If anyone else here has ever had a kidney stone, they would agree - you can't really drink too much water!

Interestingly, when I get dehydrated water tends to pass through me much faster. I was just on a trip and went up over 10k feet, as well as spending quite a lot of time in the ocean - drinking water as often as possible. Passes through rather quickly in those conditions.

I'm curious to know, in those heavy dehydration conditions, how much salt intake is generally needed? I'm pretty good about keeping hydrated when playing in high heat, but I don't usually add much salt during a round.

Sodium
 

Ed,

I think for golf, you would be just fine drinking a sports drink like Gatorade. It has plenty of electrolytes (sodium/potassium) for the amount of exertion we go through on the golf course - which really isn't much. If Gatorade is not your thing, then you could try salty snacks along with water. Sodium helps your muscles absorb the fluids. If you run low on sodium then you will not hydrate even though you drink a lot of water.

During a long endurance event such as an Ironman Triathlon, I typically drink only water and supplement with electrolyte tablets. The reason for this is Gatorade has a lot of simple sugars - glucose and sucrose - which tend to upset my stomach during stenuous exercise lasting longer than 2 hours. So in this case I MUST supplement or I would be running very low on electrolytes.

Gatorade works great for my while playing golf in Texas - and it can get hot here!

Experiment - because hydration is a very personal thing and depends on your fitness level and of course the conditions you are playing in. Also, it's easier to get dehydrated at high altitudes...as you noticed.

I agree with Ed that it's easy to replace electrolytes with Gatorade. Have you ever tried Pediolyte? It's an over-the-counter replacement beverage many pediatricians prescribe when children are sick. It's not so packed with sugar and the ingredients are great.

There was a question about food on the golf course by plutpb. I think the bars are fine but they often have a lot of fat and sugar so I try to use them only if it's a last resource. When you're on the course I wouldn't worry about trying to keep the carbs low, that's actually what you're trying to replace. Cliff Bars are a really high quality product and lower in refined sugar even though they taste great. Banana's are about replacing potassium (a major burnout electrolyte) and they are easy and taste great. I like to bake a sweet potato the night before a full day outside. You can eat it just like an apple and it actually has more potassium than banana's. It's easy when you come from home, not so easy if you don't cook or you're in a tournament. That is for the unimaginative. I have clients that travel all over the world and one just recently ordered a sweet potato with their evening meal for the sole purpose of having in during a tournament the next day. Seems the potato doesn't have the same effect in the middle of the game that a banana does. I will go no further. Motivation is everything.

Vik