We’ve all been told how important water is for our health, but it’s easy to fall off the bandwagon. And as we are headed toward summer, it seems appropriate to perhaps, refresh, our knowledge.
Some fun facts
- Makes up 55-60% of our total body weight
- 2/3rd of that is stored as intracellular water – Body water that is found inside the cells
- 1/3rd is stored as extracellular water – Body water that is found outside of the cells (saliva, blood plasma etc)
Stores vary based upon:
- Protein vs fat content of tissues (high muscle protein content contains more water than adipose tissue)
- Carbohydrate content of tissues (for every gram of glycogen stored, 3 grams of water are stored)
- Electrolytes content (these change the movement of fluid in and out of cells)
Some Terminology.
After all, this is a nutrition newsletter, you’re gonna need to learn the correct terms.
- Euhydration: Normal state of body water AKA enough water has been consumed, often referred to as ‘hydrated’.
- Hyperhydration: The physiological state of ‘too much’ total body water.
- Hypohydration: Not enough total body water, often mislabeled as ‘dehydration’.
- Dehydration: The process of losing body water.
- Rehydration: The process of gaining body water.
The role of water within the body:
- Transports and delivers oxygen and nutrients to tissues
- Removes CO2 and metabolic waste
- Transports hormones
- Makes up body fluids that regulate your bodys’ pH
- Dissipates excess body heat during exercise (Sweat)
- Maintains blood pressure
- Thermoregulation
So how much should we drink?
The thing is, there are so many variables that can have an affect on how much you should drink, including: Age and height, where you live (i.e. heat and humidity), exercise amount and intensity, how much you love coffee/booze, and even how salty you like your food.
But we are actually going to stick with the 2 Litres goal* (for the time being), this is roughly around 8-10 glasses a day!
*You may want to consider a slightly higher goal if you exercise very frequently, particularly in a hot area (maybe add some electrolytes too), or if you don’t eat lots of fruit and vegetables!
Signs you may not be drinking enough:
- Frequent Headaches
- A dry mouth
- Infrequent or dark urine, euhydration is often optimal if you are peeing every 1-2 hours (although this is highly person dependent), and we are looking for a pale coloured urine- I’m sure you’ve all seen the colour charts.
- Feeling dizzy or nauseous? Maybe drink a glass of water.
Tips to drink more!
- Buy a pretty/practical water bottle! (and take it everywhere)
- Keep sipping! Have a glass, or your new bottle, at your desk with you. (It’s better to sip rather than down a pint every hour)
- Habit Stack (thanks atomic habits), ‘stack’ drinking water with a habit you do everyday, e.g. train yourself to have a glass of water with every meal OR when you wake up have a glass of water as the first thing you do.
- Add a slice of fruit to your water for a different tase.