What was your sodium intake like when you lost weight ?

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toffee2013
toffee2013 Posts: 344 Member
in Success Stories
hi ,

my sodium levels are always below mfp goal and sometimes very low but just wondering what yours was/is ?
I eat plenty of fresh food and I'm surprised at how much sodium there is in meat etc .

Replies

  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    I didn't join MFP until I was near my goal, so I didn't track during my most significant loss. Once I started tracking my food, I noticed that if I got over 2000 mgs. of sodium, I would gain. I have reset my sodium to 1500 mgs. though I am not always successful at staying under.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
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    I have my goal set to 1500, but I try to stay well below that, and occasionally go over slightly. Some meats (especially chicken injected with salt water to swell it and increase weight) and also some seafood (like shrimp) are naturally high in sodium. I find that while they can be sometimes contain 150-350mg of sodium...proceesed foods can have 500-700+ mg of sodium per serving, even ones considered to be "healthy".

    I will allow myslef to have one higher sodium item a day, be it shrimp for dinner or bread, or a little soy sauce (1 tsp).

    I really don't think there is anything wrong with eating less than 800mg of sodium a day. I need to eat like that to control my hypertension and bloating/edema.
  • eyeshuh
    eyeshuh Posts: 333
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    You are never really gaining when you go high on sodium. It is just water weight. There are many other health benefits you can look up for staying lower on sodium, but really when it comes to just plain weight loss all you need to know is that you shouldn't freak out over a "gain" after a day of high sodium. It will go away as soon as you're lower again.

    At least, that has been my experience. I track my weight daily and mark when I've had a high sodium intake.
  • tross0924
    tross0924 Posts: 909 Member
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    I tried tracking sodium for a while when I lost weight. After being triple my goal for a few months straight and still losing with out any trouble, I figured it wasn't worth tracking anymore. Routinely I average about 4000 mg a day.
  • toffee2013
    toffee2013 Posts: 344 Member
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    that's good to know as I was too scared to eat anything lol
  • Guamybear
    Guamybear Posts: 1,061 Member
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    sometimes, I go over and sometimes under..just depends.. but i drop regularly..so far (knock on wood)..
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    Sodium intake alone isn't the whole story.

    Most of the current research in this area focuses on the balance between your sodium and potassium intake and has shown that the ratio between your sodium and potassium intake is a better indicator of future health problems including cardiovascular disease than sodium intake alone. Unfortunately, MFP doesn't have potassium numbers for most foods, but generally, a sodium-potassium ratio < 1 is ideal regardless of the total numbers.

    Some good information in this article which links to the studies: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2011/07/12/study-finds-sodium-potassium-ratio-strongly-tied-to-mortality-and-cv-disease/

    Potassium rich foods include potatoes, starchy vegetables (peas, etc.), bananas, dark green lettuce like spinach, dairy products, and beans.

    Long story short, don't stress about your sodium intake too much. Just try to balance it with potassium-rich foods.
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    Meat and plain brewed coffee are also good sources of potassium. Coffee was the most surprising to me. I was getting more potassium than I thought.
  • Amazon_Who
    Amazon_Who Posts: 1,092 Member
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    It may be because a lot of high sodium foods are also high calorie.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    I take a potassium supplement..because it is hard to get what you need in food...and it does counteract the sodium.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    I take a potassium supplement..because it is hard to get what you need in food...and it does counteract the sodium.

    Just be careful with those. Unlike sodium it is possible to OD on potassium in pill form. It's almost impossible to do that getting it via whole foods though.
  • omidiano
    omidiano Posts: 24
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    I take 3400 calories to lose weight... and 4k calories to gain muscle and fat.
  • kacarter1017
    kacarter1017 Posts: 651 Member
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    I also didn't start using MFP til I was fairly close to goal. Based on what I ate when I first began losing, I would say my sodium intake was probably between 2500-3000. Not long after I started this site, I found that my weight loss was better when I had more days that were lower in sodium. Took me a while to figure out what the issue was, but once I did and cut my sodium back, my weight loss was steady.

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