Sodium confusion

katebutler58367
katebutler58367 Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
Hello All,

I'm new to this, with two days under my belt.
I have a question regarding the amount of sodium i'm supposed to eat.
My cals have been worked out to 1480g, 358g are made up of carbs, protein and fat with 60g more to sugar. The rest seems to be all sodium.
Unless I start main lining salt there's no way i can eat all of that.
From my uneducated eye it would appear that the App has got confused between milligrams and grams.
Am I being completely daft, or does it seem like a genuine issue?
Hope you can help

Replies

  • sadrithmora
    sadrithmora Posts: 121
    Sodium is measured in milligrams. If you eat that many grams you'll... I don't know if you'll die, but it's definitely not gonna be good.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Hello All,

    I'm new to this, with two days under my belt.
    I have a question regarding the amount of sodium i'm supposed to eat.
    My cals have been worked out to 1480g, 358g are made up of carbs, protein and fat with 60g more to sugar. The rest seems to be all sodium.
    Unless I start main lining salt there's no way i can eat all of that.
    From my uneducated eye it would appear that the App has got confused between milligrams and grams.
    Am I being completely daft, or does it seem like a genuine issue?
    Hope you can help

    your goal is calories... the macros are percentages, which break down into grams... so 100g of protein is x number of calories for example...
  • Lonestar5775
    Lonestar5775 Posts: 740 Member
    You will be amazed by how much sodium you consume if you eat prepared meals or frozen foods. Check out a typical soup can label. If you prepare most of your own meals and eat mostly unprocessed foods, then you will keep your sodium in check. It's only processed foods that are usually outrageously high.
  • erelyl
    erelyl Posts: 48 Member
    Sodium is a component of the food you are eating, not a measurable portion of the calories themselves, if that makes sense.

    Most foods will have some carbs, protein, fat, sugar, and sodium content. Believe me, you don't have to mainline salt to go well above and beyond the RDI sodium especially if you eat any baked or processed foods.

    Also keep in mind that the sodium miligrams listed are generally considered to be a maximum, it's definitely ok to be under on salt intake, unless you have been advised otherwise. We need some salts to regulate our nervous system in particular, but most folks get way way more than they need in the run of a day.
  • coreytikkitavi
    coreytikkitavi Posts: 5 Member
    It sounds like you are confused on measurements yourself!


    Calories are not measured in grams. Calories are a unit measurement.

    Fat, protien, and carbs are measured in grams. They all contriubute to your overall calorie goal.

    1 gram of Protein = 4 calories
    1 gram of Fat = 9 calories
    1 gram of Carbohydrate = 4 calories

    Salt is a totally separate metric, it does not contriubute to your calorie goals. It is usually measured in mg.
  • xavienx
    xavienx Posts: 2
    A lot of processed, well, most processed foods, or pre made, frozen, canned foods have high high high sodium. I wouldn't sweat it at first, but definitely start paying more attention to your sodium intake once you are comfortable understanding the calories, protein and carbs in foods that you regularly eat.

    It's a hard long battle, but you need to take it one step at a time to succeed.
  • ColeCake292012
    ColeCake292012 Posts: 247 Member
    Hello All,

    I'm new to this, with two days under my belt.
    I have a question regarding the amount of sodium i'm supposed to eat.
    My cals have been worked out to 1480g, 358g are made up of carbs, protein and fat with 60g more to sugar. The rest seems to be all sodium.
    Unless I start main lining salt there's no way i can eat all of that.
    From my uneducated eye it would appear that the App has got confused between milligrams and grams.
    Am I being completely daft, or does it seem like a genuine issue?
    Hope you can help

    You are eating 1480 calories...those aren't grams.
    Each gram of carbs and protein you eat equals 4 calories and fats are 9 calories per gram. Sugar is already included in carbohydrate calories because its a type of carb, just like fiber...its just good for some people to log to help manage how much added sugars they eat. Out of those three macronutrients, with that math, your macro calories will equal the amount of calories you ate.

    Sodium has nothing to do with your calories, because in essence, its calorie free. So no, the rest of your calories aren't made up of sodium. All the calories you eat are only made up of carbs, fats and proteins in one form or another. Sodium is good to track for various reasons. Usually 2300 MILLI-grams is a fair amount each day, dropping down to about 1500 if you're over 55, I believe. I have mine set to 2500mg, which is still less than the average person consumes these days.

    I hope that sort of helped, although I'm not always good at wording things! :)
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    Hello All,

    I'm new to this, with two days under my belt.
    I have a question regarding the amount of sodium i'm supposed to eat.
    My cals have been worked out to 1480g, 358g are made up of carbs, protein and fat with 60g more to sugar. The rest seems to be all sodium.
    Unless I start main lining salt there's no way i can eat all of that.
    From my uneducated eye it would appear that the App has got confused between milligrams and grams.
    Am I being completely daft, or does it seem like a genuine issue?
    Hope you can help

    You're confused? I'm confused! Where did you get these numbers? I'm assuming you mean 1480 calories, not 1480 g. So, roughly 25% of your calories are coming from carbs, protein, and fat - again, I'm assuming you mean each (25% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat). So...where's the other 25%? Sugar IS a carb, so it's not counted separately as a percentage of your intake. And "the rest seems to be all sodium" makes no sense - sodium itself does not contain calories.

    Like others said, sodium is measured in mg. MFP has it set up so you stay under 2300 mg of sodium per day. Unless you have a medical issue, you don't really need to control your sodium. If you go over in sodium, just make sure you're drinking plenty of water to balance it out and avoid water retention.

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