Daily sodium intake and exercise?

amandarenee31
amandarenee31 Posts: 54 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
Can someone help me out? Does a person's actual sodium intake level change with exercise the same way calories/carbs/etc. do? For example, a person may start out with X amount of carbs allowed for the day, but after entering exercise on here, their amount of carbs may increase to Y amount of carbs.

My sodium level always stays the same on here when everything else fluctuates with added exercise. That doesn't make much sense to me since I know that we excrete sodium when we sweat. I try to consume no more than 1500 mg of sodium a day, although that's pretty hard (even with eating clean unprocessed foods) when I get a big workout in and have to consume more calories. Sodium is really important for me to track because I'm rather sensitive to it and gain a lot of water weight/get bloated if I go over my limit. Is there a way to change the sodium tracking settings on here to account physical activity or is that something I just need to calculate on my own?

Replies

  • digitalsteel
    digitalsteel Posts: 374 Member
    I think there are two sides to this. One, exercise makes you perspire, which means you are depleting your sodium reserves. But it also seems to be a balancing act with potassium. From what I've read you want to maintain a 1:1 to 3:1 potassium:sodium ratio.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    There is a maximum adult level of Sodium recommended, regardless of your calorie needs. You are young, and assuming you have no blood pressure issues, you can probably safely go above that. Sodium is not really all that good for you in excess, unless you are an athlete in training for an event that is causing you to lose lots of Electrolytes.

    You can change your Sodium settings here:

    MY HOME> Goals> Change goals> Custom
  • cmsiemsen
    cmsiemsen Posts: 78 Member
    You are correct that sodium is the primary electrolyte that we excrete. I found that "American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends consuming sodium along with fluids to replace both water and sodium lost in sweat. It is not adequate to simply take sodium tabs after a hard training session to replace lost sodium; an athlete must also consume adequate amounts of fluid with this sodium." (http://www.powerbar.com/articles/47/sodium-a-closer-look.aspx)

    Most people to not qualify for the extra sodium-beverage because they are not quite that active.

    Hope this helps.
  • amandarenee31
    amandarenee31 Posts: 54 Member
    Thanks you for your input. Still haven't really gotten an answer to my question. I know I'm fairly young (I'm 20) but high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes runs in my family so I really need to get a head start on watching my sodium.
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