P/V recommend 2-5g, which is about 1-2 tsp a day. You could measure it out. Don't forget to think about other salt things you eat like: cheese, nuts, broth, etc.

If you're retaining a lot of water, then you probably don't have to lean so hard on the salt. On the other hand, if you're getting leg cramps, you might need to supplement salt in addition to potasium and magnesium.

Salt is the stuff that helps your body recycle other minerals.

Thanks, my friend. Never cheese! I am totally dairy free. Hardly any nuts lately and usually I soak
Them before eating. No broth. All I eat is veggies, olive oil and protein. Today I splurged and had a tablespoon or two of almond butter. Ichthyologist need the salt since I have been really tired this weekend? Also I taking magnesium but now my stomach is a mess to be honest. I think
It is the stress of coming back
To school, new apartment, new schedule again and just feeling down lately. It will go away once I get back in my routine. I still think
I am overeating on portions but my calories are a bit low. My y just can't take alot of food at once. So I going to respects body and don't force it.

My stomach just can't handle large portions. That was what I was trying to type.

PEacelove-- I think you are on the right track to give yourself time to adjust to the new schedule. New school year is a lot to adjust to.

I eat 2 tsp of salt a day. You might tolerate it better with food.

Hope you have a great year!

no need to eat large portions. eat to hunger. i think that's one of the most important things we learn eating low carb. listen to your body and eat only when you're hungry.

Peacelove, this post, along with many others in the past few weeks, points to the fact that you are tired, lacking energy and are low on calories. You eat such a spartan diet day after day, which would be fine if you felt good and losing weight. Instead, your body is fighting you - it sounds like malnutrition, frankly. Also, a diet with not enough fat in proportion to protein can make you feel awful. Why not try reducing protein a bit and increasing fat? (no, fat does NOT make you fat) - many have found that that change increases their feeling of well-being, and may spur further weight loss.

It also sounds like you are taking too much magnesium if your "stomach is a mess". You have indicated elsewhere that you had an ED in the past. Is your general stress level sending you back to that? I think it is time for you to confront that possibility.

What sort of magnesium are you taking? Magnesium citrate and oxide are used as laxatives and are not well absorbed. That could be why it is upsetting your tummy.

The other thing is to take it with your meals to protect your tummy.

Excellent guidance! Thank you. It is such a process, but I don't think it happens over night. Nice reframe, ty.

Nancy and arielle. Ty for being understanding. Not everything is about food/fat. However, I am on a healthy path and just need to tweak things a bit. I am certain that as listening to my body and my reactions to amounts and digestion is most important. No one plan works for everyone which is why our world is so magnificent, all unique. Magnesium - cheap kind. I will check
Later but yes, I think it might be too
Much. I will try taking with good because I do feel better than when I was not going to BR. I can increased fat slowly, no big rush!!

With food. On the bus trying to text.

Actually for me, bloating was one of the early signs that my body was crashing from lack of salt. Lack of salt can cause fluid in the body to leak into interstitial space instead of staying in the blood stream...

I have waded through this whole thread. I crashed last year in Oct. after being on LC for 2+ years, and I think it was caused by lack of salt cascading into lack of potassium/magnesium cascading into a full on adrenal crash. I had been supplementing magnesium while on low carb, but not sodium or potassium.

Last year in Oct. I had a lot of muscle wasting and weakness and I didn't know why. I couldn't tolerate caffeine at all - it gave me terrible shakes and heart palpitations. I had lots of gastro symptoms, headaches, etc. Then I ended up with really bad low blood pressure spells for the better part of 9 months during the crash - just started coming out of that in June of this year.

I am just recovering, and am looking at going back lower carb again. I am currently eating more or less Paleo, but have gained a bit of weight (10#) that I'd like to trim back by 5# or so.

The biggest thing that has helped me is potassium bicarbonate. I needed the bicarbonate to get back into a good alkaline balance, and that has helped me greatly. Sodium bicarb probably would have done the trick, too, but I know I need potassium (I have blood work done) and potassium bicarb is a cheap fix. What I saw in my bloodwork was my anion gap was continually edging up, indicating acidosis, and I was chronically dehydrated even though I drank a couple of gallons of water a day.

Now I'm consuming water with salt, potassium bicarb, and magnesium added to maintain a good electrolyte balance. I can't drink plain water, it goes right through me and makes me more dehydrated, or worse it causes diffuse bloating. (I really liked Teaser's suggestion of adding salt to coffee - - tried that in my decaf tonight, yum!).

Anyway, I logged back onto this site because I know last year when I started having symptoms, this thread was starting up and I was interested to come back and read it.

I am glad that you are all getting the word out about salt, and I would suggest that anyone who has been LC'ing for a long time and has symptoms like mine - check your basic bloodwork.

Wow! Interesting. Thanks a lot for tell us about that.


That is definitely one thing P/V point out. Your body will start tearing itself about looking for the electrolytes it needs.

It is such a shame the "salt is bad for you" message has been pushed so hard. People avoid it and then get into trouble. :\

Nancy, I am posting Fowl Friends post in my journal..... SO important. I still take salt in am in water. Actually look forward to it.

Just to clarify, are we talking about sea salt? or iodine salt?

Either/both... it doesn't matter really. I guess we're talking "sodium".