Too Much Sodium?

I have the same issue, but it is mainly if I do something pre made and high protein, like beef jerky or lean cuisine. I just started, so I am trying to figure out portion sizes before I start making my own meals again. Good luck to you!

Unless your doctor has diagnosed you with habitual high blood pressure and instructed you to follow a low sodium diet its not really something you have to worry about.

It will cause you to retain more water and it will increase your blood pressure but unless you are eating 4x the recommended sodium daily or you already have very high blood pressure its not going to cause you any real problems.

What might cause you problems is attempting to lose weight too quickly however so as an above poster said unless you are more than 40 pounds overweight your plan seems overly aggressive.

A 1200 calorie diet is not something that is long term maintainable and you are inviting going through a cycle of crash dieting and rebounding like a yo-yo.

question for you: where does your sodium come from ?

if you only cook at your place and eat whatever you cook i have a hard time believing you're going over the limit. best advice i can give you is exactly this - cook at home and eat real food and don't buy prepackaged stuff. I know its hard but I think its worth it. I care about calories but between the calories and the sodium I care more about the sodium. personally. high sodium intake is associated with a bunch of diseases (like high blood pressure, strokes, etc) and for me this is far more important than 200-300 extra calories a day. if you think the calories are more important then focus on them but make sure you know what a high sodium diet does to you

p.s i hope you know that the recommended sodium intake/day is 1300mg. I know the prepackaged food usually sets it to 2000 (or 2300, can't remember exactly now) but thats actually the upper limit and it is already too much.

The OP is 18 years old and overweight. Do you really think she needs to be focusing on her sodium intake?

In my opinion you don't need to micromanage that much especially at your age. Just make some small changes to your lifestyle in terms of how you approach food and exercise. These drastic changes you are making coupled with obsessing over the details like your sodium intake is just going to make you burn-out quickly.

Substitute a few higher calorie things for lower calorie things and take time in the mornings to go for a 45 minute walk. That's really enough. At 18 hugely calorically restricted diets and obsessing over food is not a place you want to be.

its pretty easy to stay low sodium just by -

not eating at restaurants
not eating canned soup, packaged frozen entrees (check the label - you will be surprised);
and adding extra salt to your food
seafood like lobster has more salt maybe because its from the ocean which is salt water (just a guess).

but really, I even ate at Subway which is supposed to be healthy but if you check the nutrition about it, some of that is very high sodium.

so with just a few changes in your food choices, you can eliminate a lot of sodium.

oh yeah, spices too can have added salt, or msg which retains water in you.

I think canned soup and restaurant soup may be one of the highest sodium even though it doesn't taste salty.

try eliminating those and see what effect it has on you after a week or two.

I feel so much better when I keep my sodium intake at or below 1500 mg/day so for me that works. It keeps me off high blood pressure medications, my primary goal, and has been the key to keeping my blood pressure at a more healthy level. One thing you will notice, if you decide to reduce your sodium intake, is that your taste buds will change and you will prefer to taste the actual food instead of the salt taste for many foods. You will find you can actually taste your food again. A real plus, in my opinion.