Tag Archive for: hydration

The Science of Sports Drinks: Duration and Intensity Changes Everything!

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Sports drinks, by definition, are designed to replace depleted electrolytes lost by sweating, maintain energy levels, and keep the body hydrated during high intensity exercise. Electrolytes consist of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium that help to regulate muscle contractions. A loss of electrolytes can result in symptoms such as muscle cramps, fatigue, and nausea. Electrolytes, however,  are just part of the equation. Depending on the duration and/or intensity of exercise, sports drink formulas may include a blend of carbohydrates for more glycogen, a lactic acid buffer to offset fatigue, a boost of caffeine for extra energy and focus, and/or a protein source to eliminate the need for solid calories. The key is that not all exercise demands the same type of sport drink…duration and intensity changes everything and sports drinks should be formulated and chosen based on the need for quick energy and/or endurance.

In truth, most ready to drink sports drinks found in the grocery store are junk…packed with sugar and artificial colorings that can cause gastrointestinal distress. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, you probably should not consume it. (i.e. acetate isobutyrate, acesulfame, and Yellow 6, found in Powerade).

When you eat a carbohydrate (fruits, vegetables & whole grains), your body converts the edible carbohydrate into stored sugar, referred to as glycogen. Muscle and liver glycogen are the body’s most important sources of energy during strenuous activity. If eating and hydrating properly, the average body stores between 60 to 90 minutes of glycogen, meaning that a sports drink high in calories and carbohydrates is not necessary for moderate exercise less than an hour.

A low-calorie option, Energy Fuel Light is specially formulated to emulate Coach Robb’s best-selling Energy Fuel with only 100 calories and 25 grams of easily digestible carbohydrates. This daily hydration formula can be consumed pre, during, and post exercise and is ideal for replenishing electrolytes and reducing muscle cramps and spasms.

Energy Fuel is a fuel and hydration mix for athletes training and racing mid distances of 1-3 hours. This easily digestible formula uses a combination of simple and complex carbohydrates which  maintains proper blood sugar levels during training or racing for optimum performance.

As the exercise intensity goes up, the body’s sugar source needs to be easy to break down. Energy Fuel Boost is the perfect blend to give that extra boost needed for high-energy race efforts and/or high intensity training sessions under one hour. It has a similar profile to Energy Fuel with an added 100 mg of caffeine per 20 ounce serving. This is equivalent to 1-2 cups of strong coffee. When athletes consume caffeine, they feel less fatigue while performing at higher levels of work; an ideal scenario for shorter high intensity (less than 1 hour) race efforts.

As the exercise duration goes above two hours and intensity comes down, a more complex sugar source is needed with added protein to offset hunger. Energy Fuel Plus is an all-in-one nutrition source designed to keep you focused and on top of your game during long distance (3+ hours) endurance events such as GNCC racing and off-road Enduro racing. With extra calories, electrolytes, and Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs), this fuel and hydration mix is ideal for keeping sustained energy and power during longer efforts without the need for additional solid food calories.

As you can see, there is a lot more to formulating and choosing a sports drink than meets the eye. The science behind your sports drink is the difference between mediocre results and great race results!

To learn more about our Energy Fuel products, click here. 

Your Evening Weight

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Top 5 Nutritional Mistakes and How to Fix Them

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Over the last 35 years, I have seen nutritional mistakes that have resulted in weight gain rather than weight loss. Here are the top five mistakes and how to correct them.

Not knowing your sweat rate

You may ask how your sweat rate relates to nutritional mistakes; the reason is associated with how your body stores water relevant to what you eat. Fruits in vegetables are high in vitamins and minerals, but they are also high in water and natural forms of electrolytes (what you lose in through sweat). Also, for your body to store one gram of sugar for energy, it stores 2.5 grams of water. If you want to improve your pre-hydration levels, eat more raw fruits and vegetables.

When it comes to sweating, your goal is to lose between 1-2% of your body weight in a given workout – no more or less. If you lose more than 2% of your body weight you are officially dehydrated, if you lose less than 1% you are over hydrated. This is a very fine line that needs to be evaluated on a regular basis with the following variables being factored in: air temperature, humidity, intensity and duration.

To help you calculate your personal sweat rate, please email me at robb@coachrobb.com and I will send you a simple to use Sweat Rate Calculator. It will provide you insight into your sweat rate along with inform you if you’re eating habits are helping or hurting your weight loss efforts.

Not eating enough high-quality calories

As mentioned above, fruits and vegetables are high in water, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes. However, fruits and vegetables are not high in calories. This means that you must eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (along with lean protein sources) for your body to perform at an optimal level.

To determine if you are consuming enough calories to fuel your exercise,  you need to evaluate exactly what and how much you have eaten, when you have eaten and then evaluate the quality of your workouts. This is very simple to do by maintaining a daily food log (Note: if you don’t have a simple to use food log, please email me at robb@coachrobb.com and I will send you a copy of our food log that is easy to use and maintain on a daily basis).

There are two typical realizations that come from maintaining a food log; one is the quantity of food that comes out of a box and/or a can; the number of total calories consumed on a daily basis is not enough to fuel your efforts. By maintaining a daily food log and evaluating your energy levels/performance results you will develop a personalized nutritional plan in less than two weeks.

Not eating enough high-quality fat

Fat has gotten a bad rap in the media, but the fact of the matter is that your body needs high quality fat daily for your body to perform at an optimal level. Typical symptoms of insufficient fat intake include fatigue, delayed recovery, depression, over eating, constantly hungry and more.  It is imperative that you consume the following unsaturated fats daily: extra virgin olive oil, avocados and fish oil.

These fats are either used by your body as energy or passed as waste – which means no stored body fat! This is a win-win situation for you: improved performance and decreased body fat. When you increase your clean fat intake, there are two things you will notice within two weeks: improved endurance and not hungry all of the time. The reason for this is because most individuals don’t consume enough high-quality fat – simple fix with huge benefits.

Not eating immediately after a workout

When you work out your body gets most of its energy from stored sugar from your muscles (your brain gets its sugar from your liver); the longer and more intense your workout the more you “empty” your stored muscle sugar. When you are finished with your  workout you have a 20-30-minute window to replenish these depleted stored sugar levels optimally. During this short post exercise window, you have an enzyme (glycogen synthase enzyme) that is highly activate within your muscles cells that helps increase the replenishment of sugar within the muscles (and liver).

The longer you wait to consume high quality food after your workout, the less effective your replenishment will be, and your recovery window will take longer as a result. Ideally, you want to consume food in a 4:1 ration between carbohydrates and lean protein. Simple solutions include fruit smoothies made with Greek yogurt or chocolate milk.

Not drinking enough water

The average human body contains 96 pints of water – 64 of these are found inside the body’s cells. Your brain is 75% water, your blood is 85% water, muscle is 70% water, and you see how important being hydrated is literally from the inside out. Please don’t confuse hydration levels with sweat rate discussed earlier; hydration levels are strictly relevant to maintaining proper fluid levels within your body for optimum health and ultimately performance. Your sweat rate is relevant to how much perspiration you are creating as your body attempts to rid itself of internal heat.

As a general rule of thumb, your need to consume half of your body weight in ounces of water – for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to consume 75 ounces of water daily to maintain proper hydration levels. Any activities that you perform daily: exercise, work, leisure, etc. has to be factored in addition to your daily needs.

There are two simple indicators of proper hydration levels: urine color and urination frequency. Regarding your urine color, the lighter your urine the more hydrated you are. Please note, if you are taking a multi vitamin that contains B vitamins, your urine will be a tad darker as a result. As your body absorbs and purges the B vitamin, the color of your urine will become lighter in color. In regard to your urination frequency, you should be visiting the restroom once an hour. Though this can be an inconvenience at time, the health and performance benefits are definitely worth it!

How to Fuel Properly for Optimum Performance

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Proper nutrition is such an instrumental component of performance, yet is overlooked by 90% of the racers at the starting line. A few years back, a research project associated with human performance (equipment, altitude training, endurance training, strength training, etc.), revealed that the most powerful influence on performance was attributed to hydration and nutrition habits.  Nail your nutrition and the results were stellar; miss your nutrition (even by a little) and the results were devastating.

After spending the last six to eight months training for your big race, the last 24 hours should be quite simple – exercise lightly, hydrate properly and eat correctly (quality & quantity).

Fighting Fatigue

With proper nutrition, you can offset the negative effects of fatigue in three ways:

Muscle Glycogen Depletion

Muscle glycogen is the major energy source during training and especially racing.  When your sugar storages (in your liver and muscles) are depleted, your ability to go fast for any period of time will be diminished.

Decreased Blood Sugar Levels

Blood sugar is the major fuel for the brain (from your liver) and muscles during training and racing; the higher the intensity, the quicker your body depletes itself of sugar.

Dehydration

When a muscle becomes dehydrated by as little as 3%, that muscle can lose between 10-20% of its contractile strength and also incurs an 8% loss of speed.

Nutritional Timing

Proper nutrition is all about topping of your body’s natural fuel tanks (muscles and liver) to ensure that you have enough stored energy to finish your race strong.  By choosing the correct foods at the correct times, you can delay the onset of fatigue on race day (as outlined below).

Day before a Race (8 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight) –  Consume six to eight small meals distributed throughout the day approximately two hours apart.  Choose items made from high quality carbohydrate sources: real food smoothies, brown rice, pasta, quinoa and dark breads.  Convenient snacks include fresh fruit and high-quality energy bars.

Morning of the Race (75-150 grams of carbohydrates depending on your body size) – Consume your last meal two hours before your race start time to allow for complete digestion and purging in a relaxed environment.  Food items should be easily digestible and of the highest quality: real food smoothie, almond butter on a bagel or toast, slow cooked oatmeal with raisins, 2-3 egg omelets with a bowl of brightly colored fresh fruit.

After the Race – Liquid calories  are the easiest to consume and are converted quickly to “feed” the body’s needs: protein for muscle regeneration and sugar for the muscles and the liver.  

By implementing these nutritional tips and hitting proper hydration levels, you will see your body produce new levels of speed and a new level of performance! Work Smart, Not Hard!