Hydration/Isotonic Drinks

Dizzy the Egg

Due to the hot weather I'm getting terrible dehydration, despite drinking loads of water.

Does anyone have any easy, home made ideas/ eating tips to avoid this without buying expensive drinks?

Cheers

ian_worby

umm the tap?

Milkie

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/healthy_eating/newsid_2132000/2132209.stm

Dizzy the Egg

ian_worby wrote:

umm the tap?

Aye, very good. I do use the tap, as I said in my original post. But I'm still getting dehyrated and was asking for any tips/diet advice that would help. Unless your taps give out isotonic drinks?

Dizzy the Egg

Cheers Milkie,

Been to the supermarket twice today and never bought any fruit juice, DAMN!!!!

Noel PT

I use the same recipe Milkie mentioned, it does the trick.
50-70g sugar

One litre of warm water

Pinch of salt

200ml of sugar free squash

Mix, cool and drink

Or I carry a Go Gel pack, for back up on long rides.

Dizzy the Egg

By squash do you mean juice from the carton or diluting juice like Robinsons?

Jimbob_no5

i use torq powder only as i got a huge tub of it free from work because of a crack in it

Noel PT

Dizzy the Egg wrote:

By squash do you mean juice from the carton or diluting juice like Robinsons?

Diluting juice like Robisons

omegas

What are your symptoms when you are dehydrated? Are you getting cramps. Dizziness, headaches.
How much water are you drinking when hard riding/exercising? You should be drinking about a litre an hour in this weather.

supersonic

You can replace half a litre of water and the sugar with full fat flat coke if you wish. Just add 100ml of squash though.

Dizzy the Egg

Cheers Noel, Omegas, usually do a 6 mile cycle or a 3 mile run. Usually drink a litre and a half before I head out and the same afterwards. I tend to get a really sore head on my left side a few hours after my exercise. If I drink any more water I spend loads of time needing comfort breaks.

Maybe the hot weather in Scotland is taking its toll, as I prefer to cycle when it's much colder.

supersonic

Hypotonic drinks, ie less than 4% sugar/minerals are actually absorbed faster than plain water! Isotonic are useful as it is absorbed at the same rate as water, but contains a fair dose of carbs.

Maybe try a hypotonic drink on your ride instead of water? Is the fastest way of getting fluid into your system.

Stu 74

I suffer big time with dehydration and have to drink a litre per hour, even in the winter! When I first started m biking I used to get a terrible 'hang over' after any ride longer than say and hour and a half. Sometimes I would get it the day after a ride.

I now use this:-

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... g%20Bottle

It is designed to replace the electrolytes (salts and stuff) that you lose when you sweat. Apparently your body will struggle to take in fluids unless you replace the lost electrolytes. This is why you can end up p-ing all the time. i.e the fluids that you drink just go straight through you.

I put it in my Camelback and take regular sips throughout the ride. I also put loads of salt on my post ride meal.

I still get the odd dehydration 'hang over' but defintely not as bad and not as often. It also works for alcohol hangovers

Stu

hickster5000

Stu 74 wrote:

It also works for alcohol hangovers

Stu

Agreed! SIS Electrolyte stuff works wonders. I used to struggle with cramp all the time but the SIS stuff just cures it. I generally ride from 3 to 4.5 hours and easily polish off a 3 litre camelback of SIS (diluted more than it says on the box though - the full strengh mix is virtually undrinkable), then I'll make up another litre and drink it in the bath after the ride.

And a litre before going to bed after a heavy night will take the mean edge off a hangover 8)

dave_hill

My concoction -

1 litre fruit juice (proper carton-type, e.g. orange or Grapefruit)
4 litres tap water
1 heaped tablespoon fruit sugar
1 level teaspoon table salt (sodium chloride) (or less to your taste)

Fruit sugar (fructose) is a monsaccharide sugar available from most health food shops and I believe that Tesco now stock it too (look in the sugars section).

Monosaccharides are more easily absorbed into the bloodstream because your body doesn't have to break it down first as it would with sucrose (ordinary granulated sugar).

BlackSpur

You could probably use glucose too then? Glucose syrup is available from most chemists and a fair few supermarkets.

ian_worby

Dizzy the Egg wrote:

ian_worby wrote:

umm the tap?

Aye, very good. I do use the tap, as I said in my original post. But I'm still getting dehyrated and was asking for any tips/diet advice that would help. Unless your taps give out isotonic drinks?

i didn't get time to reply again. The thing you need to remember is that (and this what i was always told by my physio's) is that when you feel dehydrated you've already exhausted alot of your bodys fluid, thats the main problem - people tend to drink when they feel thirsy/dehydrated rather than drinking steadily throughout the day. Isotonic drinks will certainly replace the essentials that you need, but if you're only drinking when you think you need to, all you actually doing is topping yourself up not replacing the already lost fluids

hope that kinda makes sense

dave_hill

BlackSpur wrote:

You could probably use glucose too then? Glucose syrup is available from most chemists and a fair few supermarkets.

Any monosaccharide will do - fructose, glucose, lactose and maltose are all examples. Di- and polysaccharides require the body to break them down before they can be absorbed. This means that they are used more slowly and actually require energy to effect the breakdown.

Dizzy the Egg

[/quote]

i didn't get time to reply again. The thing you need to remember is that (and this what i was always told by my physio's) is that when you feel dehydrated you've already exhausted alot of your bodys fluid, thats the main problem - people tend to drink when they feel thirsy/dehydrated rather than drinking steadily throughout the day. Isotonic drinks will certainly replace the essentials that you need, but if you're only drinking when you think you need to, all you actually doing is topping yourself up not replacing the already lost fluids

hope that kinda makes sense[/quote]

Thanks Ian, I try and drink a lot of water generally, so I'm not sure whether I just dehydrate easily or whether I'm massively miscalculated my water intake the last few weeks. I think the weather is a factor as well as Glasgow has been boiling over the last 10 days, and I do prefer to go out when it's colder.

Cheers for the advice everyone, got a lot of good tips and ideas to play with. Heading out tomorrow so hopefully I will have enough in my tank to last me the day.