How Much Water Do You Really Need When You Workout?
We all know how important it is to remain hydrated during a workout, but none of us really know how much water we should be drinking during our workouts. With combined elements of research and personal experience, I am here to dictate the needs, facts, and recommendations regarding how much water is needed during exercise.
Hydration Is More Important Than You Think
Most of us who exercise probably don’t even realize we are hindering our performance by being dehydrated before we workout. We feel fine, but according to trainer Amanda Carlson, “just losing 2% of your body weight in fluid can decrease performance by up to 25%.” She states that even a small amount of dehydration can cause an athlete to experience a decline in performance. In truth, starting a workout dehydrated will likely result in a bad workout. When you workout while dehydrated, you’ll more than likely experience more fatigue, lethargy, and you will just not feel well.
With that said, the American Council of Exercise recommends one drinking 17 to 20 ounces of fluid about 2 or 3 hours before a workout. Of course, though, this can change depending on gender, age, and weight. Drinking adequate amounts of water before a workout will definitely cause an athlete to experience a better workout. When you are properly hydrated, you feel better and your body functions better. Also, when you are properly hydrated for a workout, your heart won’t have to work as hard to pump blood to the body, and oxygen and nutrients are transported more efficiently.
As for how much water is needed during a workout, it is probably more than you would think. The amount of fluids lost during exercise should be replenished by 150%. This means that for every 2 fluid ounces lost during exercise, the body needs 3 fluid ounces to properly replenish the lost fluids. During exercise, an athlete should generally drink between 7 to 10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes. This calculation may be fluctuated too depending on how active the workout is.
Ideally, doctors recommend athletes to weigh themselves before and after their workout to accurately gauge their weight loss from sweat, then knowing an accurate estimate for how much fluid needs to be consumed. If you do this, weigh yourself nude to reap the most accurate results. Weighing yourself fully clothed may not be ideal because your sweat drenched clothes will weigh you down on the scale.
Remaining well hydrated during a workout is important because it will allow an athlete to experience a much more effective workout. When the body is properly hydrated, athletes will feel stronger, be able to workout longer, and have an overall more effective workout. Hydration is so much more important than most people realize. It may be the defining factor between having an effective workout or having a mediocre workout.
Personal Experience
In my experience, I have consciously tested drinking various amounts of water during my workouts to see what would happen. As for me, I am a weightlifter, weighing around 140 lbs, and my workouts generally take up at least 2 hours of my time. I have experienced drinking minimal amounts of water during a workout, along with drinking an entire gallon of water during a workout.
As for what I drink now, I usually try to drink as much water as I can during exercise. I always make sure I am at least drinking to quench my thirst, but even then I am aware that I probably need more. I would estimate that I drink around 2–3 quarts of fluids during my workouts. I gauge myself based on how I feel, and I am constantly drinking water. I am known by my coaches for always needing to piss.
I have always drank a ton of water during exercise, and I can for sure say that I consume more liquids than the average athlete when working out. I literally drink water after any set of exercise. I constantly replenish my body, considering the importance of hydration during workouts, especially with heavy lifting. In fact, sometimes I may go a little overboard, which is still as dangerous as being dehydrated.
Hyponatremia
Over hydration, or hyponatremia, is when the body is holding too much water to where the electrolyte levels are too low in your blood. There is way too much retained water in relation to the electrolyte levels, causing an imbalance of the relation between electrolytes and water, which can essentially drown the body. Hyponatremia has similar symptoms of dehydration such as fatigue, nausea, and headache. The main difference is that they are literally opposite conditions.
I haven’t experienced any severe cases of hyponatremia, but I have tested what drinking an entire gallon of water would do during my workout. I was mainly testing this because I was using water manipulation to cut weight, but that is besides the point. When I drank the gallon, I actually felt good. I didn’t experience any severe symptoms of being over hydrated. Rather, I just felt all the water in my system. It is hard to explain, but the way I can describe it is that feeling you have in your throat when you are on an IV. I was more than likely depleted from electrolytes from drinking all the water, but I felt fine.
I have also experienced drinking minimal water while exercising. I did this to test my performance without so much water. This is an instance where I definitely felt the effects of dehydration. Now, I wasn’t particularly severely dehydrated, I just drank way less water than normal. When I did this, I felt irritability and prolonged exhaustion. These were the main symptoms I felt. I still performed well, but I was only able to reach sub-optimal performance at best.
To conclude the experience of over hydration and dehydration, dehydration was the most prominent. I felt the effects of not having enough water to sustain my workout. On the other hand, drinking the gallon of water during one workout wasn’t so bad. I didn’t experience much of a hindrance in my workout performance, just a weird feeling of possibly being depleted of electrolytes.
Fluid Intake Recommendations
With this said, I know it can sound confusing to know how much water you should drink during a workout. Here is a rough guideline of what I would recommend:
Workout:
~30 minutes; at least 1 bottle of water
~1 hour; about 2–3bottles of water
~1.5 hours; about 3–4 bottles of water
~2 hours; about 4–5 bottles of water
(based on 16 oz water bottles)
These calculations were based on the idea of drinking 10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes of exercise. I appreciate you for taking the time to read this article to help better understand your own knowledge of fitness. Stay blessed.
Sources used in this article:
(and a little bit of Google searches where I forgot to keep the links)
