Sports Drinks Hinder Weight Loss

If you’re heading out for a hard and long workout, you might have heard that drinking a sports drink is the best way to keep hydrated. And while there are certainly athletes who burn thousands of calories during a workout, requiring plenty of fuel along the way, for the everyday athlete who wants to lose weight, these drinks just don’t add up. In fact, sports drinks may be hindering the weight loss you’re striving to achieve. When you want to lose weight, it may be a better idea to choose something else to quench your thirst.

To avoid adding empty calories to your diet, drink water instead of sports drinks to keep yourself hydrated when working out.

Sports drinks are typically made of just a few basic ingredients – sugar, salt, flavor, and some vitamins and minerals. These drinks are designed to help you replenish your electrolytes when you are working out for more than an hour at a time. But since many people who aren’t athletes are drinking them, companies made them tastier, with more sugar than is necessary and causing them to have more calories than regular soda in a serving. These calories are difficult to remember as a part of your daily caloric intake since people tend to forget they are adding calories when they are working out. As a result, when you are working out and trying to burn off calories, you are just adding them right back to your body, often adding more calories into your diet than you are burning off, possibly adding to weight gain.

In addition to being a source of empty calories in your diet, sports drinks also cause your body to have large spikes in blood sugar. This will cause you to have troubles managing your hunger after drinking them. After drinking these drinks, your blood sugar will spike, helping you feel more energized, but then the blood sugar level will plummet, causing you to crave more sugar. This can start a vicious cycle that can be difficult to overcome and often results in a dieter consuming even more calories following exercise and hindering weight loss further.

Some sports drink companies have come out with new versions of their drinks that have fewer calories and sugar. While these drinks are better than their alternatives, there is some debate over whether artificial sweeteners are any better. Plus, many people can have troubles digesting artificial sweeteners when they are working out, leading to stomach upset. Instead, you might want to try just plain water, and you can add a slice of lemon or lime to it for flavor if you wish. This will help you feel more energized during a workout without adding calories to your day. Or you can schedule a small snack like an apple or a small glass of juice after a longer workout to replenish your body.

What many people don’t realize is that the body has plenty of calories to use during workouts of less than one hour. Unless you are going over this time period, you do not need to add any more calories to your day by drinking sports drinks – especially when you want to lose weight.

Other Related Posts and Articles you May Find Interesting: “Eating After Exercise”, “What to Eat Before and After Exercise”, “Drinking Water Is Important for Weight Loss and Health” and “How Dehydration Affects Metabolism”.