Thirst Whilst Cycling

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Psamathe
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Psamathe »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:You could try weighing yourself before and after to see if you loose weight :?:

Thought I'd try it today so weighed myself (plus full water bottle) before setting off and on return (still with full water bottle; weighed with bottle so I could drink if thirsty without having to guess the answer).

And after (don't laugh) 42 mile ride flat 23°C sunny (no eating, no drinking, no peeing, etc.) I'd lost 1.5 Kg (i.e. 1½L liquid).

Ian
OnYourRight
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by OnYourRight »

Psamathe wrote:And after (don't laugh) 42 mile ride flat 23°C sunny (no eating, no drinking, no peeing, etc.) I'd lost 1.5 Kg (i.e. 1½L liquid).

You’ve just earned yourself three pints!

That’s quite a lot (of weight lost). How accurate are your scales?
Psamathe
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Psamathe »

OnYourRight wrote:
Psamathe wrote:And after (don't laugh) 42 mile ride flat 23°C sunny (no eating, no drinking, no peeing, etc.) I'd lost 1.5 Kg (i.e. 1½L liquid).

You’ve just earned yourself three pints!

That’s quite a lot (of weight lost). How accurate are your scales?

I recon they are pretty good. Only got them last year and they are Omron ones. http://www.omron-healthcare.com/eu/en/our-products/weight-management/bf214

Ian
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
I confer...............35 miles and I lost 2 kgs, not unusual for me and its warm 25+, sweat running down from my helmet, drank 1.4 litres on ride / soon after, avg HR 155 Max 173.
I used to be on deurectics but they are long gone, so thats not it.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
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Mick F
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Mick F »

I've never done this experiment, but I will do next time out.
Busy today, so no ride, and busy tomorrow too, so it will be Wednesday for the next oportunity.

Scales absolute accuracy isn't really necessary, it's the difference between the before and after that matters.
Mick F. Cornwall
TwoPlusTen
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by TwoPlusTen »

One other thing that may lend credence to Mick F's theory (full english breakfast, couple of decent mugs of tea before you set off) is that a full english is usually quite salty (bacon especially). Sodium makes you retain water so you may be able to go further on the same volume of water.

Anecdotal evidence of this: I was at a volleyball tournament a couple of years ago. Moderately warm July day, nothing exceptional; we all had fried brekkies (2x sausage, 2x bacon, egg, beans) before we started. Others on the same campsite (who it turned out we were drawn against later) had other stuff (some of it cereals, some a bit more "hair-of-the-dog" style. Guess who got cramp? Clue = not us.
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NUKe
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by NUKe »

Mick F wrote:Normally I can go for fifty miles without stopping for a drink or anything to eat.
However, my 62mile yesterday was in 23degC heat, and I got through both bottles and no food other than the huge Full English before I left.

I only seem to need to drink if I sweat. My ride up to Manchester - 300miles in four days - I hardly drank anything. It was chilly and wet, and I didn't sweat at all.

I tend to agree with Mick, I find I drink very little for the first 40/50 miles or so unless it particularly hot or i am working hard. I aways start hydrated with tea generally. I find If I overdrink I end up looking for a hedgerow. I do find after about 50 miles my rate of fluid intake starts to increase and the longer I ride the higher it gets

There is a lot known about hydration in Sport and people but why does this equate this to everday cycling?
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Mick F
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Mick F »

Just thinking about this experiment about weighing myself before and after a ride ................

What about heat output?
Does the heat/energy produced and consumed by the food you eat not make you lighter?

Any weight loss through exercise must include the food eaten and burnt, as well as liquid drunk and sweated away.
Mick F. Cornwall
Psamathe
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Psamathe »

Mick F wrote:Just thinking about this experiment about weighing myself before and after a ride ................

What about heat output?
Does the heat/energy produced and consumed by the food you eat not make you lighter?

Any weight loss through exercise must include the food eaten and burnt, as well as liquid drunk and sweated away.

I guess it will.
So, assume w are talking about metabolising fat then 1 lb = 3500 calories so 0.45Kg = 3500 kcal. So in my previous case (40 miles, 1.5 Kg lost) and using 40 kcal per mile means I would have used 1600 kcal energy or around 0.2 Kg weight. However, very different story had I been using e.g. muscle as an energy source.

However, I doubt my energy all came from fat stores and I've always understood fat to be particularly good energy store so e.g. using sugars might have a bigger weight impact.

But I'm no expert of this stuff so my figures may easily be wrong (e.g. 40 kcal per mile, 3500 kcal per 1 lb), so please do correct the errors.

Ian
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Resting 80 - 100 kcals an hour doing nothing.
Rapid weight loss is fluid loss, like in the case I and OP has seen.
Last year I lost 4 kilos in a similar time but was on deuretics which I did not need, also BP dropping to 90 / 50 (deuretics) lethargy I put down to alergic reaction to the uneeded deuretic, once off the tablets all was normal.

You would have to include fluid in the food you consumed along with the tea breaks, as I do not frequent caf'es and stock up on fluid except a glass of water before leaving home, my fluid intake might well be similar to suposed no on the hoof drinkers :?:

If you weighed yourself before leaving home and on return taking off fuid consumed on the hoof then for me that would be 0.5 litre (35 miles)but remember that you would continue to lose fluid at an accelerated rate after exercise untill you had recovered even if not out of breath.

Assuming that we would probably drink on return home we are all probably consuming the same fluid throughout the day, drinking on bike / on ride or not :?:

Weigh yourself before bed and when you get up in the morning and you will find that 1 kg overnight would be quite normal :?:

I think it would be hard to believe that any one doing say one hundred miles in a day would not consume more fluid than if they stayed at home, as you would loose more through increased breathing and sweat even in the winter, I do sometimes find I do not feel thirsty whilst cycling but I know I need to carry on drinking otherwise what would be the result at end of day :?: You can even without realising it dehydrate to the point where oral fluid intake WILL NOT rehydrate you at all, I have been there twice in my life and its not pleasant even though I never felt thirsty at all, so there was no signs for me and maybe if you are at a senior age it would be wiser to drink whilst exercising even if you are not thirsty, it wont kill you.

So what advise would you give to beginer cyclist :?:

P.S. We have already had these conversations on previous posts
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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meic
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by meic »

My rule of thumb derived from experience is to drink a 750cc bottle about every thirty miles. I do ride in hilly conditions and sweat a lot, so this is probably towards the higher end of consumption. If I fail to drink this much I will generally suffer for it later on.

I find it hard to drink plain water unless I am already too thirsty so I always drink very dilute cordials (Bottle Green as I am a bit of an organic type) on the bike just as I do not on the bike.

Apart from the immediate effects of hydration on the bike, I have found that the drinking I do because of cycling appears to have cleared my body out compared to how I was before cycling. Quite a few unpleasant odours and skin complaints that I had disappeared after starting cycling and that was probably due to me starting to drink "water" in quantities that I never used to.
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Mick F
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Mick F »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:I think it would be hard to believe that any one doing say one hundred miles in a day would not consume more fluid than if they stayed at home .....
I don't consume any more fluid when I ride 100miles than if I stayed at home.

meic wrote:My rule of thumb derived from experience is to drink a 750cc bottle about every thirty miles.
I plan on a 38mile ride tomorrow, and expect not to drink a drop or drink any more than I would do throughout any 24hr period.

If I were to ride 38miles each day for a week, and then compare my fluid intake for not riding at all for a week, I doubt there'd be any difference at all.

38miles means nothing fluid-wise to me, and I live in a hilly part of the world too.
My ride tomorrow will be 4,100ft of total ascent ie 107ft per mile.

Riding a bike doesn't consume water.
It's sweating that consumes water.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Mick F »

Here's my results:
37.09miles
4,449ft total ascent.
Sunny intervals and light breezes.
15 to 19degC and quite humid.

I took water, but never drank any, though would have done had I not been carrying out an experiment.
I rode non-stop except for junctions and traffic lights, and never stopped for a "comfort break".

Stark naked :oops: on the bathroom scales immediately before getting my kit on and riding - 76.4Kg
Came home, stripped off again and climbed on the scales - 75.3Kg

I "lost" 1.1Kg during the ride ................ but put it all back on again after a drink and something to eat, and now weigh 76.3Kg.

Basically, I agree that I lost a little weight during the ride, but as my weight varies throughout the day, it's completely pointless to try to quantify it.
Mick F. Cornwall
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fausto copy
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by fausto copy »

To buck the trend, I'd just like to say that I came back heavier than when I went out this morning.
Actually both me and the bike did.
The reason?
About a mile out from home, I realised I hadn't taken my usual drink with me, nor my banana (see what happens when Mrs. Copy doesn't come out with me :roll: ).
So, passing through town I thought I'd buy a bottle of water.
The only place I could find was a poundshop of some description.
Went in and grabbed a bottle of natural spring water. The only one they had was a 1 litre bottle.
Went to pay and the assistant says " these are now 2 for £1 so why don't you go back and get another?"
Stupidly I got another and went on my way.
Had a sip from one while waiting for mates to turn up.
Rode all the way to the caff and had a large latte.
As I hadn't got my banana for the journey home, I thought I'd have a toasted teacake.
Enjoyed that, with 4 butter pats on it :wink:
Asked if anyone wanted a free bottle of water, but no takers.
Had one sip on 15 mile ride back home; arriving with almost 2 litres of water and extra fluid and food onboard.
Daren't go near the scales. :lol:
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Mick F
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Re: Thirst Whilst Cycling

Post by Mick F »

:lol: :lol:
Sums it up quite well I think.
Mick F. Cornwall
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