I recently completed the most difficult physical thing I’ve ever done—climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Though I’ve run multiple marathons and half-marathons, the length, intensity, and sheer physical demand of the six-day climb, especially the final eight-hour ascent that began at midnight, had me seriously regretting not booking my summer vacation to a Hawaiian beach. In between trying every mental tactic I could think of to keep one foot stepping in front of the other, I realized about halfway up that my guide was galloping up the mountain ahead of me. Singing. As I stopped multiple times to guzzle my electrolyte-enhanced drink, special workout gels, and high-energy fitness bars, he simply sat and waited—no fancy foods, not even a pack of water.
Have we been tricked into thinking all these tools are necessary? In an attempt to find out if I’d been totally duped by the workout industry, I decided to give my fitness goodies a closer look.
Sports Drinks
University of Florida doctors created the first sports drink in the ’60s to give a little edge to the school football team (the Gators) over the heat and humidity. Gatorade hydrated players with water, with carbohydrates for energy, and with electrolytes like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium for optimal muscle and nerve performance. Today grocery stores have a bevy of sports beverages in multitudes of colors and flavors, and all claim to be bursting with ingredients that will do wonders for my workout. I’m still skeptical. Sure, elite athletes in muggy Florida need an extra edge, but what about your everyday woman who likes to go on morning runs and take Pilates classes at the gym?
“Electrolyte drinks replenish lost minerals and fluid in the right amount, so you don’t get an upset stomach from having too much, or crashing from having too little,” says Jenny Geyser, a San Diego-based certified personal trainer.
Sports drink formulas have a specific concentration of carbs, usually between 4 and 8 percent. Fruit juice and soda have far more, which causes those awkward mid-workout digestive problems.
When we need it: One thing a fitness drink will do is keep us hydrated. A study published in Medicine & Science found that we tend to drink 25 to 90 percent more liquid if it comes from a sports drink over plain old H20. It also showed that athletes hydrating with a drink containing electrolytes and carbs run faster and longer, have better motor skills, and are mentally sharper. That’s because during an intense workout we sweat, losing water and minerals. (That’s why sweat is salty.) These drinks replenish not only our fluid levels, but also the lost electrolytes quicker than our bodies can, and in the right proportions, too.
When we don’t: If the closest you are to a workout is the distance between your couch and the football on your TV, don’t kid yourself.
“These drinks may have half the calories and sugar of juice or soda, but that’s still extra calories and sugar that you’re not burning off,” says Geyser. She recommends drinking water if you’re not doing a really sweat-inducing workout. And what about those low-calorie and no-calorie versions of these drinks? Many of them don’t even have the same carbohydrate/electrolyte combination that their higher calorie counterparts do, and some light flavoring and vitamins aren’t going to do anything to make you run faster. They’re just going to cost you more.
Fitness Bars
Flip the average bar over and it’s quite possible that there’s as much fat, protein, and sugar as some candy bars have. That said, the right kind of fitness bar can give the body necessary nutrients and energy pre- or post-workout, especially if we’re in a hurry and the only other option is a handful of M&Ms from the office snack bowl. The trick is differentiating between the helpful and the harmful. (Hint: If it’s coated in peanut butter and chocolate, and it tastes like a peanut butter, chocolate cookie, it probably has the calorie and fat count of a peanut butter, chocolate cookie.)
