Do you watch your sodium intake? Am I the only one with VERY horrid sodium levels in my diet?

Verity1111
Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
edited April 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
Because I seriously probably double the recommended intake and I only eat 1200-1500 calories. I rarely am below 3,000 and I have hit 4,500-5,000 a lot. Lol. My blood tests etc are all good. Should I worry about it or chill since I don't have any bad signs from it when I see my dr? Also, am I the only person with this issue? I assume not but it's always nice to know lol. It is all from sauces or prepackaged stuff, cheese, etc. I don't use actual table salt sprinkled on my food.
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Replies

  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
    I used to have that same problem until I started cooking most of my meals. I rarely buy packed meals. I do however eat my cheese.

    I have HBP so I had to cut back. I didn't have a choice. I won't give any advice on what you should do if you have no health problems. I remember reading once (can't remember what study) that sodium does not cause HBP...it just exacerbates it once you have it. Poor diet, overweight and lack of exercise are 3 of the leading causes. However...some people are prone to HBP regardless of those 3 reasons. If you have a family history of HBP then you might be concerned.

    You are right...most sodium comes from highly processed foods, fast foods and especially foods consumed at nice restaurants. Face it...food taste better with sodium!
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    I try to keep mine under 3000 but I take in 2800-3100cal a day
  • 30kgin2017
    30kgin2017 Posts: 228 Member
    I dont look at mine now but I have low blood pressure and drink a lot of water (live in tropics). If it gets too low I start seeing stars so sometimes I deliberately add salt to my food. When I have monitored my intake previously its always been low, I don't add sauces etc to my food and growing up salt was 'bad' for you so I was used to no/low salt in my food.

    My husband and children all love their salt and soy sauce and will often add it to food after I've served it up, it still blows my mind when they do it.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    edited April 2018
    Mine is generally below 2000, but I have the occasional day that's it's 2500-3000. This happens mostly if we make homemade pizza or if we go out to eat. Over Easter weekend, I ate a crap ton of food, and my sodium was approx. 4300 Saturday and 5500 Sunday (!).

    ETA: After Easter weekend and all the food/sodium I consumed, I was up 6 lbs! By today I was already back down 4 lbs, so I know at least 4lbs of that weight was water, and probably a little more. This is the main reason I do try to limit sodium to about 2000 mg/day, is so that I don't get the big water weight gains from it. But my blood pressure has always been on the low side, so I don't feel like I need to watch sodium from a medical perspective. Others might need to.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited April 2018
    I don't watch it generally, but I limit fast food, and heavily processed convenience foods etc. Much of that stuff is a sodium bomb. Soy sauce is my biggest sodium source, I'd bet.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,525 Member
    edited April 2018
    Ha! That was interesting.

    So I do watch it and try to "minimize" it without having any particular reason to.
    I certainly seldom if ever SEEK to add salt to anything.

    Over 39 months of MFP records (Nov 2014 to Feb 2018) I've averaged 1369mg per 1000 Cal, or 3845mg a day.

    Current average is closer to 1414mg per 1000 Cal, or 4166mg per day.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    My sodium is usually the one metric that turns red on a regular basis. But, for now, I'm OK with that as I have more important measures to focus on that will have a bigger impact on my weight loss.

    so I ignore it for the most part... For now.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,935 Member
    I love salt. My blood pressure is fine, I don't excessively retain water, or anything like that. I frequently exceed the MFP default sodium goal, despite eating few multi-ingredient commercial prepackaged meals or prepared foods, even without recording salt I add from the shaker. (The salt is in miso, sauerkraut, kim chi, cheese, etc.) I don't much worry about it.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    Verity1111 wrote: »
    Because I seriously probably double the recommended intake and I only eat 1200-1500 calories. I rarely am below 3,000 and I have hit 4,500-5,000 a lot. Lol. My blood tests etc are all good. Should I worry about it or chill since I don't have any bad signs from it when I see my dr? Also, am I the only person with this issue? I assume not but it's always nice to know lol. It is all from sauces or prepackaged stuff, cheese, etc. I don't use actual table salt sprinkled on my food.

    A lot depends on what types of food make up your 1200-1500 calories. MFP set me at 1900 calories, and I hardly ever get near my Sodium limit. This past holiday weekend was an exception because I went out with a group of friends and family for barbecued breakfast and lunch, and that stuff put me at double the recommended Sodium intake.

    Normally you wouldn't need to worry about it too much if you don't have a health issue. but prevention is better than cure, so you might consider reading through your daily MFP diary to see which foods are pushing your numbers so high.
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
    I have low blood pressure and start feeling horrible if my sodium intake drops below 2000. Around 3000 is my happy spot.

    Means I have to add quite a bit of salt to my cooking post cooking: one member of my family has HBP and heart arrhythmias and the other one HBP and kidney insufficiency. Any cooking I do (which is pretty much most these days) has to be low sodium...)

    I kept on passing out at the slightest movement. Doc ordered some tests and prescribed a higher sodium diet.
  • mazcor536
    mazcor536 Posts: 115 Member
    I try to keep mine below 2000mg. I really notice a huge fluctuation on the scale after too much sodium, not to mention the bloat (insta-muffintop!).
  • netitheyeti
    netitheyeti Posts: 539 Member
    I don't really watch mine to be honest.. my blood pressure is normal, or sometimes on the low side...
    The one thing I do hate is the bloating if I have a really high carb high salt day
    My numbers are occasionally red for sodium, on a 1200-1300 cal diet
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Nope, my blood pressure is fine, i have never even considered watching my salt. i rarely use it when i cook and we eat at home the majority of the time.

    i always expect to retain a couple of pounds of water after a takeaway or eating in a restaurant.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    I have/had high blood pressure and have found that if I keep my sodium below 1200/day my pressure stays within normal limits. I love salt and used to use it liberally, but I’m now getting used to not using the salt shaker and certain processed foods.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.
    Very true. I google sodium contents (although I don’t eat many processed foods).
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.

    I’m not sure I understand—are you talking about packaged foods, or people’s recipes? I’ve never seen salt content listed on a nutrition label; only sodium.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited April 2018
    FlyingMolly wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.

    I’m not sure I understand—are you talking about packaged foods, or people’s recipes? I’ve never seen salt content listed on a nutrition label; only sodium.

    In the UK and Ireland you'll often see salt rather than sodium, like below, then people enter the 0.33g into the database entry for sodium :


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