Staying under 2500mg of sodium?

JDMPWR
JDMPWR Posts: 1,863 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
Who else has this problem. Please check my food log and you can see I really do not eat anything salty on the norm and I still go over by at least 1500-2000mg a day.

Anyone else have this problem?

Replies

  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
    It can be tough. I try to stay under 2300 mg. I eat fruit and protein shakes to supplement my calories. Fruits and veggies are naturally low in sodium. I've also switched to low sodium green beans when I eat them from the can.
  • TooFine4MFP
    TooFine4MFP Posts: 134 Member
    I always have this problem. It used to bother me alot, but now I don't let it get to me. Unless you cook all your own foods from natural ingredients, sodium is hard to avoid. Its in just about all frozen, canned, and other processed foods like cheese. It's very hard to prepare your own meals if you have a busy lifestyle, but even if you drank tons of water, you still wouldn't be able to wash out that much sodium.
  • beethedreamer
    beethedreamer Posts: 465 Member
    There are alot of foods that we dont realize have sodium in them, such as condiments. The subway sandwich in your food log is probably what set you over for today because buffalo sauce is crazy high in sodium.
  • sbilyeu75
    sbilyeu75 Posts: 567 Member
    I was shocked when I found out that a teaspoon of salt is 2300mg. That being said, I just try not to double it.
  • 50ishFoodie
    50ishFoodie Posts: 82 Member
    I have that problem, too. However, it has gotten better since I quit buying a lot of processed foods. I know that time constraints make it hard to cook all the time, but I make the time for it. for veggies - buy only fresh or frozen. Frozen are actually cheaper and have more nutrients. Easy to heat in the microwave on the run. Anything you get at a restaurant - like Subway - will have a ton of salt. So do condiments. My dietician friends say to avoid anything that has more than 450mg of sodium per serving. I cook about 3 times per week, and cook enough to have leftovers. That saves me time and calories.
  • JDMPWR
    JDMPWR Posts: 1,863 Member
    Subway is my one escape for the day and I have butchered it to the point that it is a shell of a sandwich but I guess I will have to cut that up too or just make the same from home with cheese and veggies and cut the bread out. I just switched from flatbread to Wheat as I found out the flatbread was worse off then the wheat or maybe get it without buffalo sauce?
  • 00trayn
    00trayn Posts: 1,849 Member
    Sodium is worth cutting back on, trust me. I scaled back my calories a bit in the last week and a half and have kept my sodium below 2000mg, usually lower, and I've lost 3 lbs in a week. I just minimize eating food from restaurants and take out places and I'm careful about what frozen foods I buy so they don't have high sodium counts.
  • lisawest
    lisawest Posts: 798 Member
    Veggies and fruits serve a two-fold purpose here. 1) They are naturally low in sodium (unless you sprinkle them or dip them:wink: ). 2) They have potassium in them. I'm not a dietician, biologist, or anything like. I don't understand exactly how this works, but I read on a website similar to this one (but not NEARLY as friendly or easy to use!) that potassium helps flush sodium from our bodies.

    I track both sodium AND potassium. Getting enough potassium has NEVER happened to me! Even when I've eaten a lot of the high potassium foods, I am usually WAY under. Potassium is leached from food the more it is processed. The closer to the field/animal it is, the more potassium there will be in it. So, veggies, fruit, etc are the best sources. Pairing potassium with extra water helps on the days that I go over on sodium.

    Oh, and I avoid going over by eating LOTS of fruits and veggies!:laugh:
  • Brat3073
    Brat3073 Posts: 160
    i have this problem alot. I just went to a weight management class at Curves this weekend and it was on sodium. I always thought i was doing a good thing by eating at Subway if i was eating out...but the lunchmeat was killing me on the sodium. Watch the processed foods like the lunchmeats. Try to stick to regular chicken and turkey. Watch your soups too. They tend to have a ton of sodium in them. I look for soupd that say Low Sodium...or at least reduced.....and ramen noodles.....the only thing i use them for is my salads now (ive traded my croutons in for these noodles...uncooked of course). You shold only have between 1500 and 2300 mg of sodium a day.....2300mg is a teaspoon of salt....thats alot! i try to stick as close to 1500 as i can, but if you have looked at my FD, youll see that its very hard for me. I hope this helps! Oh and i hope the fiber chart i sent ya earlier helped too!
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
    I forgot to mention that I use sea salt to sprinkle onto food now. The sodium content is less.
  • Upsidelife
    Upsidelife Posts: 9 Member
    As long as I'm not drowning myself in salty food- is it really that necessary to cut down for weight loss? I mean I know the more sodium you intake, the more water the body retains- hence more weight. But isnt this just superficial weight? A few pounds here and there on water retention arent really relavent as far as lean body/ *fat* loss goes, right?

    Or is everything I said wrong
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    I forgot to mention that I use sea salt to sprinkle onto food now. The sodium content is less.
    No, sorry, it isn't less.

    http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/PreventionTreatmentofHighBloodPressure/Sea-Salt-Vs-Table-Salt_UCM_430992_Article.jsp
  • RM10003
    RM10003 Posts: 316 Member
    It definitely is hard! I try to stay below 2000mg (nutritionist recommended this) but if I eat anything I didn't make myself, poof, I'm over. I've started doing things like cooking beans from dry rather than using canned in order to cut sodium--thank god for the pressure cooker. But there are times I just give in (eg corned beef on St. Patrick's Day, short of brining it myself it's hard to get that one low enough).
  • halimaiqbal00
    halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
    I have the opposite problem... am always waaay under
  • j75j75
    j75j75 Posts: 854 Member
    From looking at your diary it doesn't look like you have had any problems staying under 2500mg. Although I would say that bacon is easily your biggest source of sodium. Why is it such a concern of yours?
  • j75j75
    j75j75 Posts: 854 Member
    Some people want to look more "cut" and "ripped". In that case you would want to reduce the amount of water your body retains, ie: eat less salt. Bodybuilders do this before a competition. But they take it to extremes, some pass out after the contest, or even onstage. You are right though it really has nothing to do with actual weight loss.
    As long as I'm not drowning myself in salty food- is it really that necessary to cut down for weight loss? I mean I know the more sodium you intake, the more water the body retains- hence more weight. But isnt this just superficial weight? A few pounds here and there on water retention arent really relavent as far as lean body/ *fat* loss goes, right?

    Or is everything I said wrong
  • Scottjt
    Scottjt Posts: 32 Member
    http://www.coach.ca/sodium-facts-for-athletes-p140738

    If you're exercising, sodium is something you should absolutely not worry about.

    If anything, not enough sodium in the diet can cause health problems and that's certainly more likely for someone who exercises. The weight lost from low sodium diets is just from a reduction in water retention and will go straight back on.

    Plus this is running before you walk, exact sodium levels are only something to possibly bother about if everything else about your diet and training is absolutely perfect. Get your calories, macros and training bang on before you start worrying about whether your daily sodium should be 1500mg or 2500mg or whatever, it's really nitty-gritty and pointless. Hope this helps.
  • CharleneExtreme
    CharleneExtreme Posts: 372
    1. I hope this is a sarcastic topic, if it's not then...
    2. Has the doctor specifically told you to stay under a certain range? If not, you're just wasting your time.
    3. It specifically tells you which foods you're consuming that are higher in sodium, trader joe's.


    The fat guy who has no idea what he's talking about, and has never accomplished anything, aka asmcriminaL says "hi!"
    :drinker: ::::waves:::::drinker:

    how is your progress going??? -cough-

    Jdvdr.gif
  • longtimeterp
    longtimeterp Posts: 614 Member
    ha, i just did a chart of the last 30 days, avg about 4000, highest was 9000...man i am sooooo glad i got my blood pressure under control. i dont even keep track now, wouldnt even want to think what it would be if i added in all the salt and seasonings i put on everything too. i remember when i was like 165/120 bp and had to make it a point to get less than 1000mg a day, couldnt eat subway, lunch meat, canned soup, frozen anything, even most salad dressings, it was a real pain. and everything was so bland! i LOVE SALT
  • Cranialrock
    Cranialrock Posts: 2 Member
    http://solomonsseal.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/6-foods-that-are-killing-your-bones/

    the fight against sodium is not just for your weight...
    Your whole skeletal structure is at risk..over time.
    This is a good read if your having or are concerned about joint pains and other bone weaknesses.
  • tinylightsbelow
    tinylightsbelow Posts: 85 Member
    I find that when I eat anything from a restaurant or from a box or can I have difficulty staying under my sodium limit. When I cook my own food, I stay well under the limit.
  • Antoine112
    Antoine112 Posts: 49 Member
    And I've got the exact opposite problem of not being able to make the number. It always hovers around a 1000 or less. Don't want to increase my salt intake unnecessarily as my blood pressure has been relatively normal all my life! Wondering what to do....??
  • ken_hogan
    ken_hogan Posts: 854 Member
    The OP was from almost 3 years ago....I hope they figured it out by now... :smile:
  • Cranialrock
    Cranialrock Posts: 2 Member
    You are the only person iv heard of that can do that!!!
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,658 Member
    deleted reply as this is an old thread and I did not notice the date of the first posting.
  • NonnyMary
    NonnyMary Posts: 982 Member
    Ham products seem to have more sodium (bacon, ham, LUNCHMEAT especially lunchmeat you get at any restaurant ... grrrrrr,, that may be why Subway is higher in sodium because its lunchmeat/sliced meat, any meat that is cured in salt like corned beef, are high in sodium, also i found out that "healthy" sandwiches from places like Jersey Mikes subs dont taste like high sodium but they have like 1,600 to 2,500 in one regular sandwich grrrrr,,, also some chicken products (the kind you get at a restaurant vs your own homemade) seems to have a lot of sodium/preservatives.. also shrimp can be high sodium when processed.

    also condiments like my fave barbeque sauce - 300 mg per 1 (or 2? teaspoons)... and mayo, and there can be high sodium in Chinese food too... a lot of restaurant food is bad for low sodium.

    sodium retains water, so if you eat food higher in sodium, wait a couple days and it will go down the toilet, but drink enough water to wash it away.

    Check out the MFP food database and see some examples, i.e. there is a shrimp taco that has extremely high sodium, and you'd think it wouldn't but it does.

    the solution seems to be - keep your food as plain as possible, without a lot of added condiments, and make your own chicken to put on salads rather than buy deli chicken or restaurant food that has premade the chicken for you.
  • LexiAtel
    LexiAtel Posts: 228 Member
    There's hardly anything in your blog... *scratches head*

    Should brussle sprouts have sodium? Do they naturally have that, or is it added? Check the ingredients on the package.

    Here's what you do.

    Don't Buy:
    Premade Frozen foods
    Canned foods
    Packaged foods
    Fast Foods
    Junk foods

    Check out my food blog. I hardly ever reach the sodium level.
  • vec2013
    vec2013 Posts: 30 Member
    I don't sweat going over sodium or sugar if I know I haven't eaten anything crazy. A cup of cherries with the pits has put me close to being over daily sugar and an oz. of bleu cheese crumbles on my omelette really racked up the sodium. Just watch out for packaged foods and processed meats.
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