Is the sodium content sabotaging me?

[EmeraldRose]

I'm walking 55K+ steps every week, working on getting myself to 70K. I have at least 60 active minutes during the work day, even though I work at a computer all day long. I take "walk breaks" to keep myself moving. I have gone with a 1000 calorie deficit, which honestly is fairly easy for me so far. I am having around 80-120 oz of water each day. Higher protein and fat, low carb (around 30-60g carbs per day).

But the scale won't budge.

I think I am having too much sodium. So, I am going to try cutting way back on the intake. In fact, I think I am just going to go with a more primal diet in general, and cut out as much processed stuff as I can.

So, there's not really a question here. I think I sort of worked it out...

[ringpoptruth]

I just took a class where I had a teacher talk about nutrition alot. Basically one thing I learned was alot of guidelines about nutrition are over estimates and meeting the sodium goal is actially damaging to the body. One source he shared was a guy name Jeff Novick. Anywho here is link about sodium and intake. Hope this link helps.

http://jeffnovick.com/RD/Articles/Entries/2013/10/3_The_Truth_About_Sodium_Intake_Levels.html

[Mary]

How long have you been logging 1000 calorie deficits and the scale not budging?  How accurate do you feel your logging is?  1000 deficit usually feels like a lot, though often not the first few weeks.

I don't think sodium or processed food can negate large calorie deficits.  

[EmeraldRose]

I've only been tracking my calories regularly the last couple/three weeks, since I've been trying to keep my steps up. I am not measuring or weighing, which could be part of the issue. But, I don't have a food scale and I'm lucky if I can find the measuring cups (kids...).

[slysam]

Just curious, how are you getting 55,000 steps a day? That's a little more than a marathon a day (based on the average of 2,000 steps equaling a mile). The highest I have had with my Fitbit One was 25,000 and that was a day with very little sedentary time other than sleeping (not doing any desk work at all--on vacation). I know the people at the top of my leader board get 30k or so on average everyday--some use treadmill desks at work. I am a little unsure about averaging 55,000 steps and working up to 70,000 steps a day? It makes me wonder whether some of your activity may be over credited and if so, that may be inflating your calorie burn and giving you too high of an allowance. Which device do you wear and how do you wear it? 

Too much sodium is well known to cause extra fluid retention, it shouldn't effect fat loss but it can effect the weight on the scale and possibly mask your results. So it may help to cut down a little especially a day or two before you do a weigh in. Though if you are very active (as you seem to be), you won't want to cut it too low as you would be sweating some of it out. According to my college nutrition teacher, most Americans without effort get more than enough sodium (since most all packaged foods have quite a bit), but if someone is very active and not eating any processed foods (or intentionally avoiding sodium like some with blood pressure issues do) they might possibly not get enough. Usually most of us would be fine to cut down on the sodium we consume though. Vigorous exercise can also cause you to retain more fluid in the muscles used.

[whome]

@slysam - the OP said 55K+ per week - not day. 

Makes it a lot easier to achieve -lol

[slysam · Accepted solution]

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@EmeraldRose wrote:

I've only been tracking my calories regularly the last couple/three weeks, since I've been trying to keep my steps up. I am not measuring or weighing, which could be part of the issue. But, I don't have a food scale and I'm lucky if I can find the measuring cups (kids...).

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If you can afford to, I would highly recommend a digital food scale. It doesn't have to be a fancy one (there are some with a lot of features like a food database in the scale) (A basic one seems to rang $15 - $20). It really just needs a flat surface you can put your own plate/bowl, the ability to zero out with a weight on it (like your plate), and ideally the ability to toggle between grams and ounces. It is much cleaner and easier than measuring cups and more accurate too. If I were having a bowl of muesli with fruit and yogurt, for example... I would set the bowl on the scale and zero it, then I would add my yogurt and either log it with a phone app or note the weight, then I would zero the scale again and add blueberries (or whatever) and log or note that by weight, then zero again and add the muesli and log or not. Done, no extra dishes/cups to clean! Also, it works for food in containers like peanut butter, you set the container on the scale and zero it, then remove what you use. The weight of what you removed will show as a negative number on the scale. (A tip I learned on another forum that works great). No extra dirty table spoon to clean! People are often resistant to food scales an imagine they complicate things too much, but I think they are actually much easier than measuring with cups and spoons. And it is probably about as accurate as we can get at home. 

[slysam]

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@whome wrote:

@slysam - the OP said 55K+ per week - not day. 

Makes it a lot easier to achieve -lol

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Ooops, my bad! I misread. Yes that does sound very doable and like a good activity increase goal. I have seen (very ocassionally) people claim that and am unsure how they can do it daily given many who are extremely active (treadmill desks, exercise after work) don't get that many steps. But of course, someone doing a marathon or another all day activity may on ocassion. 70,000 steps a week is a very nice, doable goal after you build up to it! You may even exceed it.

ETA: An ammendment about sodium. I am not a dietition or anything. But if you are typically getting 7k-8k steps a day, you probably are fine to cut sodium significantly. It may depend how vigorous your 60 very  active minutes are (how much you are sweating). I was more concerned if you were getting 55k a day as then you might be sweating a lot more than average.  That is not knowing how much or little sodium you eat, but it sounds like you believe you can eat less. 

[EmeraldRose]

@slysam 

No worries! Yes it was 55K+ per week, not per day. I am nowhere near that! 😄

That's a good idea about picking up a digital scale, and I will need to budget it in. I'm also moving back towards a more primal diet type, so it will be useful for me to actually measure the meat/veggies/etc instead of saying well I think it's about a serving. 

I was astonished to see the sodium amount even in things like carrots or cottage cheese, so I think I am just going to have to make some changes. I will be cutting out as much pre-packaged stuff as possible (on a very small budget) and I think that will help too.

Thanks for the tips 🙂

[Mary]

Here's what I've never understood about sodium and water retention.  Why is sodium considered able to mask fat loss?  Unless as you lost weight, you ate more sodium and retained MORE water than normal?  But who does that-- eats more salt as they eat less food and/or healthier foods?  If your sodium intake is fairly constant, your water weight is probably constant and it's not masking anything, right?  

I have low-ish blood pressure and eat healthy but cook with kosher salt and use it liberally.  I could see cutting my sodium if I had a Biggest Loser style weigh-in or a bikini cover shoot or health concerns but just for diet/fat loss/scale purposes, I don't really understand it.  

[slysam]

Hi Mary, I am not sure to what extent it would mask weight loss long term. It doesn't make any difference with body fat obviously. I use to weigh myself every day and would have an up and down of about 5 pounds. I would be at the upper end the morning after eating in a restaurant or the morning after eating high sodium foods (possibly the same thing). The weight gain is temporary, of course. I am not sure it was from eating more than usual though, and sometimes if weighing in (i.e. when I did weight watchers or a doctors visit) I would go intentionally very low in sodium for a day or two and that would put me at the low end of the range. It isn't just sodium--really anything that effects fluid retention/release can mask results on the scale for a while. Often people lose weight .5-2 pounds a week but can retain 5 or more pounds of fluid. I did have a time when I went out to Japanese food and has miso soup and sushi with soy sauce. The calories were fine, but I weighed 3 pounds more the next day than the previous day. Of coursethat weight was temporary. But if someone eats a lot of high sodium foods, they may still retain some fluids even if cutting calories. An article that seems to explain it okay (though it isn't just sodium that can cause this): http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_salt.php

[Mary]

Thanks!  I guess I can see it causing water-related fluctuations.  I just figured most salt-likers are like me and their diets are probably higher in sodium all the time, but I don't even know if that's true of myself, just an assumption!  I've been a food logger for long periods but I've never measured or logged seasonings so who the heck knows what my sodium intake is like or how much it varies.    

[BLT68]

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@EmeraldRose wrote:

I'm walking 55K+ steps every week, working on getting myself to 70K. I have at least 60 active minutes during the work day, even though I work at a computer all day long. I take "walk breaks" to keep myself moving. I have gone with a 1000 calorie deficit, which honestly is fairly easy for me so far. I am having around 80-120 oz of water each day. Higher protein and fat, low carb (around 30-60g carbs per day).

But the scale won't budge.

I think I am having too much sodium. So, I am going to try cutting way back on the intake. In fact, I think I am just going to go with a more primal diet in general, and cut out as much processed stuff as I can.

So, there's not really a question here. I think I sort of worked it out...

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I know the sodium levels that we are logging are not correct i.e. plain baked potato.  Check the internet plus this says 841 mg.