As an athlete, if your diet and hydration meets the training demands placed on your body, you will perform at your best, reduce risk for injury and illness and improve longevity in your sport. If you suffer from flat training sessions, subpar race performances, inconsistent training efforts, fatigue, injuries, chronic niggles, digestive issues, sleep disturbances and a reasonable amount of cold symptoms, you probably lack the essentials of a training diet that will boost your immune system and encourage optimal training enhancements.
In my book, Essential Sports Nutrition, I start the first chapter discussing the topic of hydration. Why hydration?
Despite not providing the body with energy (in the form of calories), water is the most essential nutrient in a healthy, performance-focused diet. Every tissue, organ, cell and body system requires it. Whereas you can survive for over a month without food, you can only survive but a few days without drinking water.
Because your body systems (hormonal, neurotransmitter, metabolic, enzymatic) are put into high gear as they experience great stress through training , you want to look for ways to optimize these processes. One of those ways is through consistent hydration habits.
If you happen to be one of the many athletes who are neglected your hydration needs, here are a few mistakes to stop making.
- Not drinking enough water during the day - The average adult is 50-65% water. If you weigh 150 lbs, you are likely carrying around 88 lbs (or 40 liters) of fluid inside of your body. Even though you are made of water, you still need to pay attention to your daily fluid intake when you aren't training/exercising. Because muscle tissue is ~75% made of water and bones are around 30% water, it makes sense to keep your muscles and bones well-hydrated (fat tissue is low in water, only around 10%) so that your body is primed to perform during exercise. Water is also the main components of your blood and blood carries hormones, oxygen and nutrients (like glucose) to your cells. Aim for 90 ounces a day for women and 120 ounces a day for men. Eighty percent of this amount should come from water and the rest from water-containing foods (watery fruit, vegetables, soup) and beverages (Smoothies, milk). Spread your intake over the course of the day and cut back around 2 hours before bed to avoid night-time bathroom trips. You should be fully emptying your bladder 4-5 times throughout the day. If you feel the urge to urinate every hour, you are drinking too much (and/or not consuming enough sodium in your daily diet). If you can easily go 3-4+ hours without the urge to urinate, you are not consuming enough fluid.
- Not rehydrating properly post workout - Although fluid (and sodium) losses vary, often based on environmental conditions, fitness level, gender, diet, intensity/volume, etc., it would be a mistake to only drink what feels like "enough" after an intense/long/sweaty workout. When you sweat, you lose a lot of fluid. Sodium loss varies. However, when you complete a session where you've lost a lot of fluid, your blood volume (volume of blood, specifically plasma and red blood cells) and total body water has decreased. Conversely, sodium content in blood increases. Simply drinking plain water after a fluid depleting session will quench your thirst but you will dilute your blood before blood volume has returned to normal values. The end result is that you will urinate a lot of diluted urine (to bring the concentration of blood to a normal level) but you will have neglected to rehydrate yourself. Consuming drinks with sodium after a fluid-depleting session will optimizing rehydration. Ideally, consume 20-24 ounce of a sodium-rich fluid post fluid-depleting training, for every pound lost during exercise - spread over several hours.
- Hydrating with the wrong types of beverages - Plain water is your ideal fluid choice - it's free of sugar, caffeine, calories, food dyes and artificial ingredients. If you have yet to appreciate the benefits of plain water, you can choose carbonated or mineral water (both of which are a great alternative to regular and diet soda). As long as your bubbly beverage is free of citric acid, sugar and phosphorus, there's little risk to your health. If you experience discomfort in your gut (or gas/belching), you are likely drinking your carbonated drink too quickly. As for alcohol, these calories are not used for energy like the macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat) found in real food. Alcohol is metabolized in your body as fat - alcohol by-products are converted into fatty acids and after being stored in liver, those fatty acids are sent to the bloodstream. While moderate alcohol consumption may be combined in an otherwise healthy training diet, alcohol consumed before, during or after training can impair recovery, affect motor ability, impair vitamins and mineral usage, increase dehydration (it acts as a diuretic), and may interfere with glycogen storage in the muscles and liver. Alcohol is also a vasodilator, meaning that it causes the blood vessels to expand. Consuming alcohol after a competition (or intense workout) may compromise healing and recovery, especially if soft tissue damage has occurred. If you choose to drink, avoid before/during/after heavy training days (and competitions) and stick with one drink - 12 ounce beer, 4 ounce wine, 1.25 ounce of liquor.
- Not consuming water with gels - Gels and chews act as a convenience source of fuel during running workouts. However, the lack the sodium needed to maintain fluid balance. The typical gel contains around 50mg of sodium (compare that to a 90-120 calorie serving of a sport drink that contains 250-500mg sodium). Additionally, because gels and chews act as a portable, yet concentrated, source of carbohydrates, they must be combined with water to provide the optimal environment to optimize gastric emptying. Although a gel or chew may give you the boost you need when experiencing the effects of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose), for a sport nutrition product to work effectively as your primary fuel, electrolyte and fluid source, it should be equal to or less than the osmolality of the blood to create a favorable osmotic gradient. Only than can the produce effectively deliver fluid, carbohydrates and electrolytes to the working muscles. If your stomach is unable to empty consumed carbohydrates from a gel/chews (concentrated carbohydrates), the risk for bloating, gas, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramping, fatigue and dehydration increase. More so, once you get dehydrated, gastric emptying is delayed and any attempt to hydrate (or consume needed calories) will only upset your tummy even more. The ideal sport nutrition product should contain sugar/carbohydrates (10-14 grams) and sodium (at least 120 mg) for every 8 ounce fluid.