Guest bloggers, Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD, CDN, CFT and Lyssie Lakatos, RD, CDN, CFT (a.k.a. The Nutrition Twin®) are registered dietitians and certified personal trainers. They share a nutrition consulting practice and are co-authors of The Secret To Skinny: How Salt Makes You Fat and The 4-Week Plan to Drop a Size & Get Healthier with Simple Low-Sodium Swaps (HCI, Fall 2024) and Fire Up Your Metabolism: 9 Proven Principles for Burning Fat and Losing Weight Forever (Simon and Schuster, 2004).
The Twins are regularly featured as nutrition experts on The Fox News Channel, Good Morning America and Discovery Health Channel and regularly appear on national radio stations, as well as print and online publications. Check out The Nutrition Twins‘ website to learn more from this dynamic duo.
As registered dietitians and certified personal trainers, we’ve spent more than a decade helping thousands of clients get healthy and achieve the bodies they longed for. Our most recent diet discovery compelled us to write The Secret To Skinny: How Salt Makes You Fat, as we found what we consider the missing link when it comes to weight loss: Salt. It’s seemingly innocent, and often invisible, so most people don’t pay it any attention when it comes to weight loss.
Salt increases your risk for heart disease, increases inflammation, ages you and bloats you. Salt also makes you fat. Here’s why:
- Salt makes your fat cells denser because they hold more fat.
- Salt makes you hungrier.
- Salt makes you thirstier because you end up quenching your thirst with caloric beverages.
- Salt increases cravings resulting in excess calorie intake.
Aim for less than 2,400 mg sodium a day. For comparison sake, the average intake is between 3,500 and 5,500 mg a day. 
Great news salt lovers! In less than three weeks after cutting back, your taste buds adjust and you’ll no longer want as much salt. Try these Skinny swaps to slash the salt and shrink your waistline:
- Swap your cottage cheese (240 calories, 800 mg sodium/ cup) for an egg (75 calories, 65mg sodium). Do this daily and save 17 pounds and 111 days of sodium a year.
- Go for low-sodium whole grain bread instead of the regular version and save at least 45 full days worth of sodium a year! The low-sodium bread won’t increase your cravings like other breads; think of the calories you’ll save by not having to give in to cravings.
- Swap one tablespoon of salted butter in cooking for cooking spray. Then flavor with herbs and spices. Do this once a day and you’ll save 10.5 pounds and 14.5 days worth of sodium this year.
- Ditch that serving of Goldfish crackers. Snack on 30 pistachio nuts, even the salted ones. Do this daily and save 14 full days of sodium and five pounds this year.
- To be five pounds lighter tomorrow swap General Tso’s Chicken for a cup each of chicken and snow peas, brown rice, and steamed broccoli.