June 10, 2008

We’ve had a streak of hot weather here in Boston, and most endurance athletes aren’t use to it yet. Be sure to not only drink enough fluids during exercise but also add a little sodium to your pre-exercise stint in the heat if you plan to be outside for a while. The sodium helps retain the fluids in your body (as oposed to have them go in one end and out the other) and can help delay dehydration and enhance your endurance. While on a daily basis you want to monitor your sodium intake, a little extra before hot weather exercise can be a wise choice.

Some possible choices are chicken noodle soup (or any canned brothy soup), V-8 juice, salted pretzels, pickles, ham and cheese sandwich with mustard – or  any salted/salty food, before you go. This will be a change in eating patterns for health-conscious endurance athletes who cook their oatmeal without salt, rarely eat canned or processed foods, and have no salt shaker on the table.

You might lose 800 to 1,000 mg sodium per pound of sweat. (Weigh yourself pre and post exercise to figure our how many pounds of sweat you lose in an hour.) While you need not get obsessed about replacing sodium milligram for milligram, reading food labels can give you a frame of reference regarding how much you replace via foods. For example--

A quart of Gatorade offers 440 mg sodium

A can of chicken noodle soup offers 2,350 mg

Eight ounces of rrange juice has only 5 mg

Generally, if you crave salt, you should eat salt. The chapter on Repalcing Sweat Losses in my Sports Nutrition Guidebook offers more information. (See www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Enjoy that pretzel!

Nancy

Yesterday I received a phone call from a writer for Backpacker magazine. He talked about “dieters’ hikes” (sort of like “fat camps”) for people who want to lose undesired body fat. He participated in one of the hikes, and said he lost weight — that is, until he returned to civilization and immediately stuffed himself with an over-sized Mexican dinner.

While he raved about the dieters’ hike, I reminded him losing weight is just part of the process. Dieters have to keep the weight off—and that means learning how to manage the American Food Supply, not just be denied and deprived while restricted to the wilderness.

The bottom line is: If you want to lose undesired body fat, please think about learning how to EAT, instead of embarking on a food program you really don’t want to maintain for the rest of your life. (Do you really want to never eat bagels, potato, or pasta for the rest of your life?)

Your best bet if to get personalized nutrition advice from a board certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD). You can find your local sports nutrition expert by using the referral network at www.SCANdpg.org.

Sports dietitians are an under-utilized coach. You’ll wish you hadn’t waited so long for profesional food help. You can also find helpful information in my Sports Nutrition Guidebook (2008; www.nancyclarkrd.com )

Here’s to success with food and exercise!

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD