“We never know the worth of water ’till the well is dry.”

Myth: When I work out, the weight I’m losing is mainly fat.

Have you ever weighed yourself before and after you go to the gym, to see how many pounds of fat you’ve just burned?  Well, I have some news for you… that weight you lost, was mainly water weight.

Did you know sweat rates during a workout commonly ranges between 1-4 lbs. per hour?  60% of the human body is made up of water.

Myth: Toxins and fat are released when I sweat.

So what is all that sweat?  Is it just water?  No!  When you sweat, you are losing vital electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium ).  These help maintain your body’s basic functions.  To replace each type of lost electrolytes during an average workout, Nancy Clarke suggests the following:

Sodium: 1 qt. Gatorade

Potassium: 1 medium banana

Calcium: 8 oz. Yogurt

Magnesium: 2 tbsp medium peanuts butter

How much water should I drink?

The important thing to note here, is that if you sweat too much, you will find yourself fatigued not only after your workout, but throughout the next day.  Dehydration is all too common.  An easy way to keep track of your hydration level is to check the color of your urine.  If it’s dark yellow, then you’ve got a problem.  An extremely athletic female should drink approximately 11 ½ cups (96 oz/6 L) of water per day.  Extremely athletic males should be drinking about  16 cups.  If you are not extremely athletic, 8 cups (48 oz/2 L) per day will do the trick for both sexes.  Another way to calculate your water weight is to divide your weight by two.  If you weigh 150 lbs, you want to drink 75 oz (9 ½ cups/3 L) per day.

Want to know your sweat rate?

To calculate your sweat rate, step on that scale before a one hour workout and then after.  That is your sweat rate/hour.

H20: Before, During, After a Workout:

Before: Try to hydrate up to 8-12 hours prior to a workout.  The goal is to drink about 2-3 ml per pound of body weight at least 4 hours before you exercise.  For a 150 lb. athlete, that would come out to about 300-500 ml (10-15oz/1 ½ -2 cups).

During: It is recommended that you drink every 20 minutes during long workouts (over 3 hours).  You should know your sweat rate and work to replace it to prevent performance decline.

After: Drink as much as you can after a workout.  If you know your sweat rate, replenish at least 50% of that rate.  Sipping fluids over longer periods of time, will maximize the amount of water you body will retain.

Best Sports Beverage

• Check to make sure the drink has sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
• Vitamins CANNOT be incorporated quickly enough during exercise for you to benefit.
• Watch out for Carbonation – bubbles may cause bloating.
• Say NO to Plastic Bottles – they are wasteful.  Consider purchasing your sports beverages in larger sizes and pouring them into a reusable Nalgene bottle for each workout.

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