1500 mg or less! :D

amarie35
amarie35 Posts: 333 Member
edited September 24 in Food and Nutrition
I'm TOTALLY psyched!! I went to Dollar General to stock up on some LOW sodium & HIGH potassium foods & I was very impressed with what I found. For one, I never realized how good Frosted Shredded Wheat was for you. WOW! It has 0 mg of sodium & 180 mg of potassium. I also found that Dried Apricots only has 10 mg of sodium & 350 mg of potassium. I am all excited about my new snack foods. I also got me some Dole Cherry Mixed Fruit cups & Ocean Spray blueberry flavored Craisins. To my surprise, the Craisins don't have any sodium & the Cherry mixed fruit cups only have like 5 mg of sodium & 85 mg of potassium. This week marks the beginning of my low sodium & high potassium diet. I can't wait to weigh in next week & see how much of an affect it has on my weight loss. Someone once told me that they lost like 2 or 3 pounds in just 1 week by JUST taking in 1500 mg of sodium a day. So, that's what I'm gonna shoot for....1500 mg or less! :)

Replies

  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    I'm all for low sodium high potassium foods, but I'm wondering how you're basing weight loss on this. Have you found some research indicating that sodium affects FAT reserves in your body? I'd love to see it.

    So far, my understanding is that sodium affects your weight by influencing how much water your body retains. I think my doctor said at her heart health presentation a couple of weeks ago that one molecule of sodium can bind to 7 molecules of water, or something like that. Sodium can also raise blood pressure and stiffen blood vessels, and is implicated in numerous health problems.

    But I haven't seen anything about sodium making it hard to lose FAT. Have you?
  • amarie35
    amarie35 Posts: 333 Member
    It may not help with everyone's but, in my case, I've always went WAY over my sodium & on most days, it's hard for me to drink my 8 cups of water a day. And even when I do drink 8 cups a day, I still don't empty my bladder as often as I should. I usually have that "bloated" feeling all of the time. As far as weight loss goes, I've not heard from a specialist that lowering my sodium will help. All I do know is that I recently reached my plateau. So, I've started taking in more calories (exercise calories) & now I'm trying to reduce my sodium intake. I am hoping that this will help me lose some water weight, if nothing else.....but it may not. Either way, it can't hurt me to try. :)
  • elledoll
    elledoll Posts: 31 Member
    Wow!This post sounds like me.I'm always over on sodium as well(I'm a college student and most of the food I buy is prepared).I'm also at a plateau. I plan to start consuming around 1500 mg of sodium too and eating less processed foods.I try to drink between 64-90 ounces of water but I still get the water weight a few days after I eat a meal heavy in sodium.Please keep us updated with any findings!:smile:
  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    Like I said, I'm all for it! What confused me was the part about losing 2 or 3 pounds in a week by limiting sodium, and I wanted to clarify that you meant that would be in water weight, not fat.

    I'm very sensitive to sodium myself, and try to limit it. I've also found that incorporating higher potassium foods into my diet has helped lower my blood pressure and makes me feel better overall.

    Great sources of potassium: potatoes, yams, apples, oranges, bananas.
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