Water weight

I read an article recently on the importance of hydration during prolonged exercise, and even during normal, everyday activities. The article addresses overhydration, rather than dehydration, and women are more prone to it than men. Anyone knows that it's no fun to exercise with a stomach (or bladder) full of water, but hydrating too much can dilute the blood to the point of danger. Once during massage therapy school, a girl in the class fainted due to low electrolyte levels.

Just to see, I decided to weigh myself before and after exercising this evening. My workout was not very strenuous: 2 miles running, 1 mile walking, plus warm-up and cool-down. Took 43 minutes. Temperature was somewhere in the 70s, with normal humidity and a light breeze.

I lost nearly a pound. 13 oz of water evaporated from my body. To recover this, I need to drink 1 2/3 cups of water. Not too bad. I definitely don't need to chug down on my liter-sized Nalgene bottle. It will be interesting to check this again, once the summer heats up a bit more, and I'm running more vigorously.

I'm cooking Emily's Black Bean Burgers this evening as a test run for the 4th of July pool party. I crunched the numbers to discover that they have 195 calories per burger. Plus, if you will excuse the expression, a s#!tload of fiber. :)