The sheer volume of white chalky salt that accumalates on my riding gear got me a thinkin'

Salt loss in sweat versus Salt gain in food

Does nature find the correct balance, ie you wanting to eat salty food, or can you actually end up with too little salt in your system?

Does the actual salt you eat eventually come back out as sweat?

uh oh….

If you are sweating a lot you might need to take in salt in some form. How doesn't really matter – salted peanuts or sports drinks with electrolytes.

Don't take too much salt on board – there are limits to how much you can use and too much gives you headaches and raises BP – even in the short term.

Some folks diet contains a lot more salt than others – and its another thing that many folk eat far too much of. A big mac contains over a gramme of salt for example and breakfast cereals and pre prepared food contain lots. RDA is 5 or 6 g IIRC. Its very easy to go over your RDA. A prepack sandwhich can have 2 grammes + in it.

How much extra is right I don't know – my guess would be an extra gramme or so. If you are not getting symptoms of salt loss I wouldn't worry too much

http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/electrolyte_powder

100g should last you ~125lires of drink, ish, it recomeds 800mg per hour of intensive excercise in the heat so less electrolyte and more maltodextrin in winter.

http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/maltodextrin

Not entirely convinced by the maltodextrin, as fas as I can tell it's not quite as fast release as sugar so shouldn't lead to a spike, and isnt as vomit inducingly sweet as the same concentration os sugar. But it is cheeper than buying fresh orange juice for the camelpack.

[edit] the RDA of slat is 6g as TJ said, but thats a maximum for an average person, you only need about 2g IIRC, the rest is just pissed out. Unlike most RDA's which are the minimum as most people dont get enough, more than 6g if you dont need it can be dangerous.

Also 'Salt' is just sodium chloride, 'electrolyte' (lucosade sport, SIS, torque ete) is a mix of sodium, potasium, calcium and magnesium compounds to make sure you have the right ballance.

Maltodestrin is a mix of compounds so you don't actually know its GI index. It can vary. So it can be ( and often is) as short acting as glucose.

The whole electrolyte salty sweat replacement fluid thing is widely mis-understood, and has been mis-informed by the makers of sports drinks.

When you sweat, you sweat out a fluid that is hypotonic; ie, your sweat contains a little tiny bit of salt and a lot of water.

This means that the concentration of salt in your body gets higher during excercise.

Drinking salty sports drinks 'designed to replace those essential electrolytes' upsets that salt concentration even more, making you thirstier.

Home

Have a dig around on here…

Just don't do what I did when I was 17. I was a bit peeved with what I thought were rip off prices of electrolyte drinks, so I thought I'd have a go making my own. I started with a blank sheet and did no research beforehand. I thought I'd start with a tumbler of water, add a level teaspoon full of table salt and a dash of orange juice to sweeten it – I could always fine tune the recipe by adding or taking away ingredients. On reflection, that was a bad decision, but not as bad as downing it in one (in case I didn't like the taste). For the first few seconds nothing happened, then all of a sudden – and without warning – my stomach seemed to engage in reverse gear. There followed at least 10 minutes of reverse rippling and regurgitation of my stomach, wave after wave, whilst I battled against it, eyes watering, struggling to swallow what was on the way up. Highly unpleasant and I wouldn't recommend it. It's one thing to have a good honk when you're unwell, but I've never experienced such repeated heaving over such a long period of time.

crikey,

yes, but it conatins SOME salt, a fair ammount over a days cycling if your going to drink (and sweat out) say 3+ litres of water in a morning. So if you replace that sweat with water your going to run out of salt.

That stuf i linked to recomends one small scoop, which is about the size of a lentil!

crikey – Member

"When you sweat, you sweat out a fluid that is hypotonic; ie, your sweat contains a little tiny bit of salt and a lot of water.

This means that the concentration of salt in your body gets higher during excercise."

Unless you drink any water. Which you will.