Whenever I talk about hydration most people understand that consuming enough water is essential and can point to some of the situations where staying adequately hydrated is important. Despite knowing the importance of hydration, many people still fall short of consuming enough water to really optimise their body’s functions, and this can have implications for health, weight loss and performance.
Staying properly hydrated is more than just taking on enough water; we also need to consider electrolytes that are important in how our bodies regulate fluid balance. Fortunately, a balanced and healthy diet often provides all of the electrolytes we need and replenishes them after exercise. It is only when exercising in extreme heat or humidity, especially for long periods, that we might need to consider using electrolyte supplements. This means that for the average workout, the only thing we need to consider to stay hydrated is adequate water intake to maintain any lost through sweat.
Water intake can have huge impacts on performance and even small amounts of dehydration can impair performance, as it impairs our body’s ability to regulate the heat we generate and can even impact on blood flow and the way in which the body uses energy. When it comes to those looking to lose weight, build muscle or just improve performance, we want to maximise the effectiveness of our time spent exercising, so making sure we drink enough water prior too, during and after training is always important.
And what about outside of exercise? Being in a dehydrated state can affect our brain function, reducing our ability to perform both physical and mental tasks. Fortunately, the body is fairly good at regulating our body’s hydration levels most of the time, so we don’t get ourselves into too much ‘trouble’, allowing us to maintain relatively normal function as long as we are not losing too much water.
However, we also need to consider that although we may be able to maintain a basic level of function, if we don’t pay attention to our water intake and we are trying to reach any health and fitness goal, not consuming enough water is probably not going to be ideal for optimal function to help us reach our goals in the quickest and healthiest way possible. Some research has shown that drinking water can help to boost metabolism by a small amount (around 100kcal per day) so may help contribute to weight loss compared to low water intake, and drinking water before meals can even help control calorie intake, assisting in weight loss.
There are a few recommended intakes for water, including to just drink when your thirsty which would normally provide adequate water, however many people I come across in their busy day today lives often ignore thirst, so trying to create awareness to encourage adequate hydration by trying to hit daily targets is a good method to keep on top of this. Recommended intakes suggest that we should consume at least two litres of water per day plus around 500ml to 1L per hour of exercise to replace lost fluids.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876001001428
