Abstract
The main purposes of this review were to provide a qualitative description of nine investigations in which sweat losses were estimated by participants following exercise and to perform a quantitative analysis of the collective data. Unique estimations (n = 297) were made by 127 men and 116 women after a variety of exercise modalities in moderate to hot environmental conditions. Actual sweat loss exceeded estimated sweat loss (p < 0.001) for women (1.072 ± 0.473 vs. 0.481 ± 0.372 L), men (1.778 ± 0.907 vs. 0.908 ± 0.666 L) and when all data were combined (1.428 ± 0.806 vs. 0.697 ± 0.581 L), respectively. However, estimation accuracy did not differ between women (55.2 ± 51.5%) and men (62.4 ± 54.5%). Underestimation of 50% or more of sweat losses were exhibited in 168 (54%) of estimation scenarios with heavier sweaters displaying a higher prevalence and trend of greater underestimations in general. Most modern guidelines for fluid intake during and between training bouts are based on approximate sweat loss estimation knowledge. These guidelines will likely have minimal efficacy if greater awareness of how to determine sweat losses and accurate recognition of sweat losses is not increased by coaches and athletes.
Highlights
Over the last two and a half decades, multiple scientific cohorts and conclaves have devoted extensive efforts to provide physically active individuals with robust guidelines for fluid intake strategies during and in the times between training bouts [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Actual sweat losses were approximately double the estimated sweat loss volumes and significantly differed for female, male and all participants, but there were no significant differences in the accuracy of predictions by percentage between male and female participants (Table 2)
The second goal was to determine if sweat loss estimation trends across
Summary
Over the last two and a half decades, multiple scientific cohorts and conclaves have devoted extensive efforts to provide physically active individuals with robust guidelines for fluid intake strategies during and in the times between training bouts [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Passe et al [9] reported that during a 16-km run trained runners severely under replaced sweat losses with fluid intake (replacing 30.5% ± 18.1% of sweat loss) in comparison to formal contemporary hydration recommendations of that period suggesting fluid intake match sweat losses [1]. This occurred despite fluid intake opportunities that were designed to be as accommodating as possible. Beverage intake adequateness changes drastically if replacement volume is viewed from the standpoint of the runners’ perceived sweat loss volume. This finding is revelatory but almost universally disregarded when discussing the efficacy of most contemporary, formal hydration guidelines that base fluid replacement recommendations on individual sweat loss volume
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