Salt Usage and Weight Maintenance

(Sarah Herlihy) #1

Hi All
Just wanting to ask about the intake of salt on the keto diet. I have been keto for about 6 months now and have lost the weight i wanted to and enjoy this WOE. I find lately i am just craving salt and electrolyte drink to the point where i cannot think clearly until i have some. Is this normal? I had not eaten salt for about 3 years previous to starting this WOE and it blow my mind that i now cannot get enough. Also wondering if once you have lost the necessary weight does hunger ramp up? I am starving most days and have increased by calorie intake by 100 cals per day as maintenance but am still hungry, both for food and salt.
Interested to hear how often everyone has hydralyte tabs and salt.

(Naomi Brewster) #2

‘The Salt Fix’ by Dr Nick DiNicolantonio might be of interest - here’s a youtube video interview he did if interested…

I have experimented a little bit with my own levels - I started drinking sole water in the morning and whenever I felt the need- (salt saturated water) 5ml in a glass of water. My energy was great and actually felt pretty good but then started to get a little bit of water retention when the weather heated up (I’m in Australia) so have scaled back a bit and only have in the morning now.

(Karen Parrott) #3

My blood pressure used to run slightly high eating low fat, high carb and counting WW points.

Once I lost weight and kept it off and started eating LCHF/Keto (5.75 years, 70+ pounds), yes! I need more salt since my blood pressure runs almost into too low and I start to feel not so great.

Thank goodness for Dr. DiNicolantonio’s book. He’s been interviewed on a lot of podcasts, too. I feel so much better with the right salt, magnesium balance.

(Mike W.) #4

You should be adjusting your protein for maintenance.

(mike) #5

From what I understand this is true. As you reduce your fat you have less to use for fuel. I believe @richard wrote something to calculate how much fat you need to eat based on your body fat %.

#6

Well @Sarah_Herlihy, being that you were salt-deprived for 3 years by not eating much of it, the body is probably doing some mineral rebalancing, and catching up!

Salt is so essential for deep hydration on a cellular level, which in turn affects the whole body. What I’ve found is when I’m well salted, I don’t need to chug water - and my thirst is less dramatic. I start the day with one teaspoon of saturated salt water (sole) in my mug of spring water. And I freely use sea salt in cooking and add it to whatever I can when eating. I have more in the evening if I feel I need it, or simply snack on a 1/4 tsp of sea salt/cave salt in the palm of my hand.

There are european studies about the difference between ancient salt (himalayan, utah cave salt) and modern sea salt. The ancient oceans were mineral-rich and today’s sea salt is mineral-depleted. Also, Morton’s table salt is not sea salt, it’s an industrial by-product sodium chloride, without any other minerals. The body needs the mineral synergy for some processes.

The renowned biophysicist Peter Ferreira and Naturopath Dr Barbara Hendel’s book “Water & Salt: The Essence of Life” talks about the many traditional uses of salt for healing and body care, the mineral complexities of ancient sea salt, and the different nuances of hydration. They say that the straight sodium chloride byproduct after a time gets stored in the body as a toxin, and that when one switches to ancient salts there is a detoxification of the excess sodium chloride. Fascinating.

Dr. Phinney talks about a large-scale study of sodium showing that low levels, ie. those recommended in 2016 around 2,500 mg, are actually associated with higher all-cause mortality and the lowest levels of mortality are at about double the currently recommended levels - around 5mg a day, which is what he supplements with.

He also says the risk at 8,000 mg is still LOWER than being deprived at 2,500 mg.

Ancient peoples treasured salt - it was the most precious traded and stored and carried thing among tribes for a long time on the planet.

(sandra) #7

I hope this is not too off topic but I found this fascinating! In case someone doubts how important salt is (https://vimeo.com/35525821) PS I learned so much from the book “the salt fix” posted above. The part about coffee I had never heard before, really made a change in my routine based on that alone.

(sandra) #8

I just loved that book and there are a lot more videos/interviewed out there with him that are very helpful.

(Sarah Herlihy) #9

Thankyou so much for taking the time to reply. So informative and makes sense.

(Naomi Brewster) #10

wow - that was amazing. Elephants eat up to 20 kilos of salt in a single night - returning to the caves every few weeks. Really interesting - thanks for sharing. When we were on a farm in New Zealand with cows, goats, sheep etc we put out salt blocks out for the animals and they would lick it quite happily.

(sandra) #11

I know, it blew me away. Amazing. =)

#12

My Mom was recently hospitalized, twice, for having low sodium. In the hospital they put her on a “cardiac” meal plan which was, you guessed it - low sodium. I mentioned the idiocy of this to the nurse.
She just had a visit to a Dr who told her she could have a little salt since she had low sodium issues. I told her the doctor was full of SHIT to eat as much d*** salt as she wanted.
I can’t believe these people are still spouting this crap.

(Maha) #13

Just bought The Salt Fix, but I’ve already decided to stop restricting my son from salting his food. I used to be so worried about him over doing it, but it’s probably what his body requires. Ugh, I so wish I could have a do-over with my kids starting at pre-conception. I’m learning so much with this woe and all the mistakes I’ve made by following stupid ‘expert’ dietary advice.

(Karen) #14

Well you were being a good mama following advice of experts. You are still being a good mom following the new school of thought. You are very on top of it for their benefit!

K

(Shayne) #15

I’ve actually had this discussion with my daughter who is 17. She said to me (she’s very smart) that she knows I did the best I could with the knowledge and resources I had at the time and we’re doing better now because we can.