What runner’s need to know about sports drinks

When you run, you lose water and salts, known as electrolytes, through your sweat. The longer you run (half marathons, marathons and pure LSD’s), the greater the loss is. If you don’t drink enough to recover your sweat losses, you can become dehydrated. Dehydration is a very dangerous condition if left untreated. Always remember the importance of taking in WATER to ensure decreased risk of dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. During running, your body also uses carbohydrates for energy. Being low in energy can also affect your performance.

 By taking a sports drink, it will be a good way to correct losses in electrolytes, provides water at the same time to prevent dehydration and to include carbohydrates that will enhance performance and to prevent one from hitting the wall.

Sport drinks are an easy way to have all above mentioned benefits included all at the same time and by taking a sport drink, a runner can eat less without a lot of effort. The guideline for taking a sport drink will be any vigorous training/runing for more than an hour.

Other special conditions for taking a sports drink include:

• Exercise intensely like interval training
  
• Experiencing high sweat losses
• Have salty sweat. One way to tell is that you’ll notice white powder on your face and clothes when you sweat
• Train or exercise in the heat and under high humidity conditions
• To balance energy input with energy output
  
• Training more than once a day.

To determine the correct amount of electrolytes and carbohydrate intake for you, it is important to take all of the above mentioned conditions into account and to seek advice from a qualified dietician to individualize/customize a meal plan.

Before you just drink during your next run, think about what’s IN that drink for you!

Choose sports drinks wisely!
Happy running!

Dianda Snyman RD(SA)  & Hesté-Marie Viviers  RD(SA)
Registered Dieticians with a special interest in sports nutrition
Pr No 084 000 0109991
dianda@webadsl.co.za 

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