Sodium levels

PeteG7606

Anyone have a somewhat accurate way to calculate sodium loss during a workout??? I know it depends on several varying factors, but i would guess there has to be some sort of calculation based on weight, calories burned, sweat rate, etc. At the end of the day, my sodium levels always look high, but i know they're scewed because of my workouts and sodium levels aren't adjusted. Ideas???

livingleanlivingclean

Collect your sweat in a bucket?

rankinsect

If you don't eat, drink, or excrete anything, and you have a pretty precise scale, you can weigh yourself before and after the workout. The weight loss is due to sweat - and a pound of sweat contains about 500 mg sodium.

If you do eat or drink anything, you'll need to account for that (e.g. if you have a sports drink, weight yourself with the full drink before and with the empty drink bottle after).

As a rough order of magnitude, from what I've seen in literature, exercise can cause you to lose anywhere from 300mg to 6,000 mg per hour (the higher number was for heavy football players training hard in high heat).

The good news is, if you have normal blood pressure, drink enough water, and have healthy kidneys, there's really not a risk associated with consuming pretty high amounts of sodium - you just pee the rest out. It's only those with hypertension that really may need to watch sodium. If you exercise frequently or intensely, or if you naturally sweat a lot, you're at more of a risk of too low sodium than too high.

xvolution

The amount of sodium in sweat varies greatly from person to person, averaging at 500mg/pound of sweat (but it can range from 200mg-1100mg). You can tell if you're one of the heavier sodium shedders by seeing if you have a very thin crust of salt over your skin after a very heavy workout.