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DAVE88
05-03-12, 4:28 pm
What are your thoughts? Can I have a lot of sodium as long as I'm drinking lots of water and working out?

Aggression
05-03-12, 4:30 pm
I never worry about sodium. When getting down to the last few weeks of a contest prep, people will make adjustments and play around with sodium levels to make sure they're stage ready. But other than that, just eat clean, quality foods and you'll be fine. Don't be eating those frozen meals that contain 1g+ of sodium in one serving.

Mr. Dead
05-03-12, 4:35 pm
I never worry about sodium. When getting down to the last few weeks of a contest prep, people will make adjustments and play around with sodium levels to make sure they're stage ready. But other than that, just eat clean, quality foods and you'll be fine. Don't be eating those frozen meals that contain 1g+ of sodium in one serving.

This... A couple of things about sodium, though... You would be fine, as long as you don't have a predisposition for high blood pressure, and cardiac issues... Sodium is also vital and necessary for muscle contraction... Don't go overboard on the water to "counter balance" the sodium intake as that will put your electrolytes out of balance, and can cause further issues...

DAVE88
05-03-12, 4:47 pm
Thanks for the input, just wondering since I am away at college now and can't make my own food. Not uncommon for me to have my food for the whole day be 2000mg+. I am done next week for the semester so it will be nice to get back home cooking.

braves561
05-05-12, 8:43 pm
I keep mine under 5,000 per day. Usually its near 2500-3100mg or so.

DAVE88
05-05-12, 9:22 pm
What is your liquid intake like?

JoshLandry
05-05-12, 9:33 pm
I personally never look into how much im getting except about 2 days before a show, thats about it!!

TigerAce01
05-05-12, 9:43 pm
I have high blood pressure, but am not completely sold on sodium affecting it to a large degree. The things that really aggravate it for me are stims, stress, and lack of sleep. I've had a couple gallons of Gatorade along with my other meals once and my BP actually dropped.

All in all, don't get obsessive about counting the mgs, but if you are finding yourself bloated or other issues arise, just take a look and make sure you're not going overboard.

-Ace

BigChrisF
05-05-12, 11:18 pm
A high sodium intake isn't a big problem unless you have uncontrolled hypertension. You will just carry a little bit of extra water. How much will depend on the individual. What you want to stay away from is dramatic shifts in how much sodium you take in. That is what can really bloat you. I'm gonna quote myself from another thread a couple months ago:

"...Aldosterone is a hormone that the body uses to regulate water retention for this very purpose. If you don't have a lot of carbohydrates hanging around, it will dump the water it no longer requires. This is actually the idea behind most schemes to cut water weight for weigh ins. You increase water intake and sodium intake a week or so prior. This excess of water and sodium will force water retention, so your body stops secreting the aldosterone and when you stop the the water and sodium you will excrete all of your stored water until your body has a chance to bring the aldosterone levels back up..."

It's not completely relevant to what you want to know, but the take home is that it doesn't really matter what your initial sodium intake was, you just double it in the loading phase and half it in the initial cutting phase.

As has been previously stated, if you bloat too much or drop too much water you can throw off your electrolyte balance and run into some serious health concerns.

Carrnage
05-06-12, 12:50 am
This... A couple of things about sodium, though... You would be fine, as long as you don't have a predisposition for high blood pressure, and cardiac issues... Sodium is also vital and necessary for muscle contraction... Don't go overboard on the water to "counter balance" the sodium intake as that will put your electrolytes out of balance, and can cause further issues...

Solid input!

Just make sure your potassium intake is balanced with the sodium!