Water - Vital for life

No matter what type of diet you look at, a consistent message is to increase your daily water intake.  With the current trend for “cleansing” or taking supplements it is a sobering thought to consider that your body can live for quite some time without other nutrients, but we would die fairly quickly without water. 

Water makes up both intra cellular and extra cellular fluid for body functions. It helps regulate our temperature, it moves essential food stuffs and nutrients into our body, acts as a buffer against lactic acid for when we train hard and maintains blood pressure for normal heart and lung function.  We tend to get most of our water from external sources - about 60% from fluid and 30% from food. The remaining 10% is known as “metabolic water” which is produced when we increase our metabolic rate – and higher metabolic rates produce more water (have a look at some earlier posts for more details) as it is a by-product for energy production.

Our bodies hold a great deal of water (60% for males and 50 – 55% females). Weight loss programmes often target these water stores to produce fantastic results on the scales in the first few weeks to “demonstrate” how effective their programme is.  We also might see great weight loss through “teas” and supplements which have high levels of diruetics in them to reduce water load. Think about it like this, an average body weight of 70Kg will have a weight of ~45Kg of water in a male and 35kg in a female.   A 10% reduction in water held in the cells, will then show a loss of around 3.5kg (about 7lbs) on the scales – sometimes in one week. Other diets advocate reducing carbs and the reason for this is that carbohydrates demand that 2.6g of water is stored for every gram of carbo  This is fantastic news of course, if you are training, as eating carbs will not only give you great energy stores, but also have sufficient intra cellular stores of water to maximise performance. However, a “diet” that restricts carbs is simply a loss of water from the cells due to a reduction in carb storage ie not fat loss. 

So, are you ready to feel more energised, have a flatter belly, help with weight loss, have better skin, hair, better sleep and feel more mentally alert?  Here are some easy steps to follow.  First, you need to get used to looking at your pee to know if you are dehydrated. Don’t stress too much about the colour, simply work on the premise that if can see your pee, you need to hydrate. The chart below will give you some indication of hydration – please be aware that some supplements or too much beetroot might produce some strange colours

Here are the basics:-

All drinks count towards hydration, as even with a diuretic affect of tea/coffee/alcohol there is still water (around 80%) in these.

If you don’t like the taste of water, drink anything (other than alcohol) – even milk is 85% water.

Aim to spend the week hydrating not just on the day. Eat clean and drink regularly throughout the day. 

Carry water with you and have a bottle on your desk – although I find I drink more if I have it in a glass as the act of unscrewing the top is sometimes a barrier, whereas I can sip the water without thinking if it is in a cup.

Drink thorough the day. Have at least a cup of water before exercising (I tend not to drink at all when I am teaching as I don’t have time, but this is not a problem if you are well hydrated beforehand and drink afterwards. I hate the feeling of water sloshing around me when I am jumping about). I tend to glug it down 2 hours beforehand rather than sip...

Aim for around 5ml of fluid per kg of bodyweight at least 4 hours before exercise. Then about 100ml just before you start.

Aim for around 150ml every 15 mins if you are sweating loads in class – or drink it all at the end!

Cold water takes longer to be absorbed, so drink room temp water if you can.

Cold water takes longer to be absorbed as the body will need to “warm it up” by increasing metabolism – so iced water for those on weight loss programmes.

Food with high fibre will hold water in the body for longer, esp. in the large intestine when most water absorption takes place e.g.  soup, fruit, salad etc

Weigh yourself before and after exercise and aim to drink 1.5lt of fluid for every 1kg of weight loss.

Wear a black t-shirt when you exercise and then let it dry – if it has a lot of white powder on it then you may need to increase your electrolytes as you may be a “salty sweater”

Unless you are exercising over an hour, you probably won’t need a sports drink – but if you do aim for an isotonic one.

The brain will stimulate the kidneys to slow down if it senses that your cells are short of water. You will feel groggy, heavy legged and uncoordinated – please drink more water if this happens to you!

We need to replace water before anything else after exercise.  Being thirsty is not enough as it does not match of level of hydration – and so we need to drink more than we think.

Being fully hydrated lets you train for longer and optimises our cardiovascular function.  Be careful however, not to over hydrate – which can lead to hyponatermia (low levels of sodium in the plasma)

Water, the key to sound nutrition, health and fitness.  It is both free and readily available.  You will “cleanse” your body, “detox” your system (please bear in mind that there is no evidence that we can detox our bodies – but more water into the system will help digestion).  Its importance in maintaining life is second only to oxygen.  Go get yourself some now..................