How Much Water?
Do you drink enough water? Many people don't know how much water they should be drinking every day. At the very least, you should drink at least 3 liters per day. Some athletes will require more water. Drinking water may improve your sports performance. Staying hydrated may also help you burn more fat. Keep reading to learn all the benefits of staying hydrated.
Dehydration
Dehydration is defined as a loss of water that equals to 1% or more of your body weight. If you weigh 150 pounds, sweating 1.5 pounds of water is considered dehydration. If you sweat when you work out or play sports, you may become easily dehydrated. You not only lose water, but you also lose salt, and burn up sugar. That is why you see many athletes drinking Gatorade during their sporting event. Sports drinks provide the water, the salt, and the sugar you have lost during your workout or your sporting event.
Speaking of sugar, it's always best to know how much fat, protein, and carbs you should be consuming each day. Click the image below to watch a video of a simple formula we've created. Or you can click this link to read the article.
Sweating
Why do we sweat? Our bodies try to maintain a constant temperature of about 98.6 degrees. When you get too hot, our bodies remove heat through sweat. When you sweat, it may feel like you are losing weight but in fact, you are just losing water. The best thing to do is to replace that lost water as soon as possible. You want your body fully hydrated so you can burn fat efficiently.
Burning Fat
Your body can burn fat more efficiently when you are properly hydrated. Thornton (2016) noted that properly hydrated subjects lost more fat than dehydrated subjects. He hypothesized that this weight loss occurred with two mechanisms: (1) increased hydration suppressed appetites, and (2) increased hydration increased lipolysis.
With properly hydrated cells, your body burns energy more efficiently, which is to say it draws more energy from fat instead of carbs and protein. More fat loss and less muscle loss is also great for your metabolism. Click the image below to watch more tips on Boosting your metabolism. Or, click this link to read the article.
Replenish Lost Water
Some of you may weigh yourselves after your workouts in hopes that you lost a few pounds; but, in reality, any weight loss is mostly water. Therefore, you need to replenish each pound lost by drinking one pint of water. But don't worry, you can still lose weight if that's your goal. Your body will continue to burn fat through out the day with proper hydration and a proper diet.
Want more weight loss tips? Click this link to read our best tips for losing weight.
Physical Performance
Many studies have shown that dehydration will impair your ability to perform at your best. Performance levels start to decline immediately, but, there's a drastic drop at 2% dehydration. Kleiner (1999) reviewed many studies in which subjects experienced a 20% drop in performance after a 2% drop in water weight. This drop in performance could be during a sporting event or during a routine workout at your gym. Either way, you'll want to stay hydrated to make sure you don't have a decline in performance.
And if you need help designing an exercise plan and/or a nutrition plan, click the image below to speak with a PFTA certified personal trainer.
Mental Performance
Furthermore, the decline in mental performance has also been documented by several studies. Gopinathan et al. (1988) showed a decrease in brain power begins to happen almost immediately, but takes a significant drop at 2% dehydration level. The subjects in the study had trouble with simple math, short-term memory, and visual tracing after just 2% dehydration. Things got even worse as their dehydration levels continued to worsen. This lapse in mental performance could be crucial in a late game situation when good decisions are pertinent to a good outcome. Stay hydrated to perform at your best!
Muscle Cramps
Muscle cramps come at the worse time and we're not exactly sure what causes them. But, we are certain that being properly hydrated can prevent, or at least delay the onset of exercise induced muscle cramping. A study by Jung et al. (2005) showed that muscle cramping could be delayed with the consumption of water and electrolytes during exercise. In the study, the subjects who drank water and electrolytes, delayed or prevented cramps while the dehydrated subjects cramped much earlier. If you are working out, especially in the heat, make sure you remain properly hydrated.
As a reminder, sports drinks have water, sugar, and electrolytes. In this instance, electrolytes is just a fancy word for salt. I would recommend sports drinks after 30 to 60 minutes of hard exercise.
Speaking of working out, not sure where to begin? We always recommend large muscles first. Click the image below to watch exercise demonstrations for hip extension. Or, click this link to read more about hip extension.
Disease and Kidney Stones
Moreover, the review by Kleiner (1999) showed a decreased incidence in certain cancers such as bladder, prostate, and kidney, for those subjects that stayed hydrated most of the time. The review also showed a decrease in kidney stones for properly hydrated subjects.
Therefore, even if you don’t exercise much, staying hydrated will keep you healthier than those that don’t drink enough water throughout the day. You can begin by drinking at least 3 liters per day and possibly more if you exercise or you sweat more than normal.
And if you want to learn more about exercise science and sports nutrition, click the image below to review our personal trainer class.
Re-hydrate
It's easy to get dehydrated in the summer heat especially if you exercise outdoors. Drinking plenty of water is essential to staying hydrated. Eating watermelon and other foods help too! In fact, you can click this link to read about all the Benefits of Eating Watermelon.
Spoiler alert: watermelon keeps you hydrated and it's a great pre-workout too! But let's get back to the subject at hand. Water is the most abundant and most important nutrient in our bodies. You need to get water from either fluid form or from food.
Knowledge is Power
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Summary
Although most of us drink water throughout the day, most of us aren’t drinking enough water to stay sharp! Moreover, we wake up most mornings feeling dehydrated; therefore, it is very important to start each day with at least one full glass of water. Most experts suggest that a sedentary person should drink at least 2.5 liters of water per day while an active person should drink 5 to 10 liters per day. Stay cool, drink plenty of water, and keep moving!! Happy health and happy training!
Written By
RAEscobar, PFTA instructor and personal trainer
Sources:
Kleiner, Susan M. Water: An Essential but Overlooked Nutrient. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Volume 99: Number 2. 1999.
Gopinathan, PM; G. Pichan; V.M. Sharma. Role of Dehydration in heat stress-induced variations in mental performance. Archives of Environmental Health. 1988; 43:15-17.
Jung, Alan P.; Phillip A. Bishop; Ali Al-Nawwas; R. Barry Dale. Influence of Hydration and Electrolyte Supplementation on Incidence and Time to Onset of Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps. Journal of Athletic Training (National Athletic Trainers’ Association). Apr-Jun2005, Vol. 40 Issue 2, p71-75.
Thornton, SN. Increased Hydration Can Be Associated with Weight Loss. Frontiers In Nutrition. 2016 Jun 10; Vol. 3, pp. 18.
