Drink Right: Tips for Recreational Athletes

Sporting events attract thousands to the streets – and not just to watch. Jogging, skating and cycling are popular with young and old. But sport is not only fun, it also gets the body and mind going. To prevent damage to your health, drinking is particularly important in the summer months. After all, people who do sports consume energy, only 25 percent of which is used for exercise. The rest is converted into heat, the body temperature rises and we sweat.

Sweating: Loss of fluid and minerals

Sweat has an important function: as it evaporates, it removes heat from the body, protecting it from overheating. Because sweat consists mainly of water, the lost fluid must be replaced. Depending on the type of sport and the ambient temperature, water loss per hour can be between one and four liters. If you want to know exactly, you should weigh yourself before and after exercise. The weight loss corresponds to the required drinking amount.

Quench your thirst early

When exercising, it’s important to drink at the right time – preferably before thirst makes itself known. Thirst, like hunger, cannot be attributed to any organ or body part. When the volume of blood decreases and the amount of solutes in the blood increases, sensory cells report this information to the brain. As soon as water loss exceeds 0.5 percent of body weight (about 350 milliliters in adults), the brain recognizes a lack of water and triggers thirst.

The sensation of thirst can easily be ignored during sports and everyday life. It is therefore advisable to always make sure you drink enough. Even before sports, about 250 milliliters of mineral water or juice spritzer should be drunk. This is important to start with a balanced fluid balance.

Too little fluid – declining performance

The first signs of a fluid deficiency are not dramatic, but become noticeable when the water content in the body decreases by two percent. The supply of oxygen and nutrients to the brain and muscles is reduced, and performance declines. For sporting activities lasting up to one hour, it is sufficient to replace the sweat losses afterwards. Endurance sports lasting more than an hour require hydration during exercise to avoid a drop in performance or circulatory problems. As a guideline, drink about 200 milliliters of fluid in sips every 20 minutes.

Drink – but what?

Mineral water or juice spritzer with one-third juice are well suited. Special drinks have been developed for competitive athletes that contain as much solute as blood. These so-called isotonic drinks are recommended for athletes who are active for more than three hours without taking solid food. In addition to fluids, they also replace expended energy and sweated-out minerals.

For recreational athletes, isotonic drinks are superfluous because for them the focus is not on supplying energy and minerals, but on replacing fluids. Isotonic drinks offer no advantage, but cost more than mineral water and juice spritzers. These are slightly hypotonic, meaning they contain slightly fewer dissolved particles than blood. The minerals lost with sweat can be easily replaced by the recreational athlete with a varied diet after exercise.

Tips for recreational athletes – drinks in comparison.

Drink (0,2 l) Energy (kcal)
Orange fruit juice 95
Apple fruit juice 96
Multivitamin nectar 95
Fruit juice drink 98
Lemon Lemonade 98
Cola 98
Cola light 0,5
Vegetable juice 35