Sodium intake
I read somewhere that for heavy sweaters (me) that you should aim for 1000mg of sodium intake per hour for long course. Either I midread this or I'm struggling to figure out how on earth I can injest 6000mg of sodium. Even if I take the electrolyte tabs (3 per hour) then drink accelerade in all my bottles then I'm still short considerably (maybe only 2000mg max over a 6 hour ride). What am I missing here? Are there some super sodium tabs out there that I need to purchase? If I add more accelerade or GU's then I'm way over the 200-250 cals per hour - dilema?
Also what is the target potassium intake is for a heavy sweater?
Thanks.
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I am a heavy sweater- IMHO.
I do NOT take in 1000 mg of sodium an hour.
Trial and error during training, but I have NO PROBLEM with the 400mg in my Infinit and 1 Endurolyte, which I start after2 hours and usually skip if even 1 makes me nauseated. So the recommendation is 500-1000mg, keep an open mind. I have not had any problems. N=1, I know. but don't beat your self up if you are able to get away with less and feel fine for the duration.
All that being said, starting with 1000mg of sodium per hour may be more than you actually need. Short of taking your sweat to a lab and having it analysed for sodium content, there's really no way to know EXACTLY how much sodium you are losing per hour through sweat. So basically, you'll be estimating for sodium needs.
Too little sodium with large volumes of water can result in hyponatremia (low sodium levels in the blood). Too much sodium---in someone with normal kidneys and endocrine function---will usually lead to feeling really thirsty. Some people believe (myself included) that low sodium can cause muscle cramps. If you have muscle cramps that have been relieved with taking extra sodium, then you can titrate your sodium needs with the presence/abscence of muscle cramps.
It has been shown that you can replace plasma volume in severely dehydrated people through oral hydration alone if the fluid that they drink has at least 77 mM (millimoles) of sodium per liter---that's 1771 mg of sodium per liter. That study was done on patients in 3rd world countries who were severely dehydrated from cholera. Hopefully none of us will ever become that dehydrated during training or a race! My point is, that while 1000mg of sodium per hour seems like alot, if you're really dehydrated and need to replace your fluids with at least a liter of water, that much sodium is short 771 mg.
For me, if temps are above 88 degrees, I will take about 1000mg of sodium per hour in 50+ oz of fluid per hour. My Infinite has 650 mg of sodium per serving. I had one S!cap (341mg sodium per tablet) and there's 991mg of sodium.
Hope that's helpful!
1. Forget Enduralyes from Hammer, those have so little in them. Order S-Caps...much higher concentration (321 mg/pill) and more pure from my understanding (AND cheaper!). Google 's-caps' and you'll see a company called Succeed...that is it. You want to tablets.
2. There is nothing wrong with taking in 1000-15000mg during intense exercise. I would recommend starting lower and working your way up to that level as was previously suggested...your body responses pretty quickly to ingestation of electrolytes, so, maybe start at 800-1000 and build from there.
3. Consider starting your workouts with a 'load'...I use a can of chicken broth when I am not working out a 5am.
4. A lot of times, cramping is NOT an electrolyte issue...it is a work issue. When you work harder than your body is used to working, and challenging your muscles in an abnormally intense manner, you are going to be prone to cramping. So, manage it, get through it, stay hydrated and flexible (some light stretching) and I bet you'll see you cramping issues reduce over time...mostly as your body gets used to the work load.
Good luck!
Really appreciate everyone's help here.