More than half of the human body is made up of water, it is easily accessible to most of us and it is vital to good health, yet how many people drink the recommended amount every day?

Despite the importance of maintaining good hydration, most of us fail to meet our body’s needs on a daily basis, resulting in a number of negative effects, including reduced energy, fat loss and athletic performance.

In fact, more than 90 per cent of cases of low energy during the day (and particularly the late afternoon) are a result of dehydration. This is indicative of the significant impact water (or lack of it) can have on us.

If you are an athlete, dehydration by as little as a two per cent decrease in body mass, will detrimentally effect performance (aerobic and anaerobic)

Most people rely on thirst as an indicator of when the body needs water, however by the time your body sends this message, you are already dehydrated.

In addition, thirst is sometimes misinterpreted as hunger, so we often eat when we should be drinking – which further exacerbates the problem.

How do we know how much to drink?

To gain a fairly accurate idea of your individual hydration needs, you should aim for clear urine at least a twice daily.

That will give you a basis for the amount of water you should consume each day as a minimum standard.

However, there is no ‘gold standard’ for hydration, and no clear definition of recommended levels.

In addition, certain food, medications, vitamin supplements, and illnesses may all influence urine colour.

Remember that hydration is very individual and each person should strive to stay as hydrated as possible.

When water consumption is first increased, urination also increases, but does generally decrease as your body adjusts accordingly.

Why should I drink water and not soft drinks or tea/coffee?

Soft drinks and tea and coffee generally contain high concentrations of caffeine, which is a diuretic (releases fluid). This makes making hydration more difficult. For this reason, you should carefully monitor your intake of these types of drinks.

Soft drinks may also have very strong PH (acid) levels. When the body’s blood-acid level rises it has a profound effect on energy, general health, joint pain and fat loss.

Water plays a major role in helping the body to offset rising acid levels. High acid levels force the body - amongst other things - to store excess acid in fat stores. The body will resist releasing fat for energy if there are high concentrations of acid in the blood. A lot of obese people are not just overweight, they are over-acidic.

So to maximise your body’s ability to burn fat you need to drink adequate amounts of water.

We recommend fresh, filtered water. Although Australia has excellent water standards, your water can become polluted by poor household plumbing.

Dehydration

Some of the symptoms of dehydration include:

• Dry mouth
• ‘Furry’ tongue
• Sunken eyes
• Dark circles around eyes
• Headache
• Skin elasticity (if your skin is slow to bounce back after pinched, you could be dehydrated)
• Muscle cramps

These are symptoms to look for on a daily basis, as this will provide you with a point of reference for adequate hydration levels.

How does hydration assist fat loss?

Every cell in your body is constantly rebuilt. In fact, your body is almost totally rebuilt every six months - a process which results in the creation of waste products.

Compare this process to that of building a house. Throughout construction, there are always waste materials left around as a by-product of the development.

The body is similar. As the body ‘rebuilds’, blood cleans away waste material. For the blood to effectively undertake this role it needs to be adequately hydrated. Without enough water the cleaning process is hampered and further waste builds up, increasing acid levels within the blood.

Without effective cleaning fat loss becomes increasingly more difficult, particularly when blood-acid levels rise.

Overview:

• Check your current hydration status and adjust accordingly.
• Monitor your consumption of soft drinks, tea and coffee.
• Be aware of the possible symptoms of dehydration.
• Adjust water intake levels when external stresses increase eg: hot, humid conditions, increased training loads etc.