Sport and Exercise

Water: The Athlete’s Most important Nutrient

Forget about every other question you have about nutrition until you've figured out how to stay hydrated. Being smart about water intake can separate good performance from great performance.

You are mostly water. In fact, if you took the water out of a 180-pound lean body, there would be about 55 pounds left. Because your muscles, your brain, your blood and sweat are mostly water, your body doesn't work like it should when it doesn’t have enough water.

You don’t think as clearly, you lose endurance arid your heart works harder.

When you’re severely dehydrated, sweating stops and your body overheats.

The result-fatigue, weakness, dizziness, and collapse, or worse. In fact, every year, deaths in young healthy athletes are linked to severe dehydration. 

Sweat It Out

Sometimes you don’t even see sweat, like when you swim. But you sweat whenever your body heats up from working out. Sweat is your body cooling system. Evaporation of sweat from your skin cools you down. When you sweat you lose water from your body and that water must be replaced. Replacing the water takes a plan.

Don’t Rely on Thirst

You might be thinking what's the big deal? Won’t drinking when I’m thirsty guarantee that I’m hydrated?” Surprisingly, no. During exercise, for reasons not totally understood, humans don’t drink enough to prevent dehydration. You need to drink before you’re thirsty and keep drinking after you no longer feel thirsty.

Drink It In

Forget about the old rule of drinking 8 glasses per day. You probably need more than that on most days. Counting how many glasses you drink is only one way of keeping track of what you need.

A better way of making sure you’re hydrated is to check your body weight before and after practice.

For accuracy, in minimal clothing if there’s privacy, and afterwards, change out of the sweaty clothing before you weigh. The weight lost during practice or competition is not fat, it’s water loss.

One pint of water weighs one pound.

To replace the water, drink one pint of fluid for every pound you lost. (One pint 16 ounces = 500 ml = 1/2 litre. It is critical to replace the water loss as quickly as possible.