Q:  I see all my gym member friends taking a commercial sports drink with them to every workout.  Are sports drinks my best choice?

A:  If you\'ve watched television during prime time sports weekend viewing, you are aware of the commercials that tout the need to use a specific sports drink to hydrate and perform at your best.  Despite the message of these commercials, a sports drink is simply not needed for the majority of exercise sessions and physical activities that people perform.

Sports drinks address three replenishment needs of the body during exercise: that of fluid, electrolytes, and carbohydrates.

Fluid

It is essential to drink enough fluid to maintain adequate body hydration, thereby preventing dehydration.  Meaningful losses in body water can decrease exercise tolerance, increase heart rate, and can lead to complications during long term exercise.  However, in the majority of exercise scenarios, plain water will hydrate the body just as well as sports drinks.  Exceptions are when the loss of fluid is overwhelming the body\'s ability to re-hydrate, such as during 60-90 minutes or more of intense exercise in hot, humid environment.  Glycerol, a new ingredient that is being researched, is showing benefit by enhancing the body\'s ability to \"hold onto\" ingested fluid.  This would indeed improve hydration and benefit exercisers who engage in prolonged, intense exercise. 

Electrolytes

Although electrolyte losses can occur, once again the exercise session needs to be extreme such as training for ultra-endurance type activities (triathlons, ultra-endurance runs, etc.) in hot and humid environments.  Under these circumstances, a sports drink is a reasonable choice.  However, for the average exerciser, consuming a healthy diet will adequately replace any small amount of lost electrolytes.      

Carbohydrate

Our bodies are largely dependent upon carbohydrate to fuel movement during exercise.  However, our body�s store of carbohydrate (known as muscle glycogen) can easily meet the needs of most exercise sessions that last less than 60 minutes.  Endurance athletes will benefit from sports drinks because they need extra fuel immediately available to improve performance.  However, ingesting a sports drink when you are clearly not going to develop muscle glycogen depletion can be detrimental if your goal is weight loss!  Even the most minimally caloric sports drink contains close to 60 calories per cup.  This means that if you work out for 30 min and ingest 4 cups, you have just consumed the calories you may have burned during the exercise (240 Kcal).  Your trip to the gym to develop a negative caloric balance was just obliterated by your choice of a carbohydrate containing sports drink instead of plain water.  Given that a major reason for a large portion of the public to exercise is weight loss, use of a sports drink can negate one of the main purposes of the workout session.   

In summary, while a sports drink may be beneficial for intense, long duration exercise or physical activity, it is not needed during short term (less than 60 min) exercise and activity.  If you fit into this latter category of short term exercise, then water is your best fluid choice.  Water is inexpensive, non-caloric and effectively hydrates the body.  Remember to remain as hydrated as possible throughout the day, especially if you are active.  Starting a workout hydrated is better than re-hydrating an already dehydrated body during an exercise workout.  If you are exercising as part of a weight loss program and do choose to utilize sports drinks, don\'t forget to tally the calories in those drinks!

Enjoy your exercise - enjoy your water!