Calories vs. Sodium

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mbrown0567
mbrown0567 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

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  • arobey11
    arobey11 Posts: 87 Member
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    I average about 1480 calories a day and tend to stay well under 2,000 mg of sodium. If you'd like to add me as a friend and peruse my diary feel free!
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Roasted, unsalted nuts? That's a tough question, most foods have a little sodium in them. I do good just to stay under 6000mg sodium each day, I can't imaging having to stay under 2000. If you're in need of protein, here's a list of high protein foods with low or no sodium:

    http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000078000000123000000.html
  • Grammytryingtogetfit
    Grammytryingtogetfit Posts: 672 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Here is a link I just looked up on google......https://healthfinder.gov/HealthTopics/Category/health-conditions-and-diseases/heart-health/low-sodium-foods-shopping-list

    Hope this helps you out!!!
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
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    You'd actually be hard pressed to find any food in it's natural state that has a bad calorie to sodium ratio.

    Oats- 48g, 190 kcals, 0mg sodium
    Ground beef- 113g, 170 kcals, 85mg sodium
    Most fruits: virtually sodium free
    Most vegetables: a 1:20 sodium to potassium or better ratio
    Most fresh or frozen fish: same as above
    Chicken breast: 113g, 110-120 kcals, 65-85 mg sodium

    We can do this all day. ;)
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    Are you eating a lot of prepared foods? If you buy fresh foods and prepare them yourself, it should be fairly easy to keep your sodium levels low.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    mbrown0567 wrote: »
    I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

    more whole foods and meals prepared from scratch, whole ingredients...fewer processed foods...less eating out.
  • mbrown0567
    mbrown0567 Posts: 2 Member
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    Thanks everyone for the insights/suggestions.
  • crackpotbaby
    crackpotbaby Posts: 1,297 Member
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    Your heart failure nurse and care team might have some meal plan ideas or substitution sheets regarding low sodium options.

    Other than that, fresh fruit and veg and meat is usually the go.
  • mrmarkharding
    mrmarkharding Posts: 7 Member
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    I am on low sodium for my blood pressure. I stay under 1500 a day without a problem. It takes work, you have to stay away from all processed food. After my stroke, I gave up smoking ans salt. I missed salt more than smoking. It took a year, but after that I could not stand salty food. I would spend 2 -3 hours food shopping reading all the labels in the grocery store. It was a waste of time because you will realize that manufactures make food for the masses. If it taste good it must either have sodium, or alot of fat in it. So now I only buy no salt added foods , which you see more and more of. Out side of that, I cook everything from scratch. As other people have said, Meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, and fruit. By a book on the dash diet, that will give you plenty of recipes to make that are low in sodium.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
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    Unfortunately yes, the answer is less prepared foods and yes, that includes almost all restaurants :( BUT the good news is that your palate will adjust quite quickly to having less salt. I know I find restaurant food super salty now...it won't always seem so bland.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
    edited January 2017
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    I'm working on reducing my sodium (HBP and kidney stones) and not having issues with calories. I do have to cook a lot of my own food. Dinner tonight was some leftover shredded beef from last night, white rice I cooked, cilantro, and 2/3 a serving of "lower" sodium teriyaki sauce. More vegetables would not have upped the sodium more than a few milligrams if I used plain frozen or fresh.
    My big issue is that I need to eat high calcium too. But this could help bump up calories for you- whole milk is low, and I noticed that fresh mozzarellas and regular Swiss tend to be lower sodium for cheeses- but always double check the label.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,138 Member
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    mbrown0567 wrote: »
    I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

    I have trouble consuming enough sodium in my day.

    Fruit and vegetables don't have much in the way of sodium. Neither do things like rice, chicken, eggs, and yogurt. Some of those things do have a bit of sodium, but not much.
  • ejbronte
    ejbronte Posts: 867 Member
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    I also watch my sodium, and learned to cook without salt several years ago, when my parents both had to go on low-sodium diets. You do have to do a lot of cooking, bypassing a lot of packaged and canned food. It's one of the reasons I'm playing with making my own breads lately. Nice salt substitutes are all sorts of spices; acids/citrus; wine as a deglazer or cooking ingredient. Most days, I can keep under 1,000 mg. After a while, you get used to the routine of controlling your meals. It feels good!

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