woodcraft

There's a range of how much people sweat,

been thinking about this as a factor:

- Consuming more salt causes you to retain water.

- If you are more 'saturated', you sweat more and more readily. Think of a sponge- when full of water, it takes

only a light squeeze to get a lot of water out; when not as full, takes harder squeeze to get less water.

- That sweat is more salty, producing more sweat stains.

- Being used to the feeling of being 'full', and 'salty' then leads to drinking many large bottles of water, producing

more sweat.

- So in some measure, this could be the body getting rid of excess water & excess salt, beyond what is needed

for cooling.

mcours2006

Not sure what the point of discussion is, but the primary function of sweating is cooling off the body. It doesn't matter how much salt or water you're retaining, if you're working hard and your body is heating up rapidly you'll sweat. If not and you're still 'saturated' you'll just pee a lot.

big john

A friend told me when I ride by they have to mop the street so the other riders don't slip in the sweat.
I sweat a lot and I corrode things. When it's hot and I am climbing I cannot drink enough and lose several pounds on a hot climbing day. I once came home 11 pounds lighter.
I am in no danger of hyponatremia.

dabac

Nah.
Just like people need different amount of sleep, people produce different amounts of sweat at a comparable level of effort.
My body has settled on an almost Pavlovian response.
A simplified protocol.
Pulse up = sweat on.
It doesn't bother waiting for any core temperature increase.
Only times I can get a decent pulse increase w/o sweating is when I'm simultaneously at risk of hypothermia.
And yes, I know this by trial and measurement.
Literally within seconds of stopping, I start shivering.

I experienced considerable amounts of misery all those years I believed the "you're simply not dressed right" - crowd.

On contrast, dear Mum has always found it difficult to exercise during Summer. She's a very marginal sweater, and prone to overheating.
My brother is somewhere inbetween.

indyfabz

One's perceived amount of sweating can also be affected by the amount of humidity in the air. I am like, if not worse, than dabac when it comes to seating. So how could I walk around Vegas when it was over 100 F and not end up with a wet shirt. How could I cycle in an arid area of Oregon at over 90 F without sweat pouring down my face? I was sweating, but it was evaporating.

rumrunn6

now I'm missing my long time girlfriend who said my sweat was like a spring rain. she was a keeper

noglider 

I don't know why, but I don't sweat much. But I do sweat. I've taken some bike rides in the summer and felt absolutely awful. It turns out I was salt-depleted. Now when I take a long ride in summer, I am careful to carry salt with me. It turns that awful feeling around rapidly. Usually, we have to be careful not to have too much salt. My blood pressure is rising, so I'm careful not to put too much in my food. But when sweating, it's a different matter.

Dan333SP

woodcraft

I don't sweat that much, but noticed that after reducing salt intake

over a period of time, my sweat is much less salty.

Also drink less water while on the bike.

woodcraft

Aren't those the conditions- sweating a lot and drinking a lot- that increase the danger?

Maelochs

Sweat is Not the body's way of getting rid of excess water---that would be urination, something which hopefully your body does not do whenever it wishes to regulate fluid levels ... but at least if it does while you are riding you can claim it is sweat. Sweating is done purely to control temperature.

How much sweat your body can produce is affected by the amount of water available to it, but still, excess water is routed to the bladder. If you eat a lot of salt, the water in your body will absorb the salt so anywhere the water goes, the salt will go with it---and anywhere you go you will leave salty puddles.

I don't know why salt causes water retention---i'd have to imagine the salt binds to chemicals in our cells, or maybe the salt actually binds to water and the resulting larger molecules don't fit through capillary walls as well, until the salts are processed out? Somehow water which contains salt (salt solution) is not as easily absorbed/utilized by the body. Someone else will have to google it .... I am insufficiently interested. I am only posting to validate myself and to try to seem knowledgeable.

I don't even know for sure that the body doesn't shed excess water through sweating---I only know that whatever people educated me, told me otherwise. Could all have been alternative facts.

sh00k

welcome to poetryforums.net

Flatbroke

watching people ride will make me sweat

big john

Sweating a lot and not being able to drink enough to keep up leads to dehydration. During long efforts it is of course important to keep eating, at least replenishing minerals and electrolytes.

Hyponatremia is what happens when a would be marathoner dies at 5 or 6 hours in after gorging on water and not eating anything. The body becomes flushed of electrolytes and the organs can't function. Water is retained.

A friend experienced hyponatremia during his first solo RAAM effort and had to be hospitalized. He gained 15 pounds of water weight (and he is a small guy). The next year he got the nutrition/water part figured out and became the first official over 60 finisher.

big john

You got a witness!

motosonic

LOL, This thread.
I sweat a LOT. It's disgusting. I finally picked up a Halo headband/cap and that thing is amazing. No more sweat burning my eyes while cycling.

silversx80

When riding outdoors, I sweat a little bit. I mean, I can be out in 95°F weather with 90% relative humidity and I may get a drip to trickle from my temple. At a stop, in the sun, I may get a few drips down my back. So, my rule of thumb for an outdoor ride is one 24oz bottle of water per hour, and I may only lose 1 lb per hour at most.

Indoor training is another story. I set the AC to 68°F, have a fan blasting 25 mph wind onto my entire body, a dehumidifier keeping the relative humidity below 50%, and this is what my floor typically looks like after a 2 hr training session...

Sweat by silversx80, on Flickr

What's more is that even drinking 2 quarts of water per hour, I still will lose 5-7 lbs in a 2-hour session.

big john

Awesome floor pic, looks like you washed your bike.
2 hours on a trainer is more than I could ever handle, but then I'm a slacker.

rumrunn6

just read this

If you sweat more, will you have to pee less?

Actually, excessive sweating will make you need to urinate more.
Believe it or not, sweat is actually less concentrated in salt relative to the blood, so when you sweat you are actually losing more water than salt. This leads to an increase in salinity of the plasma volume, known as hypernatremia.
The body's normal response to hypernatremia is to increase salt excretion by the kidneys. However, one cannot just excrete excess salt, it has to be excreted with water. The kidneys will respond to the increased salt concentration by concentrating the urine as much as possible, but you will still need to pee in order to excrete the salt and in the end will likely end up urinating more.
The renal system is very intricate and highly convoluted (pun?) so this is a simplification, but hopefully it will suffice.

and ...

It's common. The heat led to the sweating which greatly increased what is called your insensible water/fluid loss. It is not a problem at all, unless you are not drinking enough to cover your increased fluid needs. And over an extended time, you'd need to get some electrolytes in.
In healhcare, with critically ill patients, insensible water loss is estimated with various tools, or via descriptors, such as: 103 temp, shaking chills, profuse sweating, soaked bedding ( top and undersheet) x3 in 8 hour shift. Then measured intake and output is given. In this situation, the urine output might look quite alot less than the amount normally expected, but would be judged to be appropriate due to the great increase in insensible water loss.
You see this all the time in distance runners, for instance. They are being rehydrated along the way, and yet no one is stopping for a potty break.
I live in the deep south and do lots of yard/plant work. With the weather we've been having (heat indexes of 111-120!) I am drenched in no time flat. Sometimes I may work for 3 hours with short rest periods , pouring sweat and drinking HUGE amounts of water to cool off. I don't pee most of that water out - I sweat it out and when I do urinate later, given good intake, my urine is not concentrated. I salt my food adequately and take in enough potassium, so that is never a worry.
Look up "insensible fluid (or water) loss" for more info.

woodcraft

Interesting. Does the blood volume then vary substantially with hydration/dehydration?

rumrunn6

yeah I think so cuz I've read that when you are dehydrated your blood pressure goes up

since the converse would also be true, one trick I use for my annual physicals is, I always go well hydrated. gives me the best chances of a lower blood pressure reading, I think

motosonic

This is fascinating.. Thank you for the information. I'm going to have to look into this because I have this problem daily.. I drink water, I exercise, I sweat profusely and spend the rest of the day in the bathroom. lol