Do you drink water???

Do you drink water???

Your body is around 60% water, keeping it properly hydrated is essential for good health and optimum physical and mental performance. So how much should an individual drink per day?

The answer to that question is not as clear cut as it may seem, the most commonly quoted figures are 2 - 2.5 litres per day but as you will see there are many deciding factors that affect the "ideal" daily amount.

Why drink water?

Every cell in your body needs water for nourishment and to rid itself of waste. Drinking water on a daily basis helps joints to remain lubricated and supple keeping us mobile and active.

Drinking water improves concentration levels and performance, helps to reduce headaches, improves the complexion and alleviates skin complaints and fortifies our bodies defences against disease.

Dehydration

Dehydration may occur and you will probably not notice it happening to you until you begin to show some of the symptoms. The most obvious indicator is thirst but there are many others including cramp, headaches and irritability and of course urine colour, the darker the colour the greater the level of dehydration.

Your performance mentally and physically can be severely affected, resulting in a reduced capacity to concentrate and complete tasks. Consider how this could affect you at work, perhaps not hitting that months product figures and bonus!

External Influences

Your level of activity has a considerable impact on how much water your body loses, not surprisingly the more active you are the greater the degree of water loss but just sitting watching a film or TV your body loses water. This happens through three main ways, urination, perspiration and respiration, if you are not at least equalling this loss through drinking you will become dehydrated.

Indoors and out

Climatic conditions obviously affect water loss and consumption, during the hot summer months the tendency is to drink more. On the other hand the cold winter weather can be deceptive, many people find drinking water in the cold dry conditions of winter difficult, do not fall into this trap dehydration is as much of a threat in the winter as the summer.

The environment you live and work in has a huge impact on your level of hydration; air conditioning and forced air heating systems are known to cause dehydration. It is so important to be comfortable in your personal environment but do not allow it to have such a serious affect on you.

Raise a glass or two

By drinking the recommended amount of water you can protect yourself against bugs and colds. The nasal passages have a mucus lining which moistens air as it passes into the lungs, if you are dehydrated this layer of your body's defence mechanism dries up leaving the way open to bacteria and viruses causing coughs and chest infections, sinuses are similarly affected resulting in painful sinusitis.

For a few glasses more

Bowel cancer affects 1 in 20 adults, you can protect yourself from bowel and related cancers by eating a high fibre diet and drinking a healthy amount of water to help keep your bowels moving regularly.

The nuts and bolts

As a general rule men need to drink more water than women, there are exceptions to this rule, pregnant and breastfeeding women should increase their water consumption to a similar level of that of a healthy adult man. The amounts quoted for children may come as a surprise, the level of consumption is relatively high due to the rapid growth rate of children.

Adult male 3 litres per day

Adult female 2.5 litres per day

Pregnant & breastfeeding women 3 litres per day

School age children 1.5 - 2 litres per day

Toddlers and pre school 1.3 - 1.5 litres per day

Drink water and lose weight it really is that simple!

It may sound strange but drinking water actually reduces fluid retention, when the body becomes dehydrated it starts to panic and collects water and hangs on to it, this especially happens in women experiencing their menstrual period, so long as your body is properly hydrated fluid retention is only temporary.

When you are dehydrated your brain sends out messages telling your body there is something wrong and it needs more energy, your body reads this as it needs food so you eat, when actually all you really need to do is drink some water.

The food you eat will usually be sugary and in these situations will be stored as fat as it wasn't what your body was crying out for, if you continue to be dehydrated and you don't read the outward signs and listen to what your body is telling you, you will continue to eat and put on weight whenyou should be drinking water and losing weight.

You should if you can face it drink cold water, your body absorbs it more efficiently and there is some evidence that it may induce fat burning.

Water ensures that food is digested properly following the correct amount of mastication, allowing an increase in your metabolic rate and encouraging the body to increase nutrient extraction from the food you eat, giving you more energy and keeping you off the cravings.

Drinking water enables you to exercise more efficientlykeeping you focused and keeping up your level of enthusiasm, resulting in a reduced likelihood of you giving up.

Drinking water is being kind to your muscles. You are able to exercise in a more organised way when properly hydrated, you muscles will, following an exercise routine repair themselves over a shorter period, enabling you to return to the exercise part of your weight loss plan quicker than if you hadn't drunk any water and so keeping you firmly on track to your weight loss goal.

Source : http://yourdietfreeweightloss.com/