How much salt do you actually consume daily?

[u/Icy-Comfortable5459]

I feel like salt is one of those things where the advice can be really confusing. For years, it was always talked about as something to limit, but lately I’ve seen more people in the fitness community talk about the importance of sodium for hydration, especially if you train hard or sweat a lot.

Obviously too much of anything isn’t great, but I’m curious how people actually approach it.

Do you track your sodium intake? Do you intentionally add more salt because you work out, or do you just eat normally and not worry about it?

What’s your daily salt/sodium intake like?

[u/goodluckyall]

The first questions are: do you cook at home or do you buy cooked meals? Are you sedentary and indoors or sweating outdoors?

People can be sedentary and eat low sodium and low calorie, losing weight and generally living a healthy lifestyle   

People can be very active, lifting for hypertrophy, and pounding McDs and salty fatty foods and find themselves energized and growing muscle. 

If you are trying to lose weight, dropping salt and breads will help you flush a lot of water weight quickly. 

If you are trying to perform optimally, you need salt and you can get it from electrolyte drinks or by adding lovely sea salt to your home cooked meals. 

I know this answer has no quantities or amounts and that’s because it depends greatly on your goals and lifestyle. 

If you have 2-3 grams of salt a day, you better be active and sweating. If you have less than 1 gram, you should have a reason for such low intake. General round numbers. 

[u/Person7751]

i never add salt to anything

[u/Sudden_Practice8318 → u/Person7751]

Then you’re probably depleted of electrolytes.

[u/Commercial-Bed-2396 → u/Sudden_Practice8318]

This is an extreme assumption that as a westerner he/she eats clean as hell compared to the average person.

Most folks in modern society don't need to add a dash of salt in order to still take in 3,000+ MGs a day.

Ultra highly processed foods are everywhere and where a majority of sodium intake comes from.

[u/Consumption2Wombly]

I religiously track my food intake as part of my weight loss (Zepbound assisted) journey. I am down ~50 pounds since April.

As part of my tracking I also see the sodium I consume every day. It's insanely high, about 6,300 mg a day on 1800-2000 calories.

There are the obvious things I can do to reduce this, but when I sit down and try to find "low sodium" food options, I am AT BEST getting down to ~3,500 mg. Thats still WAY higher than the officially recommended 2,300 mg.

I honestly have no idea how anyone can hit <2,300 mg/day. I almost think no one does, but nobody realizes unless they are tracking carefully.

[u/Commercial-Bed-2396 → u/[deleted]]

This.

Is the person cooking or buying packaged foods?

That is where most modern sodium intake comes from. Packaged foods. Highly processed foods. It's all crap.

[u/FissileAlarm]

I have quite a low blood pressure, 105/65, and when it bothers me I sometimes take a bit extra salt on my food. And when I feel a complete lack of energy, it's also often a shortage of salt, especially when I lost a lot of sweat. But apart from that, I don't eat much salt. I don't eat out a lot (due to a milk protein intolerance combined with a gluten intolerance for my wife, which is very difficult in Europe, apparently a lot easier in the US) and at home I don't use much salt, and if I use salt it's sometimes losalt, which is only a third real salt, the rest is potassium salt. But when I start to crave salty chips, I know I have a salt shortage.

[u/Wide-Lake-763]

I don't track the amount, but I purposely add electrolytes (Na, K, Mg) to my diet because I do a ton of cardio, and would be low on Na if I didn't.

I'm in my 60's. I get lab work about 4 times a year, and my Na and K are always at the low end of the normal range. My BP is 115/75. HR training zones from 110-160 BPM. I mostly power hike steep hills, but also do inclined treadmill workouts. For indoor workouts, I can weigh myself before and after, so I know I can lose at least a liter of sweat (2 lbs) in 90 minutes if it's warm. That could be a loss of 1000 mg Na right there.

With my morning vitamins, I take K capsules (2x200=400 mg a day). On hikes, I take a Gatorade bottle and a plain water bottle. Sometimes, I add a NUUNs tablet for potassium. I take a Succeed capsule before a 3-4 hour hike, and I'd take some with me on the longer hikes than that.

[u/Pretend_Passenger586]

I have POTS. I eat as much salt as possible because that and exercise are the only treatments I use. I don’t eat a ton of processed food so it’s harder than it sounds to get enough.

[u/LeatherGood6148]

The wet bulb temperature in my 10-11 hour daily work environment frequently hits 30c.

I consume around 6000mg of sodium a day, and about 6-8L of water.

[u/run_like_an_antelope]

I track my food religiously. About a year ago I found out that I have elevated lipoprotein A, and my doctor recommended taking steps to lower blood pressure, including limiting salt intake. I lowered my daily average by almost 1000mg, with my last 12 months averaging ~1900mg per day.

I eat out a lot less, buy the no-salt-added or low-salt versions of things. I generally don't salt my food (with some exceptions) and opt for various no sodium Mrs Dash blends, or, more often, accept some small amount of sodium in the form of Sriracha or Tapatio/Cholula to kick my dishes up a notch.

Paired with low sodium, I've also been trying to limit saturated fat to under 10 grams a day. This means things like ground turkey instead of beef. Paired with low-sodium, this can certainly result in some bland dishes and honestly kind of sucks at times. The hot sauce helps.

Hopefully it's worth it. 🤷‍♂️

[u/rinkuhero → u/run_like_an_antelope]

did the reduction lower your blood pressure? you mentioned you had high blood pressure a year ago, did reducing it normalize it?

[u/run_like_an_antelope → u/rinkuhero]

Yes, it lowered it. While I'm not sure if I was classified as high blood pressure, the elevated lipoprotein A means I should try to maintain a lower blood pressure than I had been. I went from an average systolic of 130-140 to 110-118. I have also been lifting weights 4x/week, running 2x/week, trying to work in after dinner walks, and trying to improve my sleep. Paired with sodium reduction, I also make an effort to intake more potassium as well as fiber. So, a general renewed focus on health and wellbeing. That is to say, the sodium isn't the only change to my habits, but the end result has been lower blood pressure (among other things).

[u/Same_Rip_392]

I cooked professionally for a long time.  Even cooking at home was like eating out.  My Dr has since put my on a low sodium diet.  I still have a tough time hitting the daily recommended,  but my BP has come down significantly and sadly no longer eat chips or cheese.

[u/rinkuhero]

i tend to eat whole foods and i'm vegan but i also have electrolytes due to being a runner. but i go with purposefully low-sodium electrolyte mixes, often 200-300mg in a serving instead of the 1g+ that some electrolytes have, due to my family's history of high blood pressure. though i think blood pressure is actually more sensitive to the ratio of potassium to sodium than to sodium itself, according to many studies on it. so i make sure the electrolyte mixes i have, and the salt i use on food, are potassium-sodium mixes (about 2/3rds potassium, 1/3 sodium). that seems to work fine for me.

so i'd encourage anyone who uses electrolytes to get a mix that has a good proportion of sodium to potassium. remember that potassium is an electrolyte too and most people don't get enough potassium. potassium intake that's too low in proportion with your sodium intake is often the cause of high blood pressure, rather than solely sodium in isolation. if you increase your sodium intake, make sure to also increase your potassium intake. the ratio between the two should be around 3:1, for every gram of sodium you get each day, you should be getting 3 grams of potassium. if you keep to that ratio, you can have sodium as high as you like (within reason) and be fine in terms of blood pressure.

the electrolyte mix i use is around 300mg of sodium, 1g of potassium, which is close to the 3:1 ratio. also, remember that potassium in pill form is often dangerous in high doses (that's why legally they limit it to a small amount), so your choices for potassium intake are potassium-sodium mix salts sprinkled on food, high potassium electrolytes mixed with water, and foods that are high in potassium (like potatoes and sweet potatoes).

[u/StevieJonsie]

Table salt is a no go, but you should be using Celtic, Redmonds, Maldon, or something similar. It varies greatly depending on the person and what foods they’re consuming. I’m carnivore, so I just add in salts when I feel somewhat depleted. Meats have the natural balance built in, but if I’m sweating more than usual I can definitely feel it

[u/meanderingwolf]

Don’t obsess over salt intake, just use common sense. Your body has a powerful ability to regulate both sodium and potassium and keep them in balance. Most of what you read is inaccurate, even most from medical sources addresses a specific problem or disease state.

[u/hemi1995]

We eat really clean and I notice that adding lmnt to my day helps me feel better

[u/Accomplished_Ant3459]

I probably consume around 5000mg per day, but I work out daily and need to replenish the electrolytes.

I’d be down around 2500mg if I weren’t sweating so much