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POSTED IN 01/10
Kate Underwood
Contributing Editor
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No matter where you are, what you're doing, or what time of day it is, you should always be hydrating your body.
This is most important for athletes, but a dehydrated body can make anyone feel run-down and groggy.
For your body to perform at optimum levels, it must be hydrated.
When the human body loses 1-2% of its body weight to sweat, it suffers a loss in blood volume. Loss in blood volume requires the heart to work overtime to move the blood through the bloodstream.
There really isn’t a perfect quantity of fluids the average person should count on imbibing throughout the day because it varies due to body mass, exercise exertion levels and sweating rates.
So, while the average amount of fluid intake cannot be named, you can monitor how much you need by two things. You can try weighing yourself before and after exercise. If you’ve lost any weight in one training session, it was most likely body fluid (minus bathroom breaks). You can also keep an eye on your urine output, which should be light in color as opposed to super concentrated and dark.
Your fluid loss is determined by a couple of things. If you live at a high altitude setting like I do, (Ketchum is 5750 ft.) you’ll need to monitor fluid intake more carefully.
When I moved to the high desert west, it was a huge difference from the humid days of living in the east. I had to be extremely careful to hydrate more than I had in the past. Add hot temperatures on top of the dry climate and that becomes double trouble.
Interestingly enough, cold temperatures like we often experience during ski racing/training can be trouble for staying hydrated. Breathing in the cold, dry air will result in your body needing to warm, and then moisturize that air. This also uses up hydration levels in the body.
You only need a sport drink if you are working out for an hour or more. You will probably need around 60-110 calories per eight ounces of drink mix in order to make up for calorie loss during exercise. The odds of you depleting electrolytes (sodium, potassium) during normal training times are low, but if you end up in an extremely long session (i.e. marathon, long over-distance) you might want to have a drink mix with electrolyte replacement.
Try drinking 8-10 ounces every 15-20 minutes. My nutritionist suggested using a drink mix with no more than eight percent carbohydrates. Make sure you drink before and afterwards as well. Post-workout, replenishing your glycogen stores will probably take a 4:1 ratio of carbs to proteins.
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