How to Log Salt?

activeadriana
activeadriana Posts: 70 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm not sure the right way to log salt. I add a pinch here and there, not really measuring it. I was thinking I could measure some salt out in a ziploc bag and then use that throughout the day, but idk. How do you log salt?

Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Salt has no calories, why bother? Were you told to lower your sodium?
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,145 Member
    I would weigh out the amount I'm using for that meal and log it with the USDA or Self Nutrition Data information.

    Self Nutrition Data - table salt (6 gram shown)
  • activeadriana
    activeadriana Posts: 70 Member
    I want to get a more complete picture of what I'm eating. I don't have a scale to weigh it. What if I measure out .75 tsp salt (1500mg) and used that throughout the day? I don't need to use up all of it, and I'd get a general idea of how much I do.
  • activeadriana
    activeadriana Posts: 70 Member
    That + logging each the sodium of each food i set, such as frozen pizza, bread, etc.
  • activeadriana
    activeadriana Posts: 70 Member
    I thought those were drums lol
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    edited August 2016
    I've found no way to log it accurately. Anything pre-packaged is going to have way too much frikking sodium in it anyway. I try to stay at no more than 2x the daily allowance but it's tough unless I'm cooking everything fresh/from scratch that day. Keep in mind that salt/sodium is an electrolyte, and if your doctor hasn't asked you to lower your sodium intake then don't freak out if you go over the RDA if you're exercising and drinking a lot of water. I tend to drink around a gallon of plain water every day on top of the other stuff I drink. I also work out for at least 90 minutes six days a week and sweat a lot during those workouts. So unless I get more than the RDA I generally feel like crap and sometimes even have horrible muscle cramps. So I have to take extra electrolytes and magnesium and potassium on a daily basis, and I do honestly try to watch the sodium because it can also explain a sudden 4-5 lb gain if you go hog wild with it. I've had horrible weekends (ok food wasn't horrible, just the amount of sodium ingested) where I eat BBQ all day for several days and tend to suddenly gain a bunch of weight. If I watch my sodium for the next few days that weight will disappear pretty quickly. That's the only reason I track sodium, never really had a doctor scold me about it.

    FYI = 1 tsp of table salt is the RDA for sodium pretty much. It's WAY easy to go over that.
  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    edited August 2016
    activeadriana wrote: »
    I want to get a more complete picture of what I'm eating. I don't have a scale to weigh it. What if I measure out .75 tsp salt (1500mg) and used that throughout the day? I don't need to use up all of it, and I'd get a general idea of how much I do.

    If you don't have a scale, then the error in your food portion estimations will be significant. You can buy a scale for around $15 on Amazon. If you are truly pedantic, then you will need to account for the sodium in the water you drink as well.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I don't measure salt used in cooking (a pinch here, a pinch there) and don't add salt after cooking or eat a lot of packaged/high sodium stuff, so I just decided I didn't see the point of measuring. Even when I did Cronometer for a while (a much better way to really understand the nutrients in your diet than MFP), I didn't bother with salt.

    If I wanted to, I suppose I'd do the baggie, weigh it before and after, method. Ugh, though -- not worth it for me.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
    activeadriana wrote: »
    I want to get a more complete picture of what I'm eating. I don't have a scale to weigh it. What if I measure out .75 tsp salt (1500mg) and used that throughout the day? I don't need to use up all of it, and I'd get a general idea of how much I do.

    If you want to get a more complete picture of what you're eating, the first thing you should do is a get a food scale. Accounting for pinches of salt would be pretty low on that list.
  • johnstone682
    johnstone682 Posts: 11 Member
    I measure all salt, if yr using packaged food its usually labelled salt(atleast in the uk). So you need to know how to convert it to sodium to log it on this app.
    It's very time consuming at first but try to save yr fave foods so u can go back quickly to it.
    Anyway, using a calculator use the equation is eg.
    Salt on a slice of bread is around 0.5
    0.5 ➗ 2.5 ✖️ 1000 = 200mg of sodium.

    Useful to know
  • Emily3907
    Emily3907 Posts: 1,461 Member
    I don't log salt. However, if I had a medical issue that required me to be careful about sodium intake, I would probably go with your original idea of measuring X amount in the morning and using it throughout the day.
  • tschullo3079
    tschullo3079 Posts: 1 Member
    If you enter salt in your diary, it show a tsp has 0 calories and 2325.5 mg of sodium. So if you really wanted to track it you could do it by keeping a teaspoon of it on the counter, then when you run out, log it.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    Wait? You want a complete picture of what you’re eating but DONT have a food scale?

    Salt is the least of your concerns in that “complete” picture. Food scales are cheap and available to purchase online or at Walmart or target.

    Start with a food scale. Worry about salt later.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I don't measure salt used in cooking (a pinch here, a pinch there) and don't add salt after cooking or eat a lot of packaged/high sodium stuff, so I just decided I didn't see the point of measuring. Even when I did Cronometer for a while (a much better way to really understand the nutrients in your diet than MFP), I didn't bother with salt.

    If I wanted to, I suppose I'd do the baggie, weigh it before and after, method. Ugh, though -- not worth it for me.

    Zombie thread, which I mainly noticed since I posted in it back in summer 2016 (I was so innocent back then). Not that anyone cares, but I mainly agree with what I said back then except I do log salt roughly (a pinch here, a pinch there) since otherwise I can't get full credit at Cron, because sodium would show as too low.

Categories