Nutrition guide
Hydration for footballers
A 2% drop in bodyweight through sweat is enough to measurably reduce sprint performance and decision-making. Most players lose between one and two and a half litres in a match, and almost nobody replaces it accurately without measuring.
This guide shows how to find your own number instead of guessing.
Find your sweat rate
Weigh yourself in minimal clothing before and after a session, note anything you drank, and take the difference. Each kilogram lost is roughly a litre of sweat. Do it in hot and cold conditions — your number is not one number.
Morning urine colour is a rough daily check: pale straw is the target, dark yellow means you started the day behind.
Before, during, after
Before: 5–7ml/kg in the two to four hours before kick-off, so roughly 350–500ml for a 70kg player, with a smaller top-up if urine is still dark.
During: 200–300ml every 15–20 minutes where the game allows, and 300–500ml at half time. After: replace 150% of the weight lost, spread over the next few hours rather than in one go.
When electrolytes matter
Plain water is fine for most sessions under an hour. Add sodium when it is hot, when the session is long, when you are a visibly salty sweater, or across a tournament day with multiple matches — sodium is what lets the fluid actually be retained.
Drinking large volumes of plain water very quickly while heavily sweating is the one genuinely dangerous pattern; it dilutes blood sodium. Sip, and salt.
Common questions
- How much water should a footballer drink a day?
- Around 35–45ml per kilogram of bodyweight as a baseline, plus replacement of what you sweat in training. Measure your sweat rate rather than relying on the generic figure.
- Are sports drinks necessary for football?
- Useful for matches and sessions over an hour, in heat, or across tournament days, because they supply carbohydrate and sodium together. For a short cool-weather session, water is enough.
More nutrition guides
Turn these numbers into your numbers
The macro calculator on the nutrition page converts every per-kilogram target here into daily protein, carbohydrate and fat for your bodyweight and training load.