Originally Posted by
Richard Cranium
One tool in understanding your given physical status before and after exercise is the simple act of recording your weight.
I've seem these Internet threads go back and forth about some mineral or sugar supplement but ignore the most basic principle of all. To exercise and feel well afterwards - you need to keep yourself hydrated. If you are concerned about your well being - then weighing yourself is the starting point of any inquiry.
Assuming you have some mineral imbalance without even understanding what your "healthy" body weight should be seems silly to me.
However, my comments are routinely ignored and disparaged. Perhaps using a scale is too inconvenient for most readers.
I've tried the scale thing, and it seems inconclusive in my case. Personally, I hold a lot of fluid in my stomach and gut. I'll often come back from a 3-8 hr. ride with a bit of a pot belly. Which doesn't mean I'm not dehydrated - I normally am after a hard ride. But the scale doesn't show it. Or maybe it's leg pump or fluid retained from burned glycogen? Or maybe it's from pushing electrolytes on a ride, which makes me retain more water than my usual low-salt life? LD riders often notice that they will pee like crazy a day or two after a ride. I don't understand it, but the scale doesn't seem to tell me much.
Another weird thought: some researchers think that cyclists may perform best when slightly dehydrated: they're lighter, and lighter is faster. I don't seem to get lighter, though. And if one were lighter, might it be from dehydration or from pushing so much low residue food to get across the stomach wall quickly for a day or two that one's intestines are empty and one probably won't be able to eat enough fibrous food in a day to produce actual fecal matter?