Sodium?

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_lyndseybrooke_
_lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How often, if ever, do you find yourself going over your sodium limit? I do about 3-4 days per week. I haven't noticed any bloating, but my weight loss is pretty slow. I know how to cut sodium, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to quite yet. Just looking to see if I'm the only one and any experiences others may have had with this.

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  • apgabriel915
    apgabriel915 Posts: 53 Member
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    Today I am, but I try really hard not to. My body holds on to it for a couple days and I just don't feel great. Sodium doesn't affect my hubby as much so we are all different. But on average, MAYBE once a week and almost always only of I go out to eat, which is rare.
  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
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    5-7 days lol
  • aarondnguyen
    aarondnguyen Posts: 270 Member
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    I go over pretty often, but it isn't anything to stress about--unless there's large amounts in everything you eat throughout the entire day.

    Drink plenty of water of dilute the amount in your system. You can also eat food rich in potassium to counter-balance the sodium.
  • LittleMissFit83
    LittleMissFit83 Posts: 38
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    I am a salt fiend, hence why I never pay attention to being over my sodium intake. I drink a crap ton of water so I like to think that balances it out. :)
  • Shaky44
    Shaky44 Posts: 214 Member
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    One of the biggest myths on MFP is that a high sodium diet will slow your weight loss. Unless you are talking about the VERY short-term, this is totally untrue.

    Let's say that you go over your sodium target every single day (like I do). This might cause you to carry around 4-5 extra lbs. But this doesn't go up as you continue to consume "too much" sodium. It's still the same 4-5 lbs. So you can still lose 1-2 lbs per week by eating at a deficit.

    I have been logging food on MFP for 11 months. I haven't looked, but I'll bet I exceed the sodium intake goal more than 95% of the days. I've also lost 10 lbs per month.

    I'm not saying that a high sodium diet is good. I'm just saying it won't slow your weight loss. Eating too many calories will slow your weight loss.
  • brc912
    brc912 Posts: 43 Member
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    How much is a "crap ton" of water? :D
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
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    Wow, this makes me feel much better! I drink about 10 glasses (4 bottles) of plain water a day, but I also use water in my protein shakes, recipes, etc. that I don't count but probably help. Plus, the water content in fruits and vegetables don't hurt!

    The only time I've ever experienced bloating from eating is occasionally after I gorge on Chinese food, but that's usually because it's on a weekend when my water intake used to go wayyyy down. Now that I'm actually logging on weekends (even if I'm not so strict diet-wise) and am making sure to have at least 3-4 bottles of water on those days too, I'm hoping my weight loss will speed up a bit. Going on week three of this plateau, but I'm going to keep on truckin'!
  • eyecandyrayce
    eyecandyrayce Posts: 260 Member
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    I used to go over my sodium on a daily basis. For an entire month I worked out 5 days a week, would eat my recommended calories but go over on sodium almost daily. I didn't drop a single pound the entire month.

    So one week I stopped going over on my sodium to see what would happen and I dropped 9 pounds in 3 days. So anyone who says that sodium does not keep anyone from losing numbers on the scale needs to stop lumping everyone together. Maybe it is just me this happened to but I doubt it. The thing is that everyone's body reacts a little differently to different things so as long as you are dropping weight at a speed you are comfortable then who says it's a problem or not.

    The problem is that sodium is in Everything now days. I go over about 2-3 days a week and that works ok for me.
  • modme09
    modme09 Posts: 2
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    I go over every day as well almost 2x, I also drink a ton of water thought about 2 gallons a day ( pee quite often is the only negative side effect i can for see with too much water)... But I did notice if I taper off the the sodium I drink less ( thats a given) and the next day or 2 my weight is down alot and muscle feel dryer. Even with all that said I still say screw it hold on the extra water weight and keep your salt, cause if it wasnt for salt Id prolly gave up on my diet a long time ago
  • cheekym7
    cheekym7 Posts: 570 Member
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    I am way over in my sodium! I didn't even pay attention to it, until today. I am soooo thirsty my eyes are even dry, 2 days in a row now. I took a look at my diary and pretty certain that is the culprit. I drink A LOT of water, but am going to take it down and try to meet MFP's suggested amount.
  • GertrudeHorse
    GertrudeHorse Posts: 646 Member
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    I go over my salt level quite a lot, but I also drink a fair amount of water (3-6 litres per day) and am reasonably fit without any blood pressure problems. I don't see the harm unless you have some sort of medical need to limit sodium.
  • snappyapples
    snappyapples Posts: 76
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    I go over rather often, which is pretty amazing considering that I stopped cooking with salt over 2 years ago! Hubs and I were taking care of his grandpa who had congestive heart failure and hubs himself has high blood pressure, so I just cut it out of cooking period. I think my problem is that I eat at work often (waitress), and there's a lot of sodium in restaurant food. Honestly I don't worry about it. I don't really bloat unless its TOM and I rather enjoy salt.
  • HoneydewLouu
    HoneydewLouu Posts: 18 Member
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    I try and keep my sodium pretty low! I don't add any extra salt to food- I used to love it but eventually you learn to do without. I suffer from poor digestion so I think I retain water quite easily! Extra salt puffs me out! Lucky I prefer sweet things ;)
  • Vicxie86
    Vicxie86 Posts: 181 Member
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    The more sodium i eat, the more my figures increase on the scale. I hold onto sodium like i'm trying to revolutionalise it, as much as 10lbs sometimes. I try to get under 1800mg but then i suffer from carb water retention too. I haven't seen a single loss in 3weeks but i have seen an increase though from a single indian meal from last thursday, which has yet to all come off.
  • JodieSmith15
    JodieSmith15 Posts: 40 Member
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    My trainer set a goal for me to only go over my sodium limit once a week. I've learned to choose foods that aren't so high in sodium. A typical lunch used to be a turkey sandwich on wheat bread and a can of campbell's soup. Sounded pretty healthy to me, and I was just starting on mfp. But that meal alone almost took up all my sodium for the day. I think for me it was less about how much weight I'd lose if I kept my sodium levels low but more so that 2,300 is the recommended healthy limit for me and and just like with fat, sugar, carbs, protein and calories I do my best to stay within my limits.
  • keddabee
    keddabee Posts: 81
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    I eat all protein so dont go over anything, apart from protein HAH! But I do know what everyone means. I'm like others, as soon as sodium is present, if I dont drink water to get rid of it, my body bloats and I can gain like 3kg overnight! It takes me about 3 days of good clean eating to get rid of that feeling and start feeling back to normal.

    I've never been a salt eater, never really liked salty foods. The only thing I can think of that I love with salt is good old kiwi fish n chips but I have that now once in a blue moon. Its amazing what cutting down your sodium does!
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
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    I don't go over a lot, not because I pay a lot of attention to it, but because we don't eat a lot of prepared/packaged food and don't add a lot to our food. Today, though, between canned soup at lunch (out of anything decent AND easy) and a corn chip craving I couldn't resist, I'm way over on salt. I think I won't weigh in for a few days because it's also that TOM, so I'm bound to be bloated. :-)
  • GertrudeHorse
    GertrudeHorse Posts: 646 Member
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    I eat all protein so dont go over anything, apart from protein HAH! But I do know what everyone means. I'm like others, as soon as sodium is present, if I dont drink water to get rid of it, my body bloats and I can gain like 3kg overnight! It takes me about 3 days of good clean eating to get rid of that feeling and start feeling back to normal.

    I've never been a salt eater, never really liked salty foods. The only thing I can think of that I love with salt is good old kiwi fish n chips but I have that now once in a blue moon. Its amazing what cutting down your sodium does!

    Something about what you've written doesn't sound right so I'm hoping there's some sort of error.

    Firstly, sodium is necessary for your cells to function. Without sodium you will (in very simple non-science terms) drown in your own body. Lots of other bad things will happen too. If you seriously gain 3kg with even a small amount of sodium in your diet then you should visit a doctor ASAP. You should not be regularly consuming less than 500mg of sodium per day because that is when you risk serious health problems.

    Also do you really mean you eat "all protein"? As in your diet is entirely comprised of protein? That also sounds alarmingly dangerous! Without fat your brain and other vital organs will slowly shut down. Not good.

    ETA: maybe you are confusing salt with sodium? I hope that is the case. Cutting table salt (sodium chloride) from your diet will not be harmful in the same way at all. Table salt is very high in sodium, but you will get sodium from most other foods.
  • CMB1979
    CMB1979 Posts: 588 Member
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    7 days a week. Korean food (I live here) is very salty - maybe average 4,000 - 7,000 mg /day and sometimes that per meal. No problems with it.
  • JazmineYoli
    JazmineYoli Posts: 547 Member
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    I used to go over my sodium a lot but I've been dong much better this year. I also have high blood pressure so I like to keep it low. Luckily I like spicy foods, so instead of seasoning with salt I just season with red peppers or habanero sauce.

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