I drink plenty of water during the day and alot of times after my workout water just does not seem to quench(sp) my thrist. I see all these advertisement for Gatorade and things like that but do they work or is it just to get you to buy their product?
Thanks,
Rich

Rich,

I always saw Gatorade and other sports drinks as just being sugar water. I think water is the best thing to hydrate after a workout. Also, make sure you are drinking water before and during your workout. I do the Slim Series workouts, and there are no scheduled "water breaks" like in P90 and Slim in 6, but I just hit the pause button (every 20-25 minutes) and have between 6 and 8 ounces of water. I also drink a full glass or 2 of water right before I start. What I do is, I take a one-liter water bottle, drink some before working out, drink some in the middle of the workout, and then finish it when I am done working out. Sometimes I take some extra if I am still thirsty.

Water is the very best thing to drink, when you are working out and also with a meal, because it is natural and it is already in your body! If you are really that thirsty, try and be more conscious of your water intake throughout the rest of the day too, not just when exercising. A constant balance will help you out. And there is nothing wrong with pressing the pause button to take a little water. There is no reason to be a martyr!

Hope this helps,
Bonnie

Rich -

I agree that water is your best bet.

Gatorade provides you with three things. Water (of course), sugar (simple carbs) and electrolytes.

Electrolytes are minerals like magnesium and potassium - which you body obviously needs and which we have habit of sweating out. However, considering you're not a professional athlete running 4 hours a day, if you eat a good balanced diet, odds are you're getting all the electrolytes you need.

Also, after you've worked out -- and only if you've worked out really hard -- your glycogen store are low. That means you've burned all your energy. This is a good time to get some carbs in your body to get your stores up. It's best to do this with a little protein (four to one, carbs to protein), so you can start building your muscles back up. Here's a recent post on it.

http://forums.beachbody.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=528299664&f=338299664&m=9442937737

However, the problem with Gatorade is that you're thirsty, so you pound way more than you need. As the above post shows, you only need about 200 calories right after -- any more goes to fat. 12oz of Gatorade is 310 calories.

Personally, I'd settle for water and find a more natural source of sugar, but if you want to knock back 8oz of Gatorade (provided you worked out REALLY hard), I don't think it will be an issue.

Just want to clear up some possible confusion generated by your last post (speaking for me, not everyone when I say confusion). You mentioned keeping the drink under 200 calories and referenced the other post. Is that 200 limit only for late post-workouts as was the situation on the other thread? My grape juice /creatine cocktail comes in at 320 cal (16 oz w/ 2 tsp creatine). I thought this was the recommendation for most post-workout scenarios. Did I mis-read this somewhere?

Xnav -

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. Late night aside, 300+ calories is a lot for a postworkout drink for someone trying to lose weight. If your goal is to build muscle, which is the only real purpose of creatine, then it's ok. If you are trying to lose weight, I would suggest you cut your juice with water.

Now that you mentioned it, I should have asked TinyMister to be more specific about his goals --however, there are very few people on this site who would knowingly pound a 300 calories drink if they didn't have too, so I assumed he was one of those people.

I have no problems with Gatorade -- it's a very fast way to replenish glycogen stores and it has those electrolytes -- but I wanted you to be aware of the other side of it.

Thanks for pointing that out.