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Will drinking during exercise affect one's performance and how should one prevent dehydration during exercise/competition?

Drinking during exercise can certainly affect your stamina and exercise performance. Failing to match fluid intake with sweat rates results in dehydration, a proven formula to reduce performance, skill co-ordination and worse still, increase your risk of heat illness. Even mild dehydration, just over 1kg weight loss during a session, can adversely affect performance. Stick with the following tips to keep well hydrated.

Tips on drinking in the heat:
· Start each exercise session well hydrated, making sure you have replaced all fluid losses from previous exercise. You might want to experiment with a moderate volume (~500ml) of fluid ~2 hours prior to exercise. This promotes maximal rates of fluid absorption.

· Don't rely on your thirst to guide you to how much fluid you need - you'll only get thirsty once some dehydration has set in. Most athletes only replace ~50% of sweat losses when drinking according to thirst. You need to follow a plan of fluid intake.

· Start drinking early and at regular intervals in an attempt to match fluid intake with sweat rates e.g. 600-1000+ml of fluid per hour or 150-250+ml every 15 minutes.

· Take advantage of all opportunities for fluid intake in your sport, both formal and informal breaks e.g. quarter and half time, injury breaks, time-outs etc.

· Take a drink bottle to every training session - seeing the bottle is a constant reminder to drink.

· Make use of sports drinks - they help to achieve both fluid and carbohydrate needs simultaneously & they taste great too - if it tastes good you'll drink more so there's less chance of experiencing the performance-sapping effects of dehydration. Keeping drinks chilled also enhances palatability; try adding some ice cubes to your drinks to keep them cool. Soft drinks are best left for use after an exercise session.

· Monitor your weight before and after exercise. Always attempt to keep the fluid deficit to <1kg. Any more and you'll feel the performance sapping effects of dehydration.

· In recovery, match any fluid loss with an amount of fluid equal to 150% of losses. This accounts for continued sweating and urine production e.g. if you lose 2kg while exercising, plan to ingest at least 3L of fluid in the hours following to ensure you fully re-hydrate.

WASHINGTON -- The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide, says the newest report on nutrient recommendations from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The report set general recommendations for water intake based on detailed national data, which showed that women who appear to be adequately hydrated consume an average of approximately 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of total water -- from all beverages and foods -- each day, and men average approximately 3.7 liters (125 ounces) daily.
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These values represent adequate intake levels, the panel said; those who are very physically active or who live in hot climates may need to consume more water. About 80 percent of people's total water comes from drinking water and beverages -- including caffeinated beverages -- and the other 20 percent is derived from food.

We don't offer any rule of thumb based on how many glasses of water people should drink each day because our hydration needs can be met through a variety of sources in addition to drinking water, said Lawrence Appel, chair of the panel that wrote the report and professor of medicine, epidemiology, and international health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. While drinking water is a frequent choice for hydration, people also get water from juice, milk, coffee, tea, soda, fruits, vegetables, and other foods and beverages as well. Moreover, we concluded that on a daily basis, people get adequate amounts of water from normal drinking behavior -- consumption of beverages at meals and in other social situations -- and by letting their thirst guide them.
Regarding salt, healthy 19- to 50-year-old adults should consume 1.5 grams of sodium and 2.3 grams of chloride each day -- or 3.8 grams of salt -- to replace the amount lost daily on average through perspiration and to achieve a diet that provides sufficient amounts of other essential nutrients. Elevated blood pressure, which may lead to stroke, coronary heart disease, and kidney disease, is associated with sodium intake. On average, blood pressure rises progressively as salt intake increases. A tolerable upper intake level (UL) -- a maximum amount that people should not exceed -- is set at 5.8 grams of salt (2.3 grams of sodium) per day. Older individuals, African Americans, and people with chronic diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease are especially sensitive to the blood pressure-raising effects of salt and should consume less than the UL. More than 95 percent of American men and 90 percent of Canadian men ages 31 to 50, and 75 percent of American women and 50 percent of Canadian women in this age range regularly consume salt in excess of the UL.
To lower blood pressure, blunt the effects of salt, and reduce the risk of kidney stones and bone loss, adults should consume 4.7 grams of potassium per day. However, most American women 31 to 50 years old consume no more than half of the recommended amount of potassium, and men's intake is only moderately higher. Canadians typically eat more potassium than their American counterparts. African Americans in the United States generally get less potassium than non-Hispanic whites, and because they have a higher prevalence of elevated blood pressure, increased potassium intake may have particularly significant benefits for them.

The typical Western diet is high in salt and low in potassium -- the opposite of what evidence shows is optimal for good health and reducing the risks of chronic disease, the report says. Research is needed to find ways to help people select better food choices to reduce their salt intake and boost their potassium consumption, Appel said. In addition, because Americans and Canadians get the majority of their salt -- 77 percent, according to one study -- from prepared and processed foods, research should be done to help food processors develop alternative technologies that can reduce the amount of salt added during processing without impairing taste, shelf-life, or product qualities at an affordable cost.