*peeks in*

Ooh, this is an exciting forum to dip a toe into, even if it'll be a while before I actually belong here!

I have a question for you rockstar maintainer folks... I've been doing great with my calorie counting and exercise for the last 3 months, the food and running doesn't bother me at all, I'm enjoying making these good choices! The only thing that really bothers me about this "dieting" thing is SODIUM! Gah! I know for sure that I retain water when I eat a lot of sodium, and for the last three months I swear my life has revolved around the water dispenser, the bathroom, and the sodium content of everything I consider eating. And it's driving me nuts!

Soup, frozen (fake) chicken cutlets, feta cheese, turkey sandwiches... these are all great nutritious low-cal things I love to eat, but if I'm being careful about sodium intake, I have to cut them out. The canned soup is an especially big bummer, because it's an entire wonderful meal for 160 calories, such a great option at the end of a higher-calorie day.

So what I'm wondering is, how careful were you folks about sodium when you were losing weight, and now that you're maintaining? Did you stick to a certain amount or less each day, like no more than 1,500mg? Did you ignore sodium and still lose weight?

I'm tempted to just take the 3-5 pound water retention "hit" at the WW scale over the next few weeks, and let myself have more of the healthy but salty things I really want. It's just so hard finding any answers other than "don't eat sodium, it's bad!!" out there, you know?

Thanks all!

*ducks out*

I view the sodium question as more of a health issue than a weight issue. Sure, if I have some extra sodium I'll be up a bit, but that's not the kind of weight I really care about.

But excess sodium is linked to high blood pressure, at least for some people. And high blood pressure can lead to nasty things like strokes and heart attack. Strokes run in my family and it isn't a pretty thing.

Having said that, my blood pressure is very low, and so I tend not to worry (much) about sodium. I have my BP checked often, and am ready and willing to change my stand on that at any time. But for dieting, in the absence of any other risk factors, I figured I had enough other things to worry about. Same logic as a maintainer. But I do chose the low-sodium option if there is a palatable one.

Anne

PS: You've lost 20 lbs according to your ticker. You don't want it to come back, right? Congratulations, you're a maintainer.

I don't worry about sodium at all. My understanding is the same as Anne's, that sodium is really only a problem if you're worried about your blood pressure. My blood pressure is really low; it actually would be good if it were a little higher, so I don't worry about sodium.

Someone else around here once said they'd have to pry her salt shaker out of her cold, dead hands and that's about the way I feel. Salt makes food taste good and it has negligible calories, so bring it on. I've had to give up so many other foods, I'm not giving up my salt. I've even gotten into flavored salt blends and exotic sea salts.

Sign my name to Barbara's post; in fact, I've fainted a few times because my blood pressure is so low that if anything causes it to drop, I'm out cold on the floor. So I've never paid any attention to the sodium in what I eat, not now or when I was losing. I track calories, protein, and carbs; fat takes care of itself; and I ignore sodium. That being said, I rarely eat processed food and the only thing I salt is eggs, so I don't imagine my sodium intake is ridiculously high.

Welcome to Maintainers! As Anne said, anyone who loses anything and wants to keep it off is a maintainer, so stick around.

Odd that all three of you replying have such low blood pressure. Wonder how much of a link there is to blood pressure and sodium? Or blood pressure and weight loss?

I think most of my sodium comes from diet soft drinks (my one last vice ). I used to eat really salty food growing up but found I didn't miss it that much as I got healthier. I still occasionally pig out on the pretzels or popcorn, pay for it the next day, and move on.

Dagmar

Dagmar, my BP went from 140/90 to somewhere between 90 - 100/60 with weight loss. I think a lot of people have big drops in BP with weight loss.

Ughh I hate sodium/ salt, I always have and always will! Feta, canned soups, pizza, etc. I enjoy these foods, but all the sodium makes my eyes all puffy the next day, so I try my damndest to stay away from them because the side effects on my eyes is enough to steer clear from them, it's NOT a pretty look!!!! I obviously inherited this because my mom is the same way.. I love pepper and pepper EVERYTHING, that is my SALT of choice!
So for me, yes I pay attention to sodium.

Good grief!

A sodium thread seems to attract the low blood pressure crowd, LOL. I am one of us. Have always had low blood pressue.

That and low resting heart rate makes the nurses at health fairs just swoon at how healthy and athletic I must be. Well, not especially, but don't I wish.

If any of you have links to realistic discussion of the meaning of low BP or low resting heart rate I'd be interested.

(And, yes, since my journey, I've watched my sodium because I have been led to believe that it has an impact on the arteries in addition to affecting BP. However, a nurse just recently suggested that I increase my salt to increase my BP. That didn't sound right to me.)

I don't have low BP, so I guess I'm in the minority! DH has borderline high BP so we watch our sodium at home. I never add salt to our food, I leave it out of every recipe.

You don't need to cut out soup or turkey sandwiches! The trick is to find the low-sodium kind. Same with canned beans and a lot of frozen foods. Often if you're at the grocery store and you look at the organic soup section, you'll find that they have far less sodium than the regular soups. Not always, you still need to check the label, but in general. I buy organic free-range chicken broth and it only has something like 2% RDA of sodium per cup. If you buy beans at Whole Foods, the store brand has about 6% sodium, compared to 33% for standard. At a lot of deli counters they also have low-sodium turkey breast. It does cost more, but it exists!

I completely ignored sodium. I can tell I retain water the day after eating sushi (mmm soy sauce) or Chipotle (they must put an ungodly amount of salt in that rice), but it hasn't been a big deal for me. I definitely do NOT get on the scale the day after a Chipotle run!

I mainly eat unprocessed foods (I don't see anything wrong with canned soups per se, but they always taste...off to me). There are so many things to keep track of while losing/maintaining weight (healthy fats, protein, calories, etc etc) that I was glad to not have to worry about one thing. If you like soup and you are worried about sodium, you can always - make soup from scratch! Soup is usually very easy to make, and you can make enough to last for days (and it always seems to taste better and better).

My blood pressure was 100/60 at my last check up (2 weeks ago) . In the past, I have been rejected from donating blood due to low blood pressure (the guy said "can you think any stressful thoughts?") I've also had a doctor tell me if my blood pressure was any lower, I'd be unconscious.

I actually adore salt. I don't cook with it much (except when roasting brussel sprouts when I tend to go a little crazy with the garlic/salt shaker) but I add salt to food if feel like it.

I have never had a big problem with my blood pressure, but if sodium consumption is directly linked to high blood pressure than it was purely a fluke that I wasn't off the charts. I've always been in the high end of good range, but not high enough for the doctor's to worry (130ish/85ish). I ate salt on everything - citrus fruit, added to every food I prepared, poured on the finished food product, my grandmother used to give me ice with salt on it as a child for snacks when I'd been outside all day! Then I watched my mom have serious up and down blood pressure (235/150 one day, 80/50 the next) and they made her cut down her sodium intake. I also realized I was bloated feeling all the time. So, no more added salt, I buy lower sodium of products if available, limit full sodium foods. Now when I eat something with a lot of sodium I retain 2-5 pounds of water, my eyes get itchy and I feel rundown and terrible. My BP at my last few checkups was in the 110ish/70sih range.

I don't have a set amount of sodium I target every day, I just try to be aware and not go to far over the RDA. I also remember what happens if I do go over so I don't panic!

I find the less salt I use, the less I want. That being said, there are a few things that I won't give up salting - oatmeal (just a shake) and eggs being the frontrunners. But I seldom buy or eat commercial salad dressings anymore - all I can taste is the salt.

But jajabee - how about making your own soup. You'll have control over both the sodium and the calories. You can freeze it in individual servings and be ready when you need a low calorie meal. I make veggie soup all winter. The basic recipe has very low calories, and if I want more, I add it to the individual serving (pasta, ground turkey, etc)

I do have higher BP. It used to be normal, but now they've lowered the standards so it's "high." Because I'm on the border for Type 2 diabetes, my doc has me on BP meds. I was watching sodium loosely since then and have gradually just cut back some more. I buy lower sodium products when available but occasionally I just take the hit. I love Chinese food but for lots of reasons I don't have it often.

Sodium intake does not CAUSE high blood pressure. High BP is caused by certain kinds of stress on the body. This is why exercise helps lower it.

If you already HAVE high BP, then it's good to avoid too much salt because it does cause your body to retain water, and this can affect your blood pressure the wrong way. But it does not cause it!

I never watched sodium at all. I don't care about water weight--I care about fat weight. IMO body fat percent is a more important measure than what the scale might say.

Jay

Hi,

Like most here, my blood pressure was always on the low end (105-110/70-75 max - first thing in the morning it's as low as 90-95/60-65) so I never paid any attention to sodium - never even gave it a thought. Then a few months back I hit my temple really hard against the corner of a door (OW!) and got a really bad concussion.

There were lots of Dr visits and debate about the cause and such, but to make a long story somewhat shorter, the concussion caused me to have really high blood pressure for a couple of weeks (up to 198/105, nearly stroke level for me) and the dr said to cut sodium as low as I possibly could.

I learned three things:

(1) The sodium content of nearly all "convenient" "healthy" foods is WAY higher than the "less healthy" versions of the same food. The only way I found to eat low sodium and keep calories/fat to a reasonable level is to stick to "natural" meat, poultry, seafood, fruits, and veggies and make nearly everything from scratch. I kept my sodium under 1000 mg / day (closer to 600-700) for a few weeks. It was REALLY tough to do while maintaining calories without spending hours in the kitchen.
(2) By cutting sodium, my BP started to go down immediately - dramatically. If I ate a meal with even 400 mg of sodium, my BP would go back up and I'd start getting a severe headache again.
(3) While eating low sodium (which also meant non-processed - much cleaner than I usually eat) I felt WAY better. My body just felt healthier, less water retention, etc. I couldn't work out during that time and I ate the same # of calories, but lost weight (and not just water). I think my body processed food more efficiently (that's my theory anyhow - based on absolutely no facts)

(actually make the 4 things I learned - #4 is not to hit my head on the laundry room door!)

Alas, once my BP went back to normal I slowly returned to a higher sodium diet b/c it's more convenient - however I'm now very aware of what an impact sodium has on my body and I do check labels now and chose the lowest sodium option for most items - but if I have to chose between slightly higher sodium or higher fat/calories - I take the sodium hit and drink more water.

So - if you have even moderately high BP, keeping sodium low would be good, but losing weight is super important to lowering BP and overall health, so do what you have to do to get the weight off in a healthy way.

Sorry this is so long.
Shanna

ps: I also did research on low BP - doesn't matter how low it is as long as it's not causing symptoms, it's not dangerous or unhealthy for your BP to be low until it causes symptoms, then it can be dangerous and you need to see a doc.

Thanks everyone! It's really good to know that so many of you were able to lose weight without focusing a lot on sodium. I think that may end up being the route I take, even if it does mean the number on the scale won't be good for the next week or so. It'll be worth it in the long run if it means this plan is something I can stick to, and without the sodium thing it totally is.

On the homemade soup, do those of you watching sodium make your own broth, or are there low-sodium (vegetarian) broths available? Most of the ones I've found on the daily plate this morning have been just as high in sodium as the soup I've been eating (Muir Glen Garden Vegetable Soup, the best! )