies

  • INFJ
    INFJ Posts: 86 Member
    I don't know but I ate a portabello mushroom cap and a banana today and that totalled over 900!
  • CINDYRN33
    CINDYRN33 Posts: 148 Member
    oranges and orange juice are good for potassium, tomatoes, bannanas. I would not go adding potassium supplements to your diet without talking with your dr first!!!!!
  • kfbayard
    kfbayard Posts: 16 Member
    When I first started this threw me off too. What I learned was that a lot of food labels don't list potassium content because they aren't required to by the FDA. So you are probably getting more than you think. I also read that with regard to sodium/potassium, it is more about the ratio of the two, since most of us get enough of both in our diets for our bodies to function. So now I shoot for having my MFP sodium and potassium #'s be about equal. I figure that gives me wiggle room for any potassium that isn't listed.

    That said, I was still low on potassium. I added in dried apricots and almonds as snacks, baked potatoes at dinner, and started mixing coconut water in with my smoothies.
  • jgsparks89
    jgsparks89 Posts: 85 Member
    oranges and orange juice are good for potassium, tomatoes, bannanas. I would not go adding potassium supplements to your diet without talking with your dr first!!!!!

    Yeah, don't take a potassium supplement without first talking to your Dr. Other wise, baked potatoes are super high in potassium...also oranges, sweet potatoes, bananas, the list goes on. As a good general rule, if you are eating plenty of fruits and veggies, you have plenty of potassium. Don't stress about the number too much. Your body (as long as you don't have kidney disease) is good at managing you electrolyte levels.
  • obored1
    obored1 Posts: 32 Member
    Thanks for the info.....I am so new, I am not sure what to eat. I would lable myself as a picky eater, which has good points and bad, i.e. I don't eat gravy, ketchup, many sauses on things I don't eat......then again as a picky eater I seem to have found plenty to eat and get to an obese level. So this is my new path to healthy.....now all I need is to figure out some good easy starter foods/meals any tips or friends requests are welcomed

    Oh also for some odd reason (I originally had a reason, but I forgot what it was) I started this calorie counting 5 days ago, but I decided to go meatless.....I had shrimp fried rice today because it's seafood.......I am so confused, I want this to be successful, but I may be trying too hard
  • withchaco
    withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
    I started this calorie counting 5 days ago, but I decided to go meatless.....I had shrimp fried rice today because it's seafood.......I am so confused, I want this to be successful, but I may be trying too hard
    No need to go meatless for weight loss or health (but by all means, do it if it's for ethical reasons or allergies). Lean meats fill you up and have their place in a healthy diet.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    Thanks for the info.....I am so new, I am not sure what to eat. I would lable myself as a picky eater, which has good points and bad, i.e. I don't eat gravy, ketchup, many sauses on things I don't eat......then again as a picky eater I seem to have found plenty to eat and get to an obese level. So this is my new path to healthy.....now all I need is to figure out some good easy starter foods/meals any tips or friends requests are welcomed

    Oh also for some odd reason (I originally had a reason, but I forgot what it was) I started this calorie counting 5 days ago, but I decided to go meatless.....I had shrimp fried rice today because it's seafood.......I am so confused, I want this to be successful, but I may be trying too hard

    In my personal experience, meatless is a bad route to go if your primary goal is weight loss. If you have some kind of weird *kitten* psychological crap with animal suffering, that one thing. But doing it for the sake of weight loss is counterproductive for a number of reasons.

    Just to give you an example: me. I eat almost nothing but meat, protein shakes, and bars. I've lost 20 pounds in the last two months, just by getting my calories in check. Lean meats take quite a while for your body to digest and utilize (much longer than carb heavy foods) so it's much easier to eat less without feeling like you are starving.
  • zrmac804
    zrmac804 Posts: 369 Member
    I have the same frustration. Eventually I figured I just couldn't win with pottassium and gave up on tracking it:happy: .

    I don't know about elsewhere, but in North America food labels don't include data for pottassium. So a food may still contain pottassium but will be listed on MFP as 0 pottassium. You can find the pottassium content of most foods from a textbook or database, but it's more time-consuming than reading the label directly on the food, which is where most of MFP's data comes from.

    As long as you're getting lots of fruits and veggies you're probably getting ebough pottassium.
  • claire_90
    claire_90 Posts: 99
    a lot of potassium is in carbs so when you try to cut carbs cause they are so calorie rich you lose out on potassium which is really important! coconut has a lot ... potatoes .. apples/pears (any carby fruit), carrots, cabbage, nuts, dried fruit
    You can't really get multivitamins with it either so it's a tough one.
  • obored1
    obored1 Posts: 32 Member
    My primary goal is weight loss, I am an animal lover, I volunteer and donate much of my spare time to dog rescue, fostering dogs in my home, etc......that being said, I like eating meat, I must have gotten my self overloaded with info in my reserching good weight loss ideas and bad things, maybe it was the hormones in the meat I thought someone suggested was part of my weight gain issues, no idea now.

    I take no meds, I am 44, female and I have over 80 pounds to shed. I am almost never sick. Any food sugestions would be appreciated, also I could always use friends/mentors to guide me if you have been where I am now even if youre still enroute

    Weight loss is confusing. The last "diet" I tried was atkins, years ago, I am a picky eater, so I had no problem eating lean meat, my issue was that I wasn't getting enough fats on that diet or maybe lack of carbs, I was lathargic and miserable and It kept me away from even trying to change my weight again until now.

    So my actual real goal is to feel better AND loose weight
  • CINDYRN33
    CINDYRN33 Posts: 148 Member
    Weight loss is confusing. The last "diet" I tried was atkins, years ago, I am a picky eater, so I had no problem eating lean meat, my issue was that I wasn't getting enough fats on that diet or maybe lack of carbs, I was lathargic and miserable and It kept me away from even trying to change my weight again until now.

    So my actual real goal is to feel better AND loose weight


    Just keep it simple in the beginning, read as mcuh as you can on these boards they will teach you alot, measure everything and log anything that crosses your lips.

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