Hydration: 101 You all know that we’re supposed to stay hydrated. We’re constantly bombarded with advice, like “drink 2lts or water a day”, “drink 8 glasses of water a day”, and “make sure you drink more when you exercise”. It can all start to feel a little bit confusing and sometimes, we can’t answer “why” we need to stay hydrated. Here, we are going to attempt to help you understand the importance of hydration. It’s our hope that we alleviate some of the confusion. This way, you will have a much better understanding of the importance of hydration, and in turn, this will help to ensure that you drink enough water. 1.
Why is water so important? Most of our body weight is made up of water. The average person is between 65% and 75% water. Water is required in many bodily functions. Primarily, it acts as a conductor of electricity, allowing various body cells to communicate and instruct each other. Throughout the day, it’s important that we replenish stores, and when we don’t, we can start to feel the effects very quickly. For example, we can start to feel sluggish in our thoughts, and develop headaches.
2.
How much water do we lose each day? Even if we sat still all day and did nothing, we would still lose water. Each day, we lose between one and 2 litres. We lose it in three different ways: a.
Through urine: the kidneys and liver constantly process and filter the blood. The toxins are removed in urine, which is mostly water. We lose 60% of our daily water loss through urination.
b.
Evaporation: you can’t see it, but there is water on our skin and it evaporates throughout the day. Up to 30% of our water is lost through evaporation.
c.
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Sweat: surprisingly, only about 10% of our water loss is via sweat. Of course, the more we exercise, the more this figure rises.
How do we replenish our lost water? OK, so many of you are probably saying something like, “Well, duh! We get it from drinking water and other drinks”. Yes, and whilst that is true, it actually isn't the only place that we get water. Here are a few others: a.
Though the food that we eat. Many fruits and vegetables are high in water, some, like cucumber, are especially so.
b.
We might decide to take a supplement, like Megahydrate. These supplements are preferred by athletes because they also contain valuable electrolytes that we can lose through sweat, urine, and evaporation.
c.
We can also get water from the air. In the UK, humidity is often between 70% and 90% - that’s a lot of water in the air, even though you might not be able to feel it. When we breathe in the air, we’re actually breathing in water too. How much of this is
actually absorbed by the body is another matter. Still, it’s an interesting fact.