London Personal Trainer James White Shares The Secret Of Water For Rapid Health Gains
The human body can survive weeks without food, but only days without water - The average body is made up of up to 50-60% water with males being closer to 60% and females being closer to 50%. As the body cannot store water we need fresh supplies every day to make up for losses from lungs, skin, urine and faeces. The amount we need depends on our metabolism, the weather, the food we eat and our activity levels. Most adults lose around 2.5 and 3 litres in a day that doesn't involve strenuous exercise or hot weather. This loss needs to be replaced or you are going to be dehydrated. A fluid loss corresponding to 2.5% of bodyweight has been shown to reduce physical performance capacity by 45% so next time your personal trainer says you can't have a drink yet tell them that! At around 6-10% of body weight lost through water, heat stroke and heat exhaustion can become life threatening.
Exercise causes water loss, rehydration is essential to recovery - The process of homeostasis is the systems inside the body regulating its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition. When you exercise your body gets hot so to cool it down it makes you sweat. The sweat then evaporates and cools the skin. This loss of water needs to be replaced. Although it varies from person to person with the intensity, duration, bodyweight, weather and many other variables of exercise a rough guide is to drink 400-500ml of water about 15 - 20 minutes before exercise starts. Then proceed to drink 150 - 250 ml of water every 15 minutes during the exercise. A good way to gauge how much water should be drank after exercise is to weight yourself before and after exercise, for every lb of bodyweight lost drink 500ml. Once you have done this a few times you will know how much water to drink according to how much exercise you have done.
Water cleanses, your body needs water to flush toxins and waste - Water assists in the flushing or removal of harmful toxins from the body. If the body does not have sufficient water, then metabolic wastes will not be removed as efficiently as they should. In essence, the body would be holding in toxins instead of expelling them as is required for proper health. Much of this toxin removal is performed in the kidneys. Therefore, the benefit of drinking water in this case is to allow the kidneys to perform their task properly. This is a reason why when my personal trainer clients are detoxing they are told to make sure their water intake is ok.
Avoiding constipation. Water and fibre are important for a healthy stool - The large intestine absorbs water from the waste liquid and turn it into solid waste. The large intestine can absorb too much water when the person is dehydrated which will cause dehydration. Drinking fluid alone will not promote normal bowel function. It is best to combine a high fluid intake with a diet high in fibre, otherwise people will just urinate more.
Less fluid retention. No more swollen feet, legs, hands or bloated face - Many people believe that drinking water causes fluid retention. In fact, the opposite is true. Drinking water helps the body rid itself of excess sodium, which results in less fluid retention. The body will retain fluid if there is too little water in the cells. If the body receives enough water on a regular basis, there will be no need for it to conserve water and this will reduce fluid retention.
Biochemical processes in your body need water - Water provides our bodies with the necessary foundation from which all biochemical reactions occur. When a person is dehydrated their systems become more acid or alkaline. This can disrupt the normal rate at which these chemical reactions take place. This can be the cause of asthma, obesity, allergies, diabetes, angina, arthritis, backache, stress, high cholesterol, hypertension and many more!
Making sure you are properly hydrated will stop your body confusing dehydration with hunger - During my time as a London Personal Trainer this is the point that I talk to my clients the most about. How can you tell the difference between the two? Drink a glass of water when ever you feel hungry. If that satisfies you then it was thirst. If you are trying to lost excess body fat then reach for water before snacks and about half an hour before meals and you are likely to drop some fat through not over eating.
Over hydration is something you may have heard about that might be playing on your mind - This is called hyponatremia which is a dilution of salts in the body often resulting from a very high intake of water depleting the essential minerals. Symptoms can include disorientation, illness and in rare cases death. It is more likely to occur in a marathon or triathlete. A recent study has shown that it is most likely to effect a female marathon runner who runs at speeds slower than 8-9km/h who drinks around 15 litres of fluid during the 5 - 6 hour race. It isn't something you need to worry about as you probably wont be exercising for 5 - 6 hours and even if you did run a marathon you would struggle to drink 15 litres of water!
A simple way to work out a minimum of how much water you should drink per day is to multiply your body weight in kg by.033.
So if you weigh 80kg then - 80 x.033 = 2.64 litres (minimum). This is how much I advise my personal trainer clients to drink.
James