From Keto to Stress: Why Many Midlife Men Need More Salt Than Guidelines Allow - PART 6
Most men in midlife have been told the same thing about salt: eat less, protect your heart. But the truth is, salt needs aren’t one-size-fits-all. In fact, depending on your diet, lifestyle, and health, you may actually need more salt than mainstream guidelines recommend.
If you’re following a low-carb diet, training hard, working a physical job, drinking a lot of coffee, under high stress, or sweating buckets in the sauna, cutting salt can leave you feeling weak, dizzy, or constantly fatigued. For some men, it can even make blood pressure and heart health worse, not better.
This article breaks down the real-life scenarios where men in midlife need extra salt to perform, recover, and feel their best, and why blindly following the old “less salt is healthier” message could be holding you back.
The need for recreational athletes to increase and maintain fat-free-mass
The two main factors that control the size of your furnace are what you eat and how you exercise. In the previous blog post, I said "protein is the key ingredient to building the components that make up your furnace. It's important to note that your body prefers to not use carbohydrates and fats as the fuel that burns inside the furnace. The body preferentially breaks down carbohydrates first, and then fats and finally proteins only if the other two fuels are depleted. This is important as proteins are generally less efficient at generating energy. In addition, proteins perform several important functions so if they were broken down several systems could fail."
Both the quality and quantity of protein has a key role to play in building and maintain the size of your furnace.
Before we start to digest the juicy protein details I want to take moment to debunk the "calories in and calories out" equation.