Things are heating up – especially here in Houston.  It is in the 80′s today and it is still February (Yeah, I hear you guys in the “great white north” grumbling at this news).  This got me thinking that we should review some information on hydration and calculating sweat rates.  Below is a re-print of a blog post from last year about hydration and measuring sweat rates.  I’ve made a couple of minor changes, but it is always important to be aware of your hydration status.

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As the weather starts warming up, it is particularly important to pay attention to how much you are sweating when you are exercising outside or even working in your yard.  Studies have shown that as little as a 1 to 2% drop in body weight can impact your athletic performance.  Or, you can swing the other way and over-hydrate.  Studies have also shown that we can be pretty good at estimating how much we are drinking but we can’t estimate how much fluid we are losing through sweat.  Personally, when I’m doing triathlons I find that I tend to under-hydrate on the bike and over-hydrate on the run.  The result – a sloshy stomach accompanied by stomach cramps.  Not a fun way to do the run.

Most people are also spending time outdoors gardening, working on their house, etc.  Don’t forget the importance of hydrating when you are outside in the heat (regardless of activity type) for a period of time.

How can you monitor your hydration?  One of the easiest things you can do is to weigh yourself before and after you workout or before and after you work outside in the heat.  Both times you weigh, you should be nude (or in the same dry clothes) and dry (take a minute to towel off before stepping on the scale – don’t forget to towel off your hair, too).  For every pound you’ve lost, you should drink 16 – 24 oz of fluid over the next couple of hours.  Two pounds or so lost, I’m not concerned.  More than three pounds lost and I start to get concerned about dehydration.  Going in the other direction, if you find you are gaining weight, you could be running the risk of being over-hydrated and should consume a little less fluids.

For the athletes out there, you may have read that some studies have shown that high performance/professional runners are dehydrated when they finish a race.  I’ve heard people use this data to argue that you should finish a run dehydrated.  However, keep in mind that each person is different, but most people I know can tell a performance difference if they are dehydrated in the form of headache and/or just not feeling right.  To me, there is quite a difference between those professionals whose job is to run and those of us mere mortals who run/train in addition to our other jobs.  As people train, their bodies adapt to that training.  I’ve had the opportunity to run with Jeff Galloway a couple of times in 2000 and 2001.  I asked him about what he drinks before and during runs since he didn’t have any fluids with him.  At that time, he would drink a couple of cups of coffee before a long run and would be OK without other fluids on the run.  Now, how many marathons had Jeff run at that point?  More than I have fingers and toes I believe.  Therefore, for professionals and highly trained people (like Jeff), that may mean their bodies can handle performing in a dehydrated state.  For most others who are not training for hours every day, I’m not sure this is a good idea.

Finally, if you are exercising outdoors consistently, I’d recommend conducting a sweat trial every month or so.  A sweat trial can help you figure out how much you should be drinking and can help you figure out a starting point for salt/electrolyte intake. You want to do it on a shorter workout so you don’t have to also account for urine output. Here’s the steps (get out those calculators again):

1. Weigh yourself nude/dry before your workout
2. Weigh yourself nude/dry after your workout
3. Multiply the amount of weight you lost by both 16 and 24 (it takes about 16 – 24 oz, maybe more to replace every pound of fluid lost)
4. To the two numbers you got in #3, add the oz you drank (both water and sports drink). Again, you get two answers.
5. Divide the numbers you got in step 4 by the hours of your workout. This gives you an oz per hour to shoot for. Then, you can break this into 4, 15 minute or 6 10 minute drinking intervals.

Some people find that marking their water bottle every 2 to 4 oz helps them track how much they are drinking and when.

If the numbers you get are unrealistic (e.g. 80 oz per hour), then you need to determine how much you can realistically drink without negatively impacting your performance.

Second, is to look at electrolyte needs.  For every 4 cups (32 oz) the guideline is you need to take between 500 and 1000 milligrams of sodium. Some people need more, some less. This is a starting point. If you are crusty when you finish working out, you need to be on the higher end or perhaps even more.  You can and should get this during your workout through sports drink/salt tablets/etc.

Also, you should do sweat trials several times through out the year because we sweat differently in the spring than in the summer and fall.

Each semester I have fun in my Sports Nutrition class asking if canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are as good for you as fresh.  A vast majority of the class is adamant that canned and frozen cannot be as good for you as fresh.  However, I beg to differ.

“Fresh” fruits and vegetables you get in the grocery stores are actually picked when they are still unripe and ripen on their way to the store (unless you are shopping at a co-op or farmer’s market).  Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are picked at the peak of ripeness and processed.  So, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables can be as good for you as fresh . . .with a couple of caveats.

First, canned vegetables tend to have a lot of salt.  Read the label to find one that is lower in sodium.  You can also eliminate some of the sodium by rinsing the vegetables in a colander before cooking or eating.

Second, check that canned fruits are canned in juice – not syrup.  Yeah, the syrup is sweeter, but it adds calories.  If you are going to eat fruit, eat the fruit not the syrup.

Third, you have to watch the sauces in many frozen vegetables.  Many manufacturers will add butter and/or cheese sauces to their veggies.  Again, read the labels and look for increased fat and read the descriptions.

Two things I love with frozen vegetables is that I don’t have to worry about them spoiling as fast as fresh (OK – I can’t keep them forever, although I keep trying).  And, I can have steamed veggies in a couple of minutes in the microwave.  Just put them in a bowl with one or two tablespoons of water, cover leaving a vent, and microwave for two to four minutes – or until done.  YUM!

Although it isn’t spring yet, you can still enjoy fruits and vegetables.  Just head for the freezer and the canned aisles of your local grocery store.

By the way, if you want to know how long you can keep frozen foods, check here.

A prior blog post was about chocolate, and it is a topic I frequently get asked about.  One of the best things you can do is to find ways to swap lower calorie foods for higher calorie ones.  One of my favorite swaps is unsweetened Almond Breeze almond milk for regular milk for hot chocolate.  Put a cup in the microwave for 1:40, add a little Splenda, maybe a few marshmallows and you’ve got yummy hot chocolate.  I save 40 calories over skim milk.  And, remember those calories add up.  Almond milk is also a great alternative for those who avoid dairy and/or soy products.

Sometimes, only a baked chocolate product will satisfy that hunger.  When that happens, I make a batch of Hungry Girl’s Death by Chocolate Cupcakes.  These are a snap to make and have just 108 calories per cupcake which is about half of a regular cupcake.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups moist-style chocolate cake mix (half of an 18.25-oz. box)
Two 25-calorie packets diet hot cocoa mix
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
2 tbsp. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 tsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:
Place chocolate chips and the contents of both cocoa packets in a tall glass. Add 12 ounces of boiling water, and stir until chips and cocoa mix have dissolved. (I find my stick blender does a quick job of this.) Place glass in the freezer to chill for 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once cocoa has chilled, give it a stir, and mix with all other ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whip batter with a whisk or fork for 2 minutes. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray, or line it with baking cups. Evenly spoon batter (which will be thin, but don’t worry, your cupcakes will puff up!) into the pan. Place pan in the oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Cupcakes will look shiny when done. MAKES 12 SERVINGS

Serving Size: 1 cupcake
Calories: 108
Fat: 2.5g
Sodium: 239mg
Carbs: 19g
Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 12g
Protein: 2g

The trick is to know when you can and can not make a swap.  Sometimes only one thing will satisfy that craving.  Other times you can save some calories and still be satisfied.

Do you have some favorite swaps?  I’d love to hear about them.

The FDA is now using Twitter to “tweet” and update consumers about products being recalled due to the salmonella outbreak in products produced by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). If you want to join in the information, just follow http://twitter.com/fdarecalls.