Sodium Armageddon!

I have recently started watching my sodium intake as well. I also have found i eat a ton of salt! i dont think its affecting my weight loss but i know it isnt good. Need advice!!

Drink plenty of water and your sodium intake won't matter.

I should have added one thing I have done is gotten the steam in bag frozen veggies and nuke them and crack some pepper over them. I only have to deal with making half a meal from scratch and the side at least is no worries and not processed food.

Anyone seen a study that follows people eating elevated levels of sodium and what happened to them? Kind of hoping it takes more than 4,000 mg before you start getting high blood pressure from salt alone. I'm also wondering how long it takes your body to flush out excess sodium when you do cut back and if all of this water I'm drinking is helping to offset excess sodium at all.

edit: Looks like Bane Kitten up there answered my question on water while I was typing this.

I've also been struggling with the sodium issue. Of course, the daily recommendation doesn't slide with the number of calories you eat. I imagine it's a lot easier for someone on a 1200 calorie diet to remain beneath the 2300mg standard recommendation. But for someone eating in the 2500 calorie range to try to remain below the 1500mg level recommended for most adults (http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssodium/) is probably impossible without preparing all food from scratch, and avoiding even avoiding some foods that have a fair bit of sodium in them without salt (1260 mg sodium in a teaspoon of baking soda!).

At work, we have a great dining hall, and can eat for free. When 16 hour days are commonplace, 20 hour days not rare, and 7 day workweeks are expected, it tends to be a benefit that is utilized extensively. But I've found that single servings of most entrees are well over 1500mg just in the one dish! Then there was this chicken hoagie that is on the regular rotation - 940 calories and 1800mg of sodium, in 10 bites! And it doesn't really taste particularly good...

I've been working to bring in food prepared at home to help offset the sodium issue. Ironically, we also run an organic farm, and normally would eat almost entirely from food we produced. Unfortunately, with the drought this year, we sold most of the produce we would have put up for ourselves, or distributed it to our CSA, and the schedule has been so wacko we've been mostly eating in the dining hall. So, I gained 20 pounds in the first half of the school year, and my blood pressure shot up to the 140/85 range, and I've started tracking sodium for the first time ever. It's been an appalling experience!

I just returned from a session with a health plan dietitian. I've been using Fitbit and MyFitnessPal three weeks. Because of hypertension, she said my sodium intake should not exceed 1500 milligrams per day on a 2000 calorie diet to obtain a one pound a week loss which she agreed with. That is for my height, weight, age, and health history, no one else.

I have exceeded that weight loss these 3 weeks and she said to eat a little more, more for breakfast as I was ending up with a calorie deficit at the end of the day. You do not want to go into starvation mode. Cutting sodium is going to be tough as I eat out a lot or use packaged food at home. I always seem to be too busy to cook or wait too long to start.

We talked about all matters of things from diet, muscle loss as I age, testosterone, sleep, exercise, and other stuff. This was not my first exposure to a dietitian and I though she was very good and covered all the bases. She even suggested BMR testing for me. She also looks like she walks the walk.

Regarding water, we discussed how sodium retains water in the body thus increasing blood pressure. That is totally different than drinking water which is necessary to flush toxins from your organs and prevent constipation. Drinking more water does not allow you to disregard sodium intake nor does it raise your blood pressure. But even water intake has limits based on your personal situation.

I printed out my last week of food intake, and all related charts which she reviewed. She was familiar with Fitbit and some programs like MFP, but not it specifically. I asked her about MFP's methodology of allowing extra calories for exercise. She said she did not agree with that and that I should stick with 2000 calories a day at my present activity level (which is a big step up from being a slug).

Every body is different and we each have our own health history. I don't think you can obtain *specific* advice here relative to what is right for you. Trends, general guidelines, sure. But the pros have their place and seeking their advice is the best route.

I have a difficult time keeping sodium under the default mfp setting and I do keep an eye on it only because it tends to raise my blood pressure at some point. Just by tracking it and watching my blood pressure I've seen that for me personally it's not bothersome until I get into the 4000-5000mg territory so I shoot to keep it closer to 3500 or below. Restaurant food seems to be the main culprit for me- when I cook at home it's much less of a problem.

That's funny I can't even get close to the sodium levels I need! I eat everything fresh. Cut back on processed foods, and I never salt anything I usually dispise the taste of salt unless I am craving it. Generally what I do is pepper or put other seasonings, vinegar, tomato sauce.

My friend told me the same thing this weekend- she's completely cut out all processed foods (as well as a number of other things, but I'm not prepared to go that far just yet), but I'm having the exact same problem as everyone above and it sounds like it might be worth cutting out the processed/'not from scratch' stuff. I just bought some new vegan/vegetarian cookbooks that look really promising for doing just that, so I guess Sunday night will involve a whole lot of cooking for the week!