Potassium as a Diuretic?

Does anyone have advice on using Potassium as a diuretic? I eat a lot of salt and tend to hold a lot of excess h2o. I’ve seen some stuff online where people have bought Potassium in bulk, and used it as a diuretic; apparently capsules of Potassium can only have up to 99mgs due to FDA regulations.

Is this safe and/or effective? Anyone have advice on proper dosing?

Not safe or effective. Yes the body excretes K thru kidneys but excess of it you run the risk of cardiac arrhythmias. Better off with dandelion root. And drinking lots of water enhances osmosis of sodium out of cells.

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Having too much can be problematic, but this is assuming you are meeting or exceeding daily recommended amounts in the first place, which is unlikely at approx. 3500 mg./day.

What is your current daily intake from food sources?

Edit: Not much need for supplementation when plenty can be gotten from foods like potatoes, spinach, black beans, etc.

Thanks for the feedback…honestly I don’t know my consumption.

I try to eat natural, unprocessed foods. Lots of meat and fruit, and les vegetables. I eat a lot of apples, sweet potatoes, berries, guacamole/avocado and also a lot of red meat. I supplement vitamin D and minerals.

Sure, any time.

Those are good choices, so what makes you think that your sodium intake/water retention is high, or that potassium supplementation may help?

1)Eat a banana??!

2)How much water do you drink?

Given the amount of meat I eat I know that is high in sodium, and I generously season with salt, so I’m basically just assuming my sodium intake is high. Maybe it isn’t given my amount of physical activity.

I drink mostly unsweetened tea, I have a 64 ounce Yeti and I drink probably two of those a day, along with a couple of glasses of h2o.

It can’t hurt to do like a spot check count of how much you consume in a typical day, but if you aren’t experiencing any serious effects like high blood pressure or edema, it probably isn’t a cause for serious concern. There seems to be different subsets of people who are more or less sensitive to sodium.

Most untreated meats are 75-100 mg. per 4 oz. serving, ones with brine solutions are in the 200 range, and cured meats (ham, etc) are usually around 7-800.

I keep my sodium intake at about 11-1500 per day and potassium at around 2500, but I’ve had some problems which make it a little more important to keep in check.

Some people feel pretty crappy if they reduce sodium intake suddenly. I sure did, but that evens out as potassium intake comes up into a better range.

Edit: Breads are actually pretty high in sodium. That’s a tricky one that gets a lot of people.

Yeah just have one more big glass of water and take it from there.

Loading up on water peri-workout pretty much always a good thing also

Good advice, I’ll increase h2o consumption and see how that works.

One other thing I should have mentioned originally, I’m on TRT which I think makes you hold onto more water anyway. I do regular bloodwork and estrogen is in normal range, approx. 50 last month.

Any luck? @Johnbu1981

Honestly not a whole lot; I’ve been focusing on bulking recently so I’m definitely holding onto some more water (and fat) but making some solid gains as well.

I will do a cut beginning in May and I’ll see how some of the above advice about increasing water, dandelion root, and decreasing sodium work.

Potassium just helps with clearing out excess sodium from the kidneys, if you’re on a bulk, and want nutrient rich foods, include potatoes in your diet. 100gm of raw rice can easily be replaced with 500gm of raw potatoes. If you have a bigger appetite, try doing that. Potatoes are amazing and are full of potassium, they rank the highest on the satiating index as well. Great when bulking too, only if you can eat that much!