How can I reach my daily goals for sodium & potassium without going over calories?

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katronski
katronski Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've got a headache, feel so tired & think it could be related to not reaching my daily goals of potassium & sodium. I've also been getting cramps in my feet too & my muscles are aching.

Please someone help me as I feel like I'm eating healthy but don't have any calories left to reach my daily goals of potassium & sodium.

Thank you

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Greens tend to be rich in potassium and they're very low in calories.

    As far as sodium, it's in lots of very low calorie sauces -- hot sauce, soy sauce, mustard. Or you can just put salt on things.

  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
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    would you mind opening up your diary so that people can better help you? or maybe give your stats? (height, weight, goals, calories per day, etc.)
  • katronski
    katronski Posts: 6 Member
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    No problem But do I I do that? I'm
    A newbie xx

    Thanks
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
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    https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/201687-how-do-i-make-my-diary-visible-to-other-users-

    no problem. :)
  • skinnycow1234567
    skinnycow1234567 Posts: 167 Member
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    Wow,i just learned something new. I always thought low sodium was good..Never realized the side affects of low sodium. Thanks
  • katronski
    katronski Posts: 6 Member
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    Hi I've opened it up now. Today is really messy as I was trying to add foods that would increase my potassium levels but when they didn't increase it I removed them & didn't end up eating stuff xx

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    katronski wrote: »
    Hi I've opened it up now. Today is really messy as I was trying to add foods that would increase my potassium levels but when they didn't increase it I removed them & didn't end up eating stuff xx

    I think it is still closed (at least to me).
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited April 2017
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    katronski wrote: »
    Hi I've opened it up now. Today is really messy as I was trying to add foods that would increase my potassium levels but when they didn't increase it I removed them & didn't end up eating stuff xx

    Most foods in the database don't have potassium values entered, since it's not required or included on most food labels. If you're using MFP entries to track potassium, it's undoubtedly showing far lower levels than what you're actually eating.
  • katronski
    katronski Posts: 6 Member
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    Sorry about that, now I think everything's open to public xx
  • JohnnyPenso
    JohnnyPenso Posts: 412 Member
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    katronski wrote: »
    Hi I've opened it up now. Today is really messy as I was trying to add foods that would increase my potassium levels but when they didn't increase it I removed them & didn't end up eating stuff xx
    I haven't looked at your diary but generally speaking, there are a lot of foods listed in MFP that don't have a potassium content listed even though they have potassium. Take these two examples:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/update_nutrition_facts/188910304?date=2017-04-12&show_controls=true
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/update_nutrition_facts/287676647?date=2017-04-12&show_controls=true

    If you logged the first spartan apple you'd have zero potassium. The second, 113 mg, and that's a small apple. A large apple would have 200 mg or more. If you miss out on a few of those a day you could be undercounting your potassium by a large margin. Something to be aware of. I always check the nutritional content of any item before I log it.

  • Naruya
    Naruya Posts: 81 Member
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    Lots of food entries don't have the correct amount of sodium entered, if any at all. I highly doubt you're not getting enough sodium because most food has it.

    Lacking potassium might be possible, though in my experience that is also not entered in the food entries in most cases. Eating lots of veggies will help you get enough potassium.
  • katronski
    katronski Posts: 6 Member
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    Thankyou anvilhead, that makes sense. I'm going to go to H&B tomorrow & see what goodies I can buy xx
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
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    i notice a lot of your diary has food listed at 0 grams. did you not eat that food at all?
  • katronski
    katronski Posts: 6 Member
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    The foods with 0 I didn't eat. I still went over my daily allowance though. It's so hard counting calories. I feel like I'm making much healthier choices- than greggs tuna crunch, & jam donut
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
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    katronski wrote: »
    The foods with 0 I didn't eat. I still went over my daily allowance though. It's so hard counting calories. I feel like I'm making much healthier choices- than greggs tuna crunch, & jam donut

    you can delete them from your diary instead of bringing the quantity down to zero by using the edit function. i know it's a lot at once, but over time it will become second nature.

    you seem to eat a lot of pretty standard things so i would recommend searching for each food in the database with USDA in front of it. those entries are usually pretty accurate.

    for example "USDA celery raw" "USDA Salmon filet raw" - if something doesn't look right you can also just go right to their database to compare.

    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/45827?manu=&fgcd=&ds=

    that will give you additional info for a lot of foods and you can change the quantities as well.

    weighing your food can also increase your accuracy

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