Supplements and Sweat

I don’t mean to open a can of worms here, but I was wondering what the current recommendations are regarding supplements. I’m eating well and winning in the kitchen, but I’m thinking about adding a multivitamin to fill in any gaps. Also, are there any noticeable losses that we experience from intense sweating other than water and electrolytes? There have been some really hot days this summer and I’m curious whether I’m losing more during work and workouts than I thought.

Hey Morgan!!

It’s always wise to take a multivitamin and have a balanced diet to get vitamins that way!

Electrolytes are very important for super hot days. You could also add a little salt to your bottles depending on if/how much sodium your electrolytes include (because you do lose a bit of salt- check your helmet straps!!) Be sure to have two full bottles even for a shorter ride on hot days and drink both of them!

Hope that helps!
Coach Allie

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Coach Allie,

Thanks so much. I was leaning that direction and it’s good to get confirmation. I’ll check my electrolytes too.
Morgan

A quality electrolyte + carbohydrate drink mix is a good place to start too!

Thanks. I’ll do that as well. I’d mostly been drinking water for my one hour workouts, but I may well be somewhat depleted before even getting on the bike.

just some additional food for thought from a former sports dietitian who once worked for a well known sports nutrition company -

I realize this won’t be sexy advice but if you are as you say eating well and winning in the kitchen you, like many athletes, may actually be less likely to need a multivitamin supplement. I was a subject in a cycling study a few years back where I was required to track my food intake for 4 days on two separate occasions. Taking in close to 3000 calories a day I was well above the RDA (in some cases double) for every vitamin and mineral analyzed. If you do decide to take a multivitamin product I would recommend taking it just 2-3 days a week knowing what I said above and that frank deficiencies (rare) take 10 days to a month to manifest. Between your healthy diet and the supplement you’ll have plenty of micronutrients on board.

James

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Thanks James. The multivitamin suggests three tablets daily, and I was considering just taking less. Some nutrients would have me way over the RDA (without even considering my food intake).

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Vitamin d, a lot of people are low in it. The only way to know for sure how much you need is a blood test, and that varies with the season, I started taking it and ive definitely noticed improved energy. Its like night and day.

The feed has a smoking deal on one month supply of the “athlete formula” , multi vitamins, fish oil, and D, may want to give it a try for a month and see if you notice a difference.

that sounds prudent. maybe just 1 tablet a day or every other day. if you get sick or have a really heavy training block then slightly increase. Unless you have a severe deficiency, which again is unlikely, you’re not going to feel like you suddenly have super powers from a multivitamin. The marketing for these products is on par with Specialized :rofl:

I don’t know if it’s a service @Lacey_Rivette provides but consider having 3 days to a week of your typical diet analyzed. I think you’d be surprised at the results.

I know that there are many multi-vitamins on shelves in grocery stores. What brand would you recommend Doesn’t have to be in main stream grocery stores and hopefully won’t break my banking account in replacing a bottle every month. I need to start taking some, especially after reading comments in this post.

Any advice will be appreciated.

+1 on Vitamin D… as a country we are deficient in it. Our soil has been stripped of Vitamin D due to our unsustainable agricultural practices. The hot thing to do now is get Vitamin D + Vitamin K, as the vitamin K helps absorption, I believe.

I’m not as hot on a multi-vitamin… it’s mostly synthetic vitamins and it has about 30ish different vitamins and minerals in it. There are 100s of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and nutrition that our bodies get from real unprocessed foods. So I feel a multi-vitamin is a drop in the bucket to what our bodies really need.