I drink a shitload of water, usually roughly 250+ oz/day, and I sweat my balls off in the gym 90-105min/day 5x/wk. Am I losing too many electrolytes, and should I be supplementing, at least post workout? I could very easily mix in some gatorade in post workout shake, but there's enough stuff in there already (whey, dextrose, creatine, glutamine, arginine, NAC), so I'd only do that if I thought it was beneficial.

Yes with that amount of water intake you should probably be taking some sodium and potassium, especially if your diet is low in electrolytes. I would say 500 mg of each.

Dave,
500 post workout, or spread out throughout the day- also, what's best source, bananas give me the shits

I don't recall offhand what good sources of potassium are but bananas are overrated, there are many other good sources. Citrus fruits I think. Could probably find a list of foods and their potassium content on google. However I was talking about potassium supplements (potassium gluconate or potassium citrate are most common). Total intake should be much higher than 500 mg. I would probably take them 2x daily.

1 serving of gatorade dry mix =
110mg Na (citrate)(5% 2000 cal DV)
30 mg K (monoKphosphate)(1% DV)

-so much for replenishing ur fkn' electrolytes!
-bullshit product

Yeah Gatoride is some bullshit.

One thing to do is add some baking soda to your preworkout drink if you can stomach it (which many people can't) to get the benefits of both the sodium and the buffering.

I can stomach anything- pardon my retardation , but buffering for what?

See the attached article ( http://www.bulknutrition.com/?ingredients_id=51 )

The optimal amounts are quite high but a small amount still isn't going to hurt and may help some.

Lactic acid buffering, duh- it's been one of those weeks-

The article's very informative, but 15g? that's a shitload of baking soda

I was thinking an intake of Na too high preworkout could lead to cramping, by offsetting the Na-K pump (Frank-Starling?, it's been a while), but as I read on the article explained that exercise normally induces increases in natural K - is this more so for aerobic ex or weighttraining?

Just the thought of trying to blend baking soda with anything makes me picture a frothy mess- sodium citrate and bicarbonate are mentioned as supps,
I'm assuming NaCl is not an option? -Why?

Couple little tips I use.

I dont know if you are a coffe drinkier but you can add 1/2-1 tsp baking soda to the water in the coffee maker. This kills two birds with one stone. Keeps the coffee maker clean and flowing good and gives you the benefits of the baking soda and you cant tell the diff. in taste. I use 1/2 tsp.

Adding to your PWO drink as stated, taste not great but you are looking for results not taste.

Low carb food that is very high in potassium= Cabbage. Just watch out for the cabbage farts. WHOOO

thats about all I can add for now.

15 g or even a lot more. However, this is just for the maximum effect, and it is enough to produce statistical significance in studies with small sample sizes, so it is a pretty strong effect. Smaller amounts (especially when taken regularly) may still afford a mild performance benefit. Taking a lot isn't really worth it IMO except maybe for pro athletes.

The increases in K were reported in studies on endurance athletes. However I would not be surprised if it still was common in weight training since if I remember correctly it is related to breakdown of muscle tissue. I don't think I've read anywhere that a lot of sodium intake leads to cramping during exercise. Still that is a ton of sodium.

It isn't the sodium that causes the buffering, it is the citrate or bicarbonate, chloride will not have the same effect. It does froth quite a bit when mixed.

Extremely informative replies, no surprise there. Baking soda's going on the grocery list. Thanx, Dave-