Sports Nutrition Blog

Results of Your Sweat Check?

With training season and summer finally here, it is time to get serious about understanding your fueling, hydration, and electorlyte requirements during training, whether on the bike or during long runs. Let’s start with fluid. If you have already completed one sweat check, complete another, and even a few more after that. Remember every pound that you lose after a workout  is 16 ounces of sweat that you did not replace. Keep track of how much fluid you consume when checking your sweat rate, and add the two fluid numbers together: weight loss fluid conversion + fluid consumed- that is how much you sweated in that time period. Try to do checks during a 60-90 minute workout, and don’t consume any solid or semi-solid sports nutrition products when completing a sweat check.

When you have a few more results, take a close look at how well you are matching or minimizing your sweat losses  during training. Sweat rates can vary from athlete to athlete, ranging anywhere from 24 to over 50 ounces per hour. If you have a very high sweat rate, matching sweat losses can be difficult. However, you can try to minimize your sweat losses by drinking more, especially if you are meeting less than 50-percent of your sweat losses.