Potassium intake?

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krom862
krom862 Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I have no idea what effect potassium has on my diet as far as weight loss is concerned...any effect at all? Should I be increasing? Decreasing? Doesn't matter? Help!

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  • emdeegan
    emdeegan Posts: 219 Member
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    potassium has something to do with making your muscles not cramp up when you're exercising.. the exact science of it, i do not know. but i do know it works.
  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
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    quite a few things!! the RDA is 3500mg a day

    http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-does-potassium-do-for-the-body.html

    * it helps maintain blood sugar balance
    *plays a key role in contraction/relaxation of muscles
    *helps regulate water balance in the body
  • Seokie
    Seokie Posts: 197 Member
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    You should aim for about 2000 -3500 mg of Potassium/day.

    Potassium is awesome for you - I was going to write about it but just check out the link below :)

    http://weightloss.com.au/articles/healthy-diets/potassium-and-weight-loss.html

    Most importantly for me, I was getting these really horrible leg cramps after workout out - even after stretching and cooling down. It turns out I was NOT getting enough potassium so I upped my levels and *knock on wood* haven't had any problems since!
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002413.htm

    It is just about impossible to get too much potassium from diet (although you can with supplements) unless you have certain diseases. Many people who eat a diet with widely varied fruits/vegetables will get enough. Getting enough potassium can help with high blood pressure -- getting too little can give some people (like me) muscle cramps.
  • ambivalence11
    ambivalence11 Posts: 93 Member
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    More is better, boost your fresh fruits and vegetable intake (cantaloupe, bananas, avocado, and raisins and nuts are all great and easy to incorporate sources) and when logging make sure that part of the nutrition info is included (people tend to leave it off when entering new foods). Don't worry about hitting your goal (for me it's 3500) but try to keep your sodium as low as possible, since the 2 basically cancel each other out.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    You should aim for about 2000 -3500 mg of Potassium/day.

    There's nothing wrong with being over 3500 -- the link you pasted says "between 1950 to 5460mg per day. " whereas the standard US recommendation is at least 3500. Recently there've been studies saying it should be upped to 4700.

    (all the rest of what you said is spot on)
  • krom862
    krom862 Posts: 46 Member
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    Thank you so much. I have never paid attention to potassium, and I have hypertension and diabetes...and fluid retention. Hmmm...maybe tracking this may help!
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    Thank you so much. I have never paid attention to potassium, and I have hypertension and diabetes...and fluid retention. Hmmm...maybe tracking this may help!

    Aha, hypertension.

    An article for your interest: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10511389
    Another article aimed more at the layman: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09318.html
    Another site (with some ads): http://blood-pressure.emedtv.com/high-blood-pressure/supplements-for-high-blood-pressure.html

    Basic summary: keeping your potassium high -- in other words, altering the potassium/sodium ratio -- does far more to help hypertension than reducing sodium alone. Some authorities recommend 3500+ and some recommend 4700+. You should talk with your doctor before doing any potassium supplements, but as previously stated it's really hard to OD from diet.

    Some good sources: Low sodium v8 is incredible as far as ratio of calories to potassium go, and not that high carb as well. Beet greens are another great source. Potatoes are a great source but high-carb which isn't the greatest thing for diabetes, or so I understand. Bananas are overrated. Many vegetables have a fair amount.
  • krom862
    krom862 Posts: 46 Member
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    Thank you for the links. I have now changed my settings to track potassium, and am looking back, and finding that I take in a miserably low amount...like anywhere from 400 some days to the highest of 1500, but averaging about 800 a day. Looks like I need to do some adjusting to my diet.
  • ronaldmcyd
    ronaldmcyd Posts: 54 Member
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    Good topic, I have hypertension as well. I am on some medication from it, and there is a sticker on it that says I should avoid salt substitutes. I see that salt substitutes are basically potassium, I wonder if my medicine has potassium in it ...:ohwell:

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